In 2022, diversity is no longer a “check-a-box” factor for many enterprises around the world; rather, it has become a cultural movement within business that emphasizes the depth of talent pools, talent communities, and talent networks without bias or barriers. The truth regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is that direct sourcing programs (and contingent workforce management (CWM) programs) that are diverse tend to be more successful. If businesses can embed a spirit of inclusion within their direct sourcing processes and act in accordance with this mindset, they can broaden the existing talent landscape and improve upon it with new ideas and opportunity.
And, while established diversity programs previously existed in many enterprises, the events and civil unrest of the past two years drove many businesses to develop and communicate more purpose-driven goals, which are linked to societal, economic, technological, and sustainable shifts. To achieve these goals, a large number of businesses are trying to harness the power of a diverse workforce.
Using direct sourcing to hire diverse talent gives HR teams a direct ability to link purpose with DE&I efforts. For example, businesses can opt to tap into professional networks that were already designed for diverse workers from various backgrounds, cultures, and genders and link these to talent curation efforts. Direct sourcing initiatives can also benefit from “diversity automation” that is enabled from direct sourcing platforms that have partnerships and integrations with diverse job boards and networks. They can also offer anonymizing functionality that can hide specific information about different candidates.
Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools.
Future of Work Exchange research finds that DE&I initiatives will be boosted with next-level intelligence over the next year-and-a-half. DE&I remains a critical piece of direct sourcing and talent acquisition overall. Today, roughly a quarter of all businesses utilize AI within direct sourcing for DE&I purposes (27% for worker diversity data and 24% for general diversity and inclusion insights). More than half of all enterprises plan to use AI to drive these initiatives over the next 18 months. Businesses that invest in developing AI-led data collection will be able to cast a wider net within the realm of diversity, capturing gender, culture, background, neurodiversity, etc. These insights can provide hiring managers and executives with the intelligence needed to monitor and improve DE&I initiatives.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the “strategy-led” Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community, especially in an unsettled labor market that will see a hopeful end to the so-called “Great Resignation” in early 2022.
Reminder: Join WorkLLama, Ardent Partners, and the Future of Work Exchange this coming Thursday (12pm ET) for an exclusive webcast on “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which will highlight how businesses can develop powerful, repeatable, and scalable direct sourcing processes to drive next-generation talent acquisition and recruitment strategies. Click here or on the image below to register.
