Rethinking diversity, equity and inclusion

With more organisations embarking on diversity programmes, it has prompted us to pause and reflect on our contribution in this space as we ask ourselves the question – could we be doing more?

Decipher Group is a multi-disciplined and people-focused recruitment consultancy. We consider ourselves to be early adopters and leaders in innovation, from our use of cutting-edge digital recruitment technology through to our approach to client and candidate care; we are always hungry for learning and finding new ways to do things better and smarter.

We are in a unique position in that we work intimately with our clients to understand their business, so we are exposed to a wide range of people/HR focussed programmes and initiatives. We are seeing a lot more focus on diversity and inclusion programmes of late and while the primary motivator is linked to wider organisational performance, what is really encouraging is that there is a strong desire to create programmes that are meaningful and truly embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.

Our success as a business is 100 percent linked to people – from our two entrepreneurial co-founders and motivated team through to the clients and candidates that are part of our broader community. We hold a strong lens on our own performance and continually challenge and stretch ourselves both individually and as a business. It reflects the space in which we operate; there is no standing still in recruitment. However, even in our business we are having some candid conversations with our team around diversity and inclusion – both in terms of what we ‘should’ be doing and what ‘could’ we be doing. So, this is us…

There is a plethora of digital recruitment technology available that provides a seamless end-to-end talent acquisition service – from advertising and sourcing through to search, assessment, and selection. Our consultants benefit from some smart automation and AI in our systems that lets them focus on the important stuff and that includes a suite of tools to assist with finding the right person for a role without unconscious bias – from writing inclusive job adverts through to anonymisation of CVs that remove bias parameters.

Our approach to candidate assessment is also grounded on best practice talent identification. We base our approach on merit and ability, uncovering the traits and behaviours of candidates and evaluating against what is required in the role. Of course, context is key and while every client is different, we pride ourselves on finding the right talent for a role and are strong promoters of bias free hiring.

As a business we like to share new ideas and thinking and that is one of the reasons we created the HR Leaders Forum, a collaborative learning space for senior HR professionals in the South Island. We have hosted several forums, connecting senior leaders with their peers while being inspired by thought provoking topics and guest speakers. Diversity in the workplace has been a reoccurring theme and one that really resonates with attendees. So much so that we partnered with Lloyd Mander to deliver the Diversity of Thought Scorecard to a range of commercial, governmental, and for-purpose organisations.

The Diversity of Thought Scorecard is an innovative tool for measuring diverse thinking in teams. It is all about evaluating group capability for wide-ranging thought diversity and advising on how to realise the benefits of diverse thinking – as opposed to categorising diversity by a single measure like gender, ethnicity, or age. Our team at Decipher Group has completed the scorecard and found the exercise to be valuable in terms of understanding the different personalities around the table and improving outcomes by challenging your thinking against different viewpoints.

As both individuals and a business, we value and support genuine and impactful diversity and inclusion practice. We realise that we could always be doing more and to that end, here are two areas that we’re currently debating within our business.

1. Are we really doing enough to encourage unconscious bias in hiring decisions? What more could we be doing to avoid those underlying assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness?
2. Have we truly committed to providing an environment where all people feel welcomed and valued in their identities? This could be as simple as normalising the inclusion of pronouns.

We would love for you to share your stories and hear how your diversity and inclusion journey is going.

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