How Analytics Support Diversity & Inclusion Recruiting

For over decades, HR managers and corporate strategists have asserted that human capital investment is fundamental to high-performing workplaces. Each of such assertion is illustrated by unique equations of measures and antidotes. But none of these measures or color full story provides sufficient reason and justification for investing in human capital.

To tackle this multifaceted issue, HR managers can either devise their metrics that resemble the corporate strategy or let the data talk through conscientious analytics and recorded judgments. What’s more, they can develop this wired approach to build workplaces that represent the world that we all live in.

Talent acquisition leaders take note that diversity, equity, and inclusion have a well-documented relationship with business performance, organizational culture, and competitive advantages. In plain terms, workforce diversity and inclusion analytics may be just the very right thing to rally the business communities.

Diversity and Inclusion for Competitive Advantage

Despite having the end of ‘gaining competitive advantage’ in mind, there keep occurring a regular brainstorming on what sustainable business ‘means.’ Organisations can easily trip up on the details of how HR contributes to competitive advantage. Still, they have trouble in determining how to calculate HR contributions. The pre-occupation of HR to place the right people at the right time with the right pay and on the right role is not hard to imagine. At the same time, they need to use a scientific approach to build a diversified force and reveal the facts around diversity and inclusion recruiting processes and analytics.

Tracing D&I Through Times

Nearly 50 years ago, the civil rights act made ‘discrimination at the workplace’ illegal. During those times, laws around equality and diversity were mandated, updated, and implemented, but even now, the problems concerning workplace diversity and inclusion persist. Meanwhile, the global pandemic’s wide-reaching ramifications and a seismic shift to remote working have posed the latest challenges. If not practiced and monitored carefully, channels of communication can break down, initiatives can be put on hold, and feelings of isolation can intensify. But for advanced organizations, success encounters when mistakes are confronted, and winners are analyzed rightfully—establishing that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion play an important role in improved decision-making, elevated creativity and innovation, and competitive advantage.

Nevertheless, issues and concerns associated with Diversity, Equity & Inclusion cannot be solved with the thumb rule. Organizations would need a comprehensive approach to allow these parameters to play a crucial role. Data and analytics seem to support these endeavors, provide the ability to identify the gaps, prioritize action, and enable progress measurement. Many research reports have indicated that analytics help to unleash the potential of organizations for diversity and inclusion with better confidence. Let’s have a look-

How far statistics support the formula of D&I?

Research by Deloitte, Victorian equal opportunity, and Human Rights Commission points that diversity and inclusion lead to better outcomes. When employees find their organization supportive, they feel included, report better performance, and their ability to innovate uplifts up to 83% and team spirit up to 42%. The same research indicates that employees need to increase their focus on inclusion. For which they have to make a balance between diversity and inclusion. One shall not be overweighed above the other. It says that employee’s feeling of inclusion is driven by the perception of fairness, respect, value, and belongingness. Also, an effective work-life balance is read as a strong signal of an organization’s support for diversity.

Another research study by McKinsey highlights that ethnically diverse companies are 35 % more likely to generate better financial returns while gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to achieve so. Also, the report says that if the gender gap is narrowed by 2025, it has the potential to contribute $12tn additional in GDP.

Research conducted by catalyst linking gender diversity with financial performance indicates that companies with more women in top management positions experienced higher ROE up to 34% than companies with the lowest women representations.

As per the Deloitte Australia research, inclusive teams outperform their peers by 80% in team-based assessments. It also says that if merely 10% of the employees feel further included, the companies will experience increased work attendance by almost one day per employee per year. The employees will strongly feel confident, empowered, safe to speak up, and inspired to do ‘the best work’ in essence.

Consequently, the focus on rebalancing the workforce analytics and configurational view to assemble a set of strategic HR practices proposes a reasonable solid theory. From the beginning, a data-driven hiring approach helps the HR managers to create more diverse workforce tunnels and an inclusive atmosphere to build a robust workforce. For organizations to be an equalizer and outperform the competition, it is necessary to put the corporate strategy where their people are.

Sources:
https://www.visier.com/clarity/hire-diverse-talent-workforce-analytics/
https://www.catalyst.org/research/the-bottom-line-connecting-corporate-performance-and-gender-diversity/
https://www.peopleinsight.com/workforce-analytics-academy-diversity-inclusion
https://www.talentlyft.com/en/blog/article/416/increasing-diversity-and-inclusion-with-ai-what-makes-the-fairest-recruitment-process