Seven Actions you can take to Embed an EDI approach to Staff Recruitment
Are you aware that women make up just 15.7% of the UK workforce in engineering? Indeed, as research from Engineering UK highlights, the number of women in engineering and technology roles has actually decreased since 2022 by 0.8%.
No surprises - within Universities, the situation is not any better. As evidence to the UK Government’s Science and Technology Select Committee from the Russell Group notes, the lowest number of women professors are in engineering and maths.
One area where intervention to change this situation is needed is through recruitment. Too often women, those from global majorities and those with a disability are simply not making it through the application and interview process. Of course, it is illegal to recruit using positive discrimination processes. But it is legal to put in place a positive action plan that can support the recruitment of a more balanced workforce (if you want further information on this check outstemwomen.com and ACAS).
Given this situation, when I was Head of School at Canterbury Christchurch University, I strategically led the research and development of an EDI approach to effective staff recruitment practices. Drawing and learning from literature identifying good practices, I harnessed my influence as a leader to create an inclusive and diverse staff recruitment practice that reduced unconscious bias (Russell et al., 2019).
Seven Actions
The approach adopted included:
1. Inclusive wording of job recruitment adverts and descriptions (Gaucher et al., 2011), promoting flexible working and returning-to-work career opportunities to welcome and attract applicants from underrepresented groups in engineering (CIPD, 2022).
2. Addressing short-listing biases (ibid; Ritter et al., 2021). If an academic role is 80% teaching and 20% research, primary evidence for short-listing should not solely or predominantly focus on research.
3. Educating the recruitment team on gender/cultural applicant complexities and unconscious bias (Russell et al., 2019).
4. Structured and standardized interview questions designed against the job criteria and scoring rubric to anchor interviews and capture desired candidate qualities. This approach also provides transparent comparison between candidates, minimizes the risk of biased behaviour by interview panel members, and prevents illegal questions (Balhara et al., 2021; Black et al., 2022; Bergelson et al., 2022).
5. Supporting good practice reasonable adjustments for neurodiverse candidates by sharing interview questions prior to the interview (Davies et al., 2023; Kemp, 2023). However, not all candidates will declare their disability. Alexiou (2023) notes that only 75% of disabled applicants share their disability. Therefore, we have adopted the practice of sharing interview questions prior to the interview with all candidates.
6. Inclusive applicant assessment through job-related exercises and interview practices, such as the adoption of gender-balanced panels and batch interviews (Robertson, 2018).
7. Creating an inclusive onboarding process to ensure new staff feel welcome, secure, and a sense of belonging, (Hall-Jones et al, 2018). This includes the assignment and introduction to their mentor via email, as mentoring aids staff recruitment and retention (Nick et al., 2012).
Impact
Over six and a half years, during the creation and evolution of the new School of Engineering, Technology and Design at Canterbury Christ Church University, a team of 51 Academics, Technicians, University Instructors, PhD Scholars, Research Assistants, and Administrators was formed.
And through this high rapid growth these seven actions were highly successful. The demographics in Table 1 below demonstrate this.
Table 1: School of Engineering, Technology and Design, Canterbury Christchurch University Staff Demographics
Table of appointments at School of Engineering, Technology and Design, Canterbury Christchurch University
It should be noted that the diversity in female demographics has not been achieved solely through the appointment of School administration staff. The technical team is 22% female. The team continues to draw from literature from around the world to learn, improve, and inform the recruitment process to ensure good EDI practices.
What next?
Whilst our plan worked, there is still more work to do. One area for improvement is empowering candidates to have the confidence to declare any disability and to actively seek reasonable adjustments during both the interview and in their role. 24% of the working-age population have declared a disability – and we know this will be an underestimate. But only 6% of applicants for any job role declare a disability.
What can we do? We can look at the work of other organisations and learn from across the sector. For example, the Disability Confident Employer Scheme supports employers in the recruitment of disabled people. Whilst aimed at small employers, their advice and guidance is applicable to all. If this is of interest, you can start by checking out their “Recruiting, managing and developing people with a disability or health condition: A practical guide for managers”.
Professor Anne Nortcliffe is Deon Cyfadran y Celfyddydau, Cyfrifiadura a Pheirianneg
Athro Peirianneg a Thechnoleg Gynhwysol
Dean of Faculty of Arts, Computing, and Engineering
Professor of Inclusive Engineering and Technology
Resources to follow-up
Alexiou, G 2023, Shockingly Low Percentage Of Job Seekers Willing To Disclose Disability, Survey Shows, Forbes, [on-line at:] https://www.forbes.com/sites/gusalexiou/2023/01/29/shockingly-low-percentage-of-job-seekers-willing-to-disclose-disability-survey-shows/?sh=451822ca366f
Balhara, K.S., Weygandt, P.L., Ehmann, M.R. and Regan, L., 2021. Navigating bias on interview day: strategies for charting an inclusive and equitable course. Journal of graduate medical education, 13(4), pp.466-470.
Black, C., Budner, H. and Motta, A.L., 2018. Enhancing the residency interview process with the inclusion of standardised questions. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 94(1110), p.244.
Bergelson, I., Tracy, C. and Takacs, E., 2022. Best practices for reducing bias in the interview process. Current urology reports, 23(11), pp.319-325.
CIPD (2022) A Guide to Inclusive Recruitment for Employers, Charted Institute of Personnel and development, [on-line at:] https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/guides/2023-pdfs/inclusive-recruitment-employers-guide_tcm18-112787.pdf
Davies, J., Heasman, B., Livesey, A., Walker, A., Pellicano, E. and Remington, A., 2023. Access to employment: A comparison of autistic, neurodivergent and neurotypical adults’ experiences of hiring processes in the United Kingdom. Autism, 27(6), pp.1746-1763.
Kemp, M. (2023) Important considerations when interviewing neurodivergent employees, Farrer &Co, [on-line at: https://www.farrer.co.uk/news-and-insights/important-considerations-when-interviewing-neurodivergent-employees/]
Gaucher, D., Friesen, J. and Kay, A.C., 2011. Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(1), p.109.
Hall-Jones, J., Simmons, T., Stermer, E., van Hemert, J. P., & Vogel, M. (2018). Onboarding employees through shared values. Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education, 3(1), 9.
Nick, J. M., Delahoyde, T. M., Del Prato, D., Mitchell, C., Ortiz, J., Ottley, C., ... & Siktberg, L. (2012). Best practices in academic mentoring: A model for excellence. Nursing research and practice, 2012.
Ritter, B.M., Bynum, A., Gumpertz, M. and Butler, T.L., 2021. An instructional exercise in gender bias. Journal of Accounting Education, 54, p.100710.
Robertson, J., 2018. Gender balancing staff recruitment: interviewing. In EqualBITE (pp. 104-107). Brill.
Russell, J.A., Brock, S. and Rudisill, M.E., 2019. Recognizing the impact of bias in faculty recruitment, retention, and advancement processes. Kinesiology Review, 8(4), pp.291-295.