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In today’s environment finding and retaining talent is tough. Add to that the challenge of diversifying the workforce—a huge part of any company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
While DEI efforts have gained prominence and broader acceptance in recent years, it doesn’t hurt to remind those in positions of influence about the importance of those goals from time to time.
Nudges to Keep DEI Top of Mind
That’s exactly what LinkedIn is attempting to do with a new feature aimed at reminding recruiters to be conscious of gender in the candidate search process.
“LinkedIn’s looking to help businesses maximize their approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with the launch of new prompts in LinkedIn Recruiter which will alert hiring professionals as to when they’re not getting enough gender diversity in their candidate search,” writes Andrew Hutchinson in an article for Social Media Today. LinkedIn calls these prompts “Diversity Nudges,” and they’re meant to be just that: a nudge, rather than a more in-your-face demand for diversity and inclusion.
As students of unconscious bias well know, sometimes all it takes is a slight nudge to remind oneself of the tendency to, however unconsciously or unintentionally, overlook female candidates or candidates of color—or to simply not consider the overall diversity of a talent pool at all.
Maintaining a Focus on the Importance—and Benefits—of DEI
Something as simple as a notification that only 20 percent of applicants to a particular job are female might be enough to convince a recruiter that they need to think of ways to increase the number of female applicants in order to have a more representative sample from which to select a new hire.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are still relatively new concepts in Corporate America. While most recruiters would likely say they value and appreciate the importance of DEI, it may not always be top of mind for them. Small nudges like those provided by the new LinkedIn prompt are often all it takes to remind decision-makers to consider their commitment to DEI when making key company decisions.
All it takes is a nudge. Be inclusive!