Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is a crucial pillar of any organization’s HR strategy, processes and practice. For many potential employees, it’s a deal breaker if an organization’s culture doesn’t fit with their personal values.
According to a report from recruiting giant Monster, nearly two-thirds of employees (62%) would reject a job offer from an organization with a culture that didn’t support diversity.
This is where the right HR tech can help. Aligning DEI initiatives with business priorities can be a much smoother process when leveraging HR software. From hiring a diverse workforce to providing equal training opportunities and DEI-focused benefits and rewards; HR tech that optimizes DEI can be a panacea for organizations that want to attract and retain the best talent.
Using HR tech for DEI benchmarking
Monitoring DEI metrics using a reporting and analytics tool is critical to the development of impactful HR and business initiatives. It enables companies to hold themselves to account and design policies that apply to the specific demographics of their workforce.
HR tech can be used to assess or benchmark the diversity maturity levels in an organization such as age, gender, and ethnicity. This overview can highlight areas of DEI excellence or flag the gaps that exist, as well as set up any new initiatives, create realistic and achievable diversity hiring goals and track and measure progress.
DEI in the hiring process
HR tech can be used to facilitate a more diverse and inclusive approach to hiring candidates and provide deeper insight into diversity representation within an organization.
Some of the applications are incredibly nuanced and can create profiles of internal top performers by using algorithms to find the best fit, filtering out any gender or ethnic prejudice or facilitating aptitude tests or skills assessments that remove unconscious bias. This allows for a more diverse candidate pool to hire from.
DEI combined with benefits and rewards
According to Glassdoor, over a third (35%) of hiring managers and decision-makers want to invest in diversity and inclusion along with DEI-specific employee benefits, yet only 38% of companies offer paid parental leave to their workers. In addition, many organizations don’t offer annual leave for religious holidays or cultural celebrations that are not Christian. Implementing a one-stop benefits and rewards platform that can unify this data and create relevant and focused packages aimed at an organization’s specific demographics is an effective way to enhance a DEI strategy.
Marrying up DEI with L&D
Integrating DEI with Learning and Development (L&D) is another way to make an impact. Organizations can use HR tech to track which of their employees have completed the necessary DEI-focused training, including unconscious bias training. HR tech can also send out inclusion surveys to diagnose DEI gaps at a company, collating data to improve training is only going to help the DEI efforts within an organization.
Businesses are finally seeing the benefits of having a robust DE&I programme. By implementing the right HR tech, organizations can unify their offerings, and create a more refined and impactful strategy which will ultimately improve the employee experience.
