Attracting the right skills for the future

Traditional recruitment strategies can fail to hire diverse groups of employees. Doing what we have always done perpetuates the status quo. Many processes assess an applicant’s ability to apply and interview for a position, rather their potential value as an employee. Similarly, automated screening can exclude people unable to make their knowledge conform to an employment profile.

I think we should restructure the way people find jobs so this process doesn’t bring so many people down, let alone autistic people

Community organiser

To make your recruitment more inclusive, you might consider the following:

  • The portfolio of skills, abilities and personal values you are looking for.
  • A broader selection process, which reduces reliance simply on an applicant’s performance at interview
  • Whether a candidate matches any vacancy in your company, not just the one they applied for.
  • Using a technical assessment to review skills which can be completed online
  • Not screening out applicants due to patchy employment histories. These could be the result of unsupportive working environments and employers not making reasonable changes.

Make sure that the selection process examines and tests the key skills you need the employee to use in the job.

The main challenge that I did face was communicating with people that I don’t really know … therefore for me it made the interview process very hard

Luke – autistic intern

There has recently been much criticism regarding the effectiveness of interviews in the recruitment of new employees. While they may be a strong tool for the recruitment of positions requiring strong communication and social skills e.g. receptionists, salespeople, or recruiters, they don’t always identify skills required for other, less socially oriented positions. Interviewer’s unconscious bias can also work against otherwise qualified applicants.

The best candidate for the job, may not be the one who gives the best interview!