Diversity and inclusion have long been touted as critical when it comes to a company’s success. By having a diverse workforce that feels welcome and supported, innovation and productivity both have a tendency to thrive. Bringing together a broad range of perspectives can lead to significant gains, enabling businesses to better serve their customer base or potentially expand into new arenas.
However, diversity and inclusion shouldn’t just be viewed as issues of demographics. Instead, managers should expand the concept further, including the goal of bringing in candidates that introduce something unique and positive to the company’s culture. If you aren’t sure how to begin, here are some tips that can help.
When managers need to fill a vacancy, they can’t identify candidates who could bring something new to the table if they don’t understand the nature of their culture today. As a result, you need to spend some time analyzing both your team’s and the organization’s culture, allowing you to learn about the perspectives that are present and determine whether any additional views that aren’t represented could provide additional value.
Examine everything from team dynamics to company-provided support systems. Consider what defines a cultural fit in your environment and then explore whether a new perspective augments it or hinders it. Once you do, you’ll be able to envision what a “culture add” candidate – one that fits into your current culture but also bring something unique and beneficial to the table – is like, allowing you to seek them out when hiring.
Hiring for culture add is an extension of most diversity and inclusion initiatives. It has a similar goal but examines the concept from a new direction, creating an opportunity to seek out candidates who represent a genuine diversity of thought in comparison to existing team members.
Diversity and inclusion benefit companies because it brings together a wider range of perspectives. By creating teams that view and experience the world differently, you can gain insights that can bolster innovation, reach new customer bases, or better serve your current base.
In order to hire for culture add, you need to ask candidates thought-provoking questions that allow you to learn about their point-of-view in ways that relate to the business. This could include presenting them with an overview of a challenge the organization faces and asking them how they would examine the issue or attempt to solve it. By doing so, you discover how the candidate thinks, giving you a chance to see if they represent a culture add that augments your team and company.
By following the tips above, you can elevate your team’s ability to innovate and produce high-quality results, all by adding new perspectives that positively impact the existing culture. If you’d like to learn more about hiring with diversity and inclusion in mind, the skilled staff at TRC Staffing Services can help. Contact us to discuss your questions with one of our experienced recruitment specialists today and see how our diversity and inclusion expertise can benefit you.