Since founding Razorpoint in 2020 one of our main missions has been to help solve the problem of a lack of diversity and inclusion in tech. We do this by educating companies, mentoring tech professionals, and sourcing hard-to-find talent through partnerships with like-minded groups. Our recruitment process is designed to eliminate barriers and the often subconscious and innocent bias which can hold back effective hiring.

We have implemented 6 different strategies to help us in this mission. Before delving into them, you may ask yourselves why diversity is so important, and why a significant number of companies are trying to create a more diverse workforce.

Evidence is showing that businesses with a diverse workforce are far more likely to succeed than their counterparts and not only financially. Companies with a diverse range of employees benefit from broader varying perspectives, faster and better problem solving, a bigger talent pool, and improve overall business performance.

Additionally, having an inclusive company makes you more desirable and therefore enhances your reputation and brings you more benefits such as new investors, better relationships with clients, and much more.

Razorpoint’s strategies for more inclusive hiring

1. Create an inclusive hiring process

As part of our recruitment system, we always ensure that the instructions and messages displayed in our application forms and throughout our website are inclusive, friendly, and not overly formal. We always try to design the application process in a simple, nonconfusing way and advise our clients to do the same.

2. Approach diversity in the same way as maximizing profit

As we all know, data is the real driving force and allows us to be more accountable. This is why we constantly set inclusivity goals and assess and remove any roadblocks that we may encounter. After setting these goals we collect data, and examine the changes over time to discover if they are met. An important roadblock that we have identified is the difficulty for employees in raising concerns about discrimination and harassment.

3. Write inclusive job descriptions

As we all know, the technology industry has its own jargon and this clearly comes through in job descriptions. Although technical in nature, we have seen that using very specific language can work against attracting that pool of diverse people that you are aiming to. People need to understand what is needed of them from the get-go and the confusion some terms create works in favor of the status- quo that we are trying to change.

4. Focus on skill sets and attitude

Having a good hiring practice starts with inclusion and belonging. At Razorpoint we are aware that measures such as diversity quota are not enough to create lasting changes. We look beyond “pedigree” and search for people who have transferable skill sets, a strong work ethic, and a positive attitude. These latter ones especially are hard to teach but bring immense value to the workplace creating a positive environment.

5. Make shortlisting fair

At Razorpoint we try to be crystal clear about the criteria we measure our applicants against making the process of hiring simpler and more forward. We also have two or more people looking at the CVs and leading the interviews so they can actively challenge their bias and assumptions creating a fairer system. Another effective method we use is to assess CVs without personal information ensuring we only account for the skillset of the person.

6. Broaden your recruitment pool

Last but not least, our most important strategy for gaining a more diverse team is to diversify our hiring sources. We aim to post our open positions on different platforms from large recruitment websites, social media sites like LinkedIn, and our own internal groups. We have found that this strategy helps us reach a more diverse pool of people than the regular crowd.