How to Find & Remove Barriers Hidden in Your Hiring Process

When was the last time you completed an analysis on your recruiting process? When was the last time you looked for any barriers within your recruiting tasks? Maybe never? Maybe it’s been a while?

Either way, this week’s article is truly for you.

Barriers to getting hired exist. We know that from research and data that is published often. The challenge is that most recruiters fail to look into their own hiring process to find them and process improve. And then they continue to wonder why they cannot increase diversity among their candidate pools. 

Maybe you are interested now? Okay, I will be share with you one way to locate these hidden barriers and remove them from your organization’s recruiting and hiring process.

Step #1: The best way to see if barriers are hidden within your process is to start by pulling the data. Looking at this data will allow you to see the demographics of your applicants, such as how they self-identify and other important factors (eg. disabilities, military status, race). Not everyone self-identifies, and that is okay. Use multiple years of data for this reason.

It’s important that you focus on reports from 3-4 years ago using an applicant tracking system. NEVER look at data from the current year! It’s not necessary to use this information in your research and it is illegal for recruiters to have access to current demographic data.

If you are unsure of how to run the report, consider partnering with a data analyst. Data analysts are highly trained specialists in the field of you guessed it – data. They are a great asset to add to your team - both initially and when looking ahead to future reporting.

Step #2: Make sure you are segmenting each major step of the hiring process. This should be done by going through every single step from the beginning, middle, end and even in-between.

This will allow you to clearly view what is happening from one step to the next. Where are you losing candidates? Is it that they are not applying? Are they not passing the phone screen? Are they not moving beyond the in person interview? Do they receive offers and decline or withdraw from the process? Segmenting gives you a better idea of whether the barrier is isolated or throughout the entire process.

Step #3: Analyze the data. This step includes looking at what your research found and asking yourself, “what does this data suggest?” What solutions can you consider? How can you be proactive in removing some of these barriers from your hiring process?

Step #4: Consider sharing the data with the appropriate leaders. Consider also sharing process improvements and solutions you’ve discovered. It will be appreciated.

Something that is important to consider during this process is what you will do if you find that the data suggests adverse impact? I always recommend that before you take on this work, talk to your manager and perhaps a corporate attorney.

I get it. Getting started on locating these barriers can seem like a tedious job and it could be the reason you to avoid them, but overlooking them will only hurt your company and your goals. It’s best to put those barriers as a top priority on your to-do list.

Trust me, your recruiting process (and company) will thank you for it! Let me know if you need help taking on this project!