Inclusive Hiring: Trusting your gut can hurt your bottom line.
Inclusive leaders admit that hiring decisions and the hiring process has proven to be a stumbling block they had to overcome. Many trusted their gut instincts— which is more of an emotional reaction rather than a rational decision. Have you ever heard someone say something like, "I didn't like that candidate, but I can't put my finger on why." This is an example of a reaction based on gut instinct, which inclusive leaders suggest leads to biased hiring choices. Before we dive in further, here's a question for you.
Which factor do you, or your organization, prioritize most?
Candidates that get along well with the rest of the team.
Candidates that provide diversity of thought.
I'm not sure.
If you chose "candidates that will likely get along well with the rest of the team," you're in good company as 68% of respondents prioritize the same factor. That's not a surprise because no one wants to work with people they're uncomfortable with. Familiarity feels good, right?
Here's the problem with hiring for fit; homogeneous teams are less innovative and lower performing.
In 2013, Management Science conducted a study to assess how gender impacts business performance. They found that gender-diverse teams have higher sales productivity and higher earnings per share than male-dominated teams. Also, important to note, gender-diverse teams outperformed female-dominated teams. Homogeneous teams may have increased trust because of the sameness factor. They have higher degrees of comfort, they get along, and they're faster to agree. However, they're less profitable, lower performing, and there's reduced critical thinking during the decision-making process. Critical thinking is the objective analysis of a situation or issue in order to form a judgment.
Okay, let's review the characteristics of a diverse team. They don't trust one another as much. They are more skeptical and uncomfortable. There are more dissenting viewpoints and more friction. They take longer to reach a consensus due to an increased number of different opinions and ideas to consider. Initially, that may not seem like an advantage because of the desire to make swift decisions. However, diverse teams are significantly more innovative. As a result of being more innovative, they make a higher bottom-line impact and have enhanced critical thinking.
They make better decisions, which leads to higher performance.
The diverse perspectives lead to unique ideas, which lead to net new products and services, which leads to more revenue, which leads to higher profitability - 49% higher according to McKinsey and Company.
Want to go deeper? Read The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders, by Melissa Majors.