The diversity debate: it is a recruitment thing

This post was written by our Co-Founder JuIiet Eccleston

As regular readers of our blog will know, we’ve been very driven in recent months by our Trust in Recruitment debate. As we continue to drive disruption in hiring processes as we know it, we’ve shared some of the key takeaways from the first stages of our campaign to drive fairness and equality in recruitment.

While this entire topic is something I’m very passionate about, I wanted to use this blog to discuss an issue that I feel is relevant, but that I recently discovered some feel does not impact our perception of recruiters: diversity.

For me, the hiring industry isn’t diverse in both its makeup and its delivery. We’ve yet to see true inclusion incorporated in recruitment practices and, when we look at the agencies placing professionals into businesses, it’s certainly a fair assessment that it’s driven by one main demographic.

During our recent debate on the challenge of developing trust in recruitment, this topic was raised and, rather disappointingly, some disagreed that diversity plays a key role in building trust across the sector. In fact, there were some recruiters at the event who felt that this wasn’t even an issue that they should take on – suggesting that the onus is, instead, on internal hiring managers and if this group doesn’t ask, then agencies aren’t required to put the effort in.

I, however, am certainly of the opinion that this is an issue that we all need to take on together, both in general for the clients we service and our own businesses internally. Ultimately, we can’t ignore the fact that without an industry that truly reflects the audience it services (which, let’s face it, is everyone) how can we trust it is fair and honest? Of course, the diversity issue is one that is multifaceted, but much of the discussions on the night centred around meritocracy versus diversity – two concepts that we certainly can’t use against each other when we take an honest look at our available talent pools.

Perhaps, then, there’s more to the diversity issue than we have all previously thought, but how do we take this forward for the sake of ourselves, our businesses and the talent we so desperately want to attract?

Watch this space for more on how we intend to drive the diversity initiative in recruitment.