Creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is crucial in business to thrive. This however does require a conscious effort throughout the hiring process to make it inclusive and attractive to hire diverse talent. In SaaS, sales plays a pivotal role in the success of the company to drive growth and revenue and it’s important that the team reflects the diverse customers that they are speaking to. Let’s explore some strategies and best practices to embed equality into the hiring process for SaaS sales.
It’s important we continue to have conversations on diversity and inclusion, in order to uncover bias within the process and to discover opportunities to improve upon this. Here are a few key ways hire diverse talent and embed this in your hiring process:
Standardise the Hiring Process
Standardising the process means developing a consistent approach to assessing candidates, regardless of their demographic details and backgrounds. By doing so, we can ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on merit and the same criteria, to promote fairness and to eliminate bias from the very start of the process.
Stretch the talent pool and assess the Demographic Split
To embed equality into the hiring process you need to assess the diversity of the initial talent pool. Is your shortlist diverse? To understand this spread you need to be aware and intentional in the demographic split of candidates. It’s essential to assess this split and work out how to source a balance. A balanced talent pool is the starting point to ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to be considered for the role.
Identify the Root Cause to Hire Diverse Talent
It’s important to identify the root cause of any issues with equality in the hiring process. Is it the job description or the interview process? Do you have a diverse interviewing panel? Is there a diverse group of people interested in the role? If not, you may need to consider why? Once the root cause is identified, it’s easier to have a candid conversation and develop a plan to address the issue and create an inclusive environment.
Gender-Neutral Job Adverts
One way to attract a wider range of candidates is to create gender-neutral job adverts. Instead of using generic language, don’t forget to highlight key points that are important to people, such as flexibility to encourage a more diverse range of talent to apply for the role in the first place.
Fight Mediocrity
A lot of organisations struggle to find talent, and it’s even harder with a smaller talent pool to find the right person. This can lead to the danger of creating mediocrity. By being intentional and building diversity into the hiring process, you can ensure that you’re attracting the best talent from a wide range of backgrounds and create ambassadors for your brand.
Engaging to Hire Diverse Talent
Finally, talent engagement is key to promoting equality in the hiring process. When speaking to hiring managers, encourage them to meet candidates and help them understand the business. This helps to create a less transactional approach and ensures that all candidates are evaluated based on their skills and experience, rather than their demographic background.
To build a team with diverse and brilliant talent, you need to first have the right framework in place within the company to meet the needs of your team and create a supportive environment. Once this structure is in place embedding equality into the hiring process will help to attract and hire the right talent for your sales team.
Continuing to consider diversity into your SaaS sales hiring goals is a long term commitment. You should also have regular training on bias and inclusivity to continue to reassess and adjust the process to meet the needs of talent.
Have you assessed your hiring process recently? Reach out to one of the consultants at Salient to find out more about hiring diverse talent and building balanced sales teams.