Inclusivity and Accessibility in Recruitment | Software Sustainability Institute

To build an inclusive and diverse team, you need to develop an “EDI mindset”. Put the EDI hat firmly on your head and leave it there; be curious about what you can improve in your recruitment process, team culture, and leadership style; and be courageous in pointing out and tackling where you find bias, inaccessibility, or other hindrances to inclusion. The resources at the end of this guide can give you a starting point for your learning journey.

By doing so, you will build a workplace that people are keen to be part of, stay in, and recommend to their networks. A good reputation will increase your chances of recruitment success more than any polishing of a job advert ever will.

However, we want to mention a couple of key points which can improve your recruitment process.

Avoid Gatekeeping Criteria

When drawing up your essential and desirable criteria, avoid gatekeeping criteria, i.e., those that mostly people of privilege can fulfill, or that marginalised folks are more likely to have problems with. For example, avoid the need for reference checks from previous line managers, as marginalised people are more likely to have been discriminated against before, or otherwise receive a biased reference letter. Similarly, minimise the need for experience in a certain field or technology, and focus on potential instead. Avoid superlatives in your criteria - only a certain type of people will consider themselves to have “outstanding” or “excellent” skills.

When considering presentations, coding exercises and other assessment activities during the recruitment process, ask yourself who would struggle with this task, and whether there is a specific reason to exclude this type of person from being recruited. In many cases, the answer will be no, and there are other ways of assessing the skill you are actually looking for. For example, a programmer might be nervous performing a live coding task under job interview conditions, but will be well able to talk you through their previous programming projects and answer questions about the code.

Center marginalised people with User Stories and Personas

To help understand how a marginalised person might handle the recruitment process we propose to adopt the software engineering concepts of user stories and personas. Come up with two or three applicant stories, including intersectional (i.e., belonging to more than one marginalised group) personas.

For instance, an applicant story could be something like “As a single mother from Uganda I would like to be able to go through the whole recruitment process smoothly, so that I have a chance to succeed. I am worried about the electricity cutting out when I am in the interview and I work 16 hours a day. Will I even get a chance to interview if I bring these issues up?”. This is where a simple question such as “How can we help you minimise stress in the lead up to an application or an interview?”, posed to every applicant, can help.

For each of the identified applicant stories, the EDI checklist of your choice can be applied to identify which parts of your recruitment process and team environment need adaptation to work for them, and thus can be improved for everyone.

Ideally, you will have people with lived experience of marginalisation, discrimination and disabilities to support your review and be involved in the recruitment process.

Be Open and Person-Centered to Cater for the Diversity of Needs

The recruitment process, as well as the team management and leadership, should be person-centred. Ask the question “What does this person need to succeed in this team and in this career?”. In a team, regular one-to-one meetings, annual development reviews and exit interviews should not be seen as annoying administrative exercises, but as a way to help people to develop themselves and to learn more about what can be improved.

Trust takes Time and Courage

It takes time and courage for marginalised people to trust organisations. A strong DEI statement that highlights the challenges and the willingness to understand intersectionality and admit mistakes builds trust although it takes courage to do so.

Do not be disheartened if you do not immediately see the improvements you had aimed for. There is always more that can be done, and you will get things wrong. Don’t beat yourself up, and keep learning and developing.

Success Story

Practical Diversity and Inclusion co-designed a recruitment campaign for OLS and MetaDocencia that attracted over 120 applicants from five continents for OLS and approximately 150 for MetaDocencia, resulting in interviews with candidates from multiple continents and diverse backgrounds.

They avoided gatekeeping criteria, centered intersectionally marginalised people when writing the selection criteria, ensured the process was open and person-centered, and wrote a strong DEI statement to hold themselves accountable.

Dr. Laura Ación, Executive Co-Director at MetaDocencia said: “We were openly praised for the way our job call was written, which helped reach out to more persons across all of Latin America.”

Conclusion

With courage and commitment, significant progress can be made towards inclusive and accessible recruitment. These changes do not happen instantaneously, though, but require constant learning, reviewing of processes, and searching and accepting feedback.

More could be said about team leadership and retention, but this is beyond the scope of this guide, and we are referring to the resources below for a starting point for reading more on that topic.

References and Further Reading

Checklists and general overview documents about EDI in recruitment

Inclusive Teams and inclusive collaboration

Acknowledgements

This guide was written by Marion Weinzierl, Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS), University of Cambridge, and co-authored and reviewed by Rowland Mosbergen, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research).

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