2.1 Applications, interviews and assessment centres

Many different aspects of recruitment can influence the diversity and inclusivity of your organisation. You’ll look briefly at some of the key features in this section.

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Applications

If your application process involves a CV, then the applicant can obviously choose what they tell you and how they share it. However, if you use an application form, you’ll need to ensure the use of inclusive language in your questions.

Think about whether the questions you are asking are all necessary. Are they all inclusive? For example, do you really need to know the gender of the applicant? If you do, asking for their preferred pronoun can be a positive, inclusive gesture.

Many graduate recruiters have traditionally focused on specific degree level requirements, e.g. a 2.1 or above, but some employers have now removed that expectation, testing skills and strengths in more inclusive ways to enable access to a wider range of candidates.

If you want to view a basic example of an application form, ACAS provides a simple template here.

Shortlisting

CIPD (2024) offers useful advice for making this process fair:

• Anonymise applications - remove identifying information from CVs and application forms before hiring managers review them. This includes applicant name and contact details, education dates and other ‘cues’, such as which schools or universities candidates attended.
• Remove bias in automated sifting - evaluate bias by comparing the results of an automated sift against a manual screening process for one round. This can help to identify if the keywords and criteria used are subject to bias. For example, sifting based on postcode can introduce bias against certain socioeconomic or ethnic groups.
• Include more than one marginalised candidate in the shortlist – after sifting applications on an anonymous basis, staff who are not involved in the interviewing should review the candidate characteristics for the highest-ranking applications and determine how long the shortlist needs to be to ensure marginalised candidates are included.

If sifting is a manual process, a diverse panel of shortlisters would be ideal, to avoid similar people choosing individuals with the same backgrounds as them.

It is also possible to purchase software, which aims to make the recruitment process more inclusive. Here is Sophie Washington, one of the employers we interviewed, discussing a new tool that her organisation is trialling.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 3: Sophie on recruitment software

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Transcript: Video 3: Sophie on recruitment software

Sophie Washington

In terms of making sure our recruitment is as diverse and inclusive as possible, we’ve recently started trialing a new recruitment software which kind of turns recruitment into a bit of a blind audition, like The Voice. So it’s designed to make recruitment as unbiased as possible. So we don’t actually see a lot of the identifying information that could identify someone’s socioeconomic background or ethnic background so that we can ensure that we are recruiting the people that are right for the job and there is no hidden bias.

At the moment, it’s just being trialed for our staff. But if it works, I can see that being rolled out to our volunteer recruitment, as well. I am actually responsible for our volunteer recruitment at the moment, and I try to make sure that it’s as diverse and inclusive as possible. We recruit on a number of different platforms and accept applications from anyone over the age of 16. We make sure that we cover volunteer expenses so that our volunteers aren’t out of pocket, which makes it more accessible to those from different socioeconomic backgrounds, as well.

End transcript: Video 3: Sophie on recruitment software

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Video 3: Sophie on recruitment software

Contextual recruitment

An approach primarily used at shortlisting stage and described by the Bar Council (Mercer & Krys, 2024) as a process ‘that helps recruiters to look at the context in which candidates received their grades’ highlighting applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds who have outperformed their peers and enabling employers ‘to evaluate applicants based on a better understanding of their circumstances and potential.’