June 2018 HR Strategy & Planning
 

How HR Tech Paves The Way For Diversity

4 ways you can support your diversity initiative with HR technology

Posted on 06-22-2018,   Read Time: - Min
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Did you know that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to perform better than other similar companies, and that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to do so? Diversity matters, and not only because it’s the right thing to do, it matters for the success of your business as well.

9 Things Diverse Companies Have in Common

Josh Bersin reports that diverse companies perform better in terms of cash flow, innovation, performance, and leadership. According to Bersin, these companies share 9 practices that predict their success:
 

  • Organizational Structure
  • Sourcing and Selecting Talent
  • Fairness
  • Performance Management
  • Talent Strategy
  • Culture of Leadership and Training
  • Systemic Relationship With Talent
  • Strategic Diversity and Inclusion
  • Embedded Diversity and Inclusion
 
While it’s clear that strong diversity initiatives depend on organizational culture and executive support, it’s also true that HR plays a significant role in building and maintaining a diverse workforce. Fair, unbiased recruiting, performance-based assessments, merit- and competency-based performance management, leadership training, and intentional talent support measures like success planning and professional development all contribute to a diverse, inclusive workforce that promotes fairness and values every employee.
 
But how do you create an environment like that? One place to start is your HR tech.

How HR Tech Supports Diversity and Inclusion

As data analytics become more important to workforce management, the technology you use will play a more prominent role in achieving goals like diversity and inclusion. How? Let’s look at four ways you can support your diversity initiative with HR technology:
 
  • Recruiting—Starting with candidate screening and extending all the way through to skills assessments and interview callbacks, HR technology can help you promote fair, unbiased recruiting methodologies. By emphasizing data-based processes, you can remove much of the potential for unintentional bias by sourcing and selecting candidates based on standard job requirements and skills assessments.
  • Performance Management—New performance management tools encourage frequent, goal-based feedback designed to develop employees. Moving away from annual assessments that rely heavily on managers’ gut feeling helps you support employee growth and encourage competency-based promotion.
  • Learning Culture—Leadership training, manager training, and employee development all move organizations toward more inclusive workplace culture. These initiatives can be managed within your HR software using goal setting tools, alerts and notifications, management tools, and training libraries. As companies promote learning from the top down, it becomes a driver of employee engagement and makes it possible to promote future leaders from within the organization.
  • Strategic Diversity—Strategic diversity is among the highest success indicators when it comes to impact on business performance. Companies that do it well have learned to integrate diversity and inclusion into every level of the company and every business function, from hiring and succession planning to leadership development and accountability. HR tech can help here too, with tools to support unbiased assessments and promotions, employee coaching, professional development, and manager feedback.
 
Bottom line: The key to achieving the greatest benefit from your technology is choosing a solution that fits the needs and goals of your organization. And that takes time, research, and stakeholder buy-in.

Author Bio

Susan McClure Susan McClure is the content manager and inbound marketing strategist for HRIS comparison website CompareHRIS.com. She specializes in HRIS, HR outsourcing, recruiting and general HR topics.  
Visit www.comparehris.com
Connect Susan McClure

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This article was published in the following issue:
June 2018 HR Strategy & Planning

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