Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives in Financial Services Recruitment

Making diversity and inclusion an integral part of operations is now paramount for any business aspiring to boost growth, ace the talent war, and promote better customer relationships. When it comes to financial institutions, it is vital that their organizations better reflect the communities they serve. Financial organizations do not just need to embrace diversity to tick boxes; they need to embrace it to future-proof their business.

Why Does the Finance Services Industry Need to Champion Diversity and Inclusion?

At a time when a global skill shortage is fueling the war for talent in the finance industry, widening the pool of potential candidates is indeed imperative for financial services companies. In addition, a diverse workforce with different backgrounds and perspectives can help foster innovation and generate new developments. The diversity of voices within an organization can contribute to more 'out of the box' thinking and less 'group thinking'. Research indicates that having diverse teams can improve the quality of decision-making at all organizational levels, delivering better results on creative and complex problems.

Heterogeneous teams boast an increased number of perspectives and offer a better understanding of customer needs. At a time when banks need to adapt to change quickly, having a more diverse group of people form, shape, and make decisions can help achieve a richer output, better decision-making, and better outcomes. The more diverse a team is, the more effective its predictive capability is in the face of uncertainty.

Diversity not only helps banks and financial institutions broaden their customer base, but it also helps create a more productive and happier workplace. Retention rates are also better. According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group, employees who work for diverse companies are often happier than those who do not. This high level of employee engagement also leads to greater loyalty, productivity, and profitability for these companies. A more diverse and inclusive workplace can better enable banks and financial institutions to fulfill their mission and vision of empowering individuals to succeed in every aspect of their financial lives.

Finding the Right Mix of D&I Initiatives for Impactful Recruitment

Unfortunately, despite a plethora of business cases for diversity and inclusion, many companies continue to struggle with implementing effective diversity and inclusion initiatives. One-way companies, particularly those in the financial services sector, can embrace diversity and inclusion through adopting an inclusive recruitment strategy. Let us understand how finance services providers can crack the winning formula for diversity recruiting.

1. Create a Well-Represented Candidate Pool

Diversity recruiting ensures that all individuals have equal opportunities to succeed and contribute to the organization's success. The process goes beyond simply complying with legal requirements and focuses on building a diverse workforce that reflects a broader society.

Start by creating a pool of candidates from backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in your workforce. This will require a thorough understanding of spaces where your workplace is underrepresented compared to workforce availability. This underrepresentation can be in terms of women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, or other groups.

2. Leverage Technology for a Merit-based Recruitment System

In today's digital era, leaning on tech prowess can help you streamline your talent acquisition strategy. Companies can invest in a robust applicant tracking system (ATS) and other recruitment software to streamline their hiring process. These tools can help recruiters manage applications, automate screening, and monitor candidate progress.

By leveraging technology, recruiters can save time and energy, allowing them to focus on assessing candidate fitment and conducting meaningful interviews. In addition, ATS can help hiring managers identify top candidates by applying filters based on specific qualifications and narrowing the applicant pool to the most qualified individuals.

Deutsche Bank, for example, is hugely focused on driving an equitable workplace by increasing the number of women and people of all ethnicities in senior, decision-making, and client-facing positions. To better reflect its society and clients, the German investment bank employs a data-driven, technological approach along with strong engagement and visible sponsorship from the senior management, increasing representation from more diverse groups and driving behavioral change.

3. Utilize Behavioral Interviews for Comprehensive Assessment

Traditional interviews often fail to offer a clear picture of a candidate's cultural fit and abilities. Recruiters seeking to welcome diverse perspectives and skill sets must move beyond conventional resume screening and in-person interview rounds. Instead, behavioral interviews should be conducted to understand candidates' ability to handle specific situations.

Behavioral interview offers insights into a candidate's problem-solving skills, cognitive abilities, adaptability, and cultural fit. You can ask questions such as “Has there been an incident where two of your team members were at odds and unable to conclude, leading to a delay in project submission? How did you intervene?” By asking questions about real-life scenarios that candidates may have encountered, you can get an insight into a candidate's behavior and decision-making process, enabling you to assess their suitability for the role and the organization.

No matter how hard you try to increase diversity in hiring, traditional hiring practices make it difficult to achieve true diversity. Challenges such as unconscious bias and exclusivity tend to create a homogenized environment. Talent assessments enable recruiters to fix this by prioritizing skills above all else. Behavioral tests help build a fair, inclusive culture where people are valued for their skills.

4. Assort a Mix of Candidate Assessment Tools

A single candidate assessment tool may not provide deep insights into a candidate’s potential and abilities. Supplementing the interview process with different types of candidate evaluation tests, such as psychometric tests, situational judgment tests, and work sample assessments, helps derive a more holistic view of a candidate’s capabilities. In addition, these assessments provide an objective framework for comparing candidates and making data-driven decisions. This reduces hiring bias and increases the likelihood of selecting the best candidate for the job.

To achieve more equitable outcomes, employers need to invest in immersive inclusive recruitment training to eliminate the bias that causes great candidates to be overlooked and rejected simply because of how they identify.

PERSOLKELLY - Your Trusted Partner for Hiring a Diverse Workforce

If you are an organization committed to diversity and inclusion, PERSOLKELLY can help you recruit the right people to represent your company's values. PERSOLKELLY has extensive experience in finding candidates with diverse backgrounds and skills. From helping you source candidates from a wide range of sources to supporting managers in interviewing diverse candidates, we can help organizations find the best talent and succeed in their diversity and inclusion initiatives.