Great engineering talent comes from all backgrounds. But is your hiring process set up to truly welcome them? Many startups claim to prioritize diversity and inclusion in recruitment, yet their actual process still creates barriers for underrepresented candidates. If you’re serious about inclusive hiring, it’s time to rethink how you attract and retain diverse technical talent.
Why Diverse Engineering Teams Matter
The data is clear: diverse engineering teams deliver better products. Research shows that management teams with varied educational and professional backgrounds are more likely to develop more-innovative products. On top of that, diverse teams outperform their non-diverse counterparts in decision-making 87% of the time.
And yet, the tech industry still struggles with representation. In fact, 53% of talent acquisition professionals admit they have a hard time sourcing underrepresented talent. If your diversity and inclusion recruitment strategy isn’t working, it’s not because of a lack of talent. The real issue is your approach.
Auditing Your Current DEI Candidate Experience
Before making big changes, take a step back and assess your current hiring process through a diversity lens. Look at every stage of the candidate journey to spot potential barriers:
- Application process: Check your job descriptions, career page, and application flow for language or requirements that might discourage diverse candidates.
- Interview stages: Review who conducts interviews and how candidates are assessed to ensure fairness and inclusivity.
- Post-interview communication: Make sure feedback is consistent, transparent, and equitable across all candidates.
Tracking dropout rates at each stage and breaking the data down by demographics can help uncover where diverse candidates may be slipping through the cracks.
Reimagining Job Descriptions
Your job descriptions are the first impression candidates get of your company so make sure they’re inviting. Here’s how to create a more inclusive job listing:
- Use neutral language: Swap out gendered terms like “salesman” or “chairman” for gender-neutral alternatives like “salesperson” or “chairperson.” This makes your job descriptions more welcoming for everyone.
- Focus on skills, not years of experience: Emphasize the skills and outcomes you want rather than requiring specific years of experience. This opens the door for candidates from diverse backgrounds and career paths to apply.
- Show your DEI commitment: Make it clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion are top priorities. A simple statement like “We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds” can go a long way in attracting diverse talent.
- Highlight accommodations: Be transparent about the accommodations available during the hiring process, like flexible interview schedules or assistive tech. This shows you’re committed to creating an inclusive candidate experience.
Companies like Atlassian have used inclusive language tools to revamp their job postings, leading to a 25% increase in applications from women and underrepresented minorities.
Structured Interviews: Fairness By Design
Unstructured interviews can easily lead to bias, whether it’s unconscious or not. To create a fairer and more inclusive process, here’s how to approach interviews with intention:
- Develop consistent question sets: Ensure that each candidate is asked the same set of questions based on the specific skills and qualifications needed for the role. This not only helps assess all candidates fairly but also reduces the chances of personal bias creeping in.
- Implement scoring rubrics: Create clear, objective criteria for evaluating responses. This ensures that each candidate’s answers are scored based on the same standards, rather than relying on subjective impressions or gut feelings.
- Train interviewers on bias awareness: Interviewers are human, and even well-intentioned individuals can fall prey to bias. Regularly training your team on unconscious bias, inclusive language, and fair assessment practices will help them stay focused on evaluating skills and experience rather than personal preferences.
- Ensure diverse interview panels: A diverse group of interviewers brings multiple perspectives to the table, helping to mitigate bias and fostering a more inclusive decision-making process. Having people from different backgrounds can lead to better assessments and more equitable hiring outcomes.
Beyond Talk: Creating Psychological Safety
Candidates from underrepresented groups often enter interviews with some skepticism, and that’s totally understandable given their past experiences with exclusion. To build trust and create a more inclusive candidate experience, try these strategies:
- Be transparent about your diversity metrics and goals: Don’t just talk the talk. Show candidates that diversity and inclusion in recruitment are top priorities. Sharing your diversity goals and progress can help reassure candidates that your commitment goes beyond lip service.
- Highlight diverse team members: When possible, showcase your diverse team during the interview process. This helps candidates see that your company truly values diversity and that they won’t be the only one navigating the room as someone from an underrepresented background.
- Communicate the interview process clearly: Let candidates know exactly what to expect. Share details about the interview structure, who they’ll be talking to, and any assessments they’ll need to complete. Clear communication upfront sets candidates at ease and reduces unnecessary stress.
- Create space for culture-related questions: Give candidates a chance to ask about your company culture, especially when it comes to inclusivity in hiring practices and how diversity is supported in the workplace. This shows that you’re open to discussion and that you value their perspective.
Remote-First: The Great Equalizer?
The shift to remote work has completely transformed the way companies approach hiring and has made inclusivity a lot easier to achieve. Here’s how:
- Geographic diversity is easier: No more worrying about location. Remote roles let you tap into talent from anywhere, bringing in diverse candidates from all over.
- Flexible interview formats: Remote interviews can be more adaptable, offering options like video calls or even text-based chats. This gives candidates with different needs a better chance to shine.
- Asynchronous communication benefits neurodivergent candidates: Not everyone thrives in real-time conversations. Giving candidates time to respond on their own terms helps them perform better and show their true potential.
- Home environments feel safer: For many, a home office is a more comfortable space than a traditional interview room. It helps reduce stress, especially for underrepresented candidates, allowing them to be their best selves.
Technical Assessments That Work For Everyone
Traditional technical assessments can unintentionally leave out talented candidates, especially those from underrepresented groups. Here’s how you can create a better evaluation methods:
- Take-home projects with flexible deadlines: Instead of live coding challenges that can be stressful, offer take-home assignments that give candidates more time to showcase their skills. Flexible deadlines also help candidates manage their time without pressure, making the process feel less intimidating.
- Pair programming sessions focused on collaboration: Pair programming is a great way to see how candidates work with others. Instead of focusing solely on individual performance, assess how candidates communicate and collaborate in real-time, which is often a better indicator of long-term success in a team.
- Discussion of past work with context: Allow candidates to talk about their previous projects in detail, giving them the space to explain their approach, challenges, and the outcomes. This gives a clearer picture of their problem-solving abilities and can level the playing field for candidates with different types of experience.
- Offer multiple assessment options: Not all candidates perform their best under the same conditions. Provide different assessment types like coding tests, project portfolios, or whiteboard exercises so candidates can choose the method they feel most comfortable with.
Making technical assessments more flexible gives everyone a fair chance to show what they can do.
Feedback Loops: Continuously Improving
The best diversity recruiting strategies don’t stay static. They evolve based on what candidates share. By actively gathering feedback, you can continuously improve your process and create a more inclusive candidate experience. Here’s how:
- Send anonymous surveys to all candidates after interviews: Get direct feedback from candidates about their experience. Anonymous surveys allow them to be honest without fear of repercussions, helping you identify areas for improvement.
- Track satisfaction scores by demographic groups: It’s not just about tracking overall satisfaction; you should break down the data by demographic groups to see if there are any gaps or patterns. This helps you understand how different groups experience the hiring process and where you can make changes to improve inclusivity in hiring practices.
- Host regular debriefs with your recruiting team: After each hiring cycle, meet with your recruiting team to discuss what went well and what didn’t. This collaborative approach helps you spot any blind spots in your process and refine your diversity recruitment plan for the next round.
- Create a feedback culture within your hiring committee: Encourage your hiring team to actively seek and incorporate feedback from candidates. By making feedback a core part of your team’s mindset, you create a culture of continuous improvement that can lead to better, more inclusive hiring practices.
Regularly getting feedback in your recruitment process not only improves your diversity and inclusion efforts, it also shows candidates that their voices matter. This ongoing commitment helps you attract a broader pool of talent.
Small Startup, Big Impact
Startups may have limited resources, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make a big impact when it comes to inclusivity in hiring practices. Here’s how:
- Start small: You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Pick one area to focus on, like revamping your job descriptions or implementing a more inclusive interview process. Taking small steps ensures you make meaningful progress without overwhelming your team.
- Leverage the community: Partnering with organizations like /dev/color, Women Who Code, or Code2040 can give you access to diverse talent pools and provide valuable resources for creating a more inclusive recruiting strategy. These communities are already built around promoting diversity in tech, making them great allies for your DEI candidate experience.
- Be authentic: Don’t pretend to have it all figured out. It’s okay to acknowledge where you are in your diversity journey. Candidates appreciate authenticity, and it shows that you’re genuinely committed to improving your diversity recruiting strategy, not just checking boxes.
- Measure progress: Set clear diversity and inclusion goals and track your progress over time. This helps you stay accountable and make adjustments where necessary. Whether it’s monitoring your hiring funnel or gathering feedback from candidates, tracking progress ensures that your inclusivity in hiring practices is always improving.
Even if you’re a small startup, you have the power to create an inclusive environment that attracts top talent from all backgrounds. With a little effort and commitment, you can make a big difference.
Further Insights:
A Startup Founder’s Guide to Workplace Diversity
DEI Best Practices: Building Inclusive Startups from Day One
Startups Struggle with Diversity: How to Fix It
Moving Forward
Creating an inclusive candidate experience for diverse engineering talent requires intention, humility, and persistence. By designing a recruitment process that genuinely welcomes different perspectives and backgrounds, you’re not just diversifying your team. You’re building a company that can understand and serve a broader market.
