ISE’s Student Recruitment Survey explores employer diversity targets, the focus of activities and challenges faced.

In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) within recruitment, as organisations increasingly recognise the value of a diverse workforce.

This important theme will be discussed at ISE’s forthcoming annual EDI Conference and there is evidence of this shift in our Student Recruitment Survey.

How much organisations are focusing on EDI is reflected in the setting of specific diversity targets to ensure a balanced representation across various demographics, including gender, ethnicity, and other characteristics. This year’s survey charts the hiring practices of 145 employers who recruited over 40,000 new student hires over the last year.

Diversity targets
Many employers (47% for graduates and 40% for school and college leavers) now set themselves targets for recruitment based on EDI characteristics. However, there are varying rates across different diversity characteristics, suggesting that some forms of diversity are being prioritised over others.

The most common areas of focus are gender and ethnicity with around 40% of employers having a gender target (graduates: 41%; school and college leavers: 37%; interns and placement students: 43%) and around a quarter have an ethnic minority target (graduates: 27%; school and college leavers: 23%; interns and placement students: 25%). Meanwhile less than 10% of employers tend to have targets for LGBTQI+ or neurodiverse people.

Much of this is in line with policy priorities and regulation. For example, gender and ethnic diversity typically receive more focus compared to other areas like neurodiversity, disability, and socio-economic background.

This imbalance could be exacerbated by the relative ease of measuring and addressing gender and ethnic diversity compared to other, more complex forms of diversity such as neurodiversity or socio-economic background.

Among different diversity characteristics, more employers tend to have a stretch target to improve on last year’s outcomes in ethnic minorities (graduates: 32%; school and college leavers: 33%; interns and placement students: 27%), followed by female (graduates: 24%; school and college leavers: 27%; interns and placement students: 24%).

Employers who had a target related to specific diversity characteristics often report that they are unable to meet the target, especially in neurodiverse people and people from low-economic backgrounds.

Diversity activities
Most employers tend to have activities designed to engage and select a broad range of candidates. Many of these activities are focused at specific groups.

Employers commonly run activities to increase engagement from ethnic minorities (65% for graduates, 46% for school and college leavers) and women (58% and 44%). It is also common to target activities for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds (52% and 45%).

In terms of EDI in the assessment process, there are similar patterns in all graduates, school and college leavers and interns and placement students. More employers tend to adapt the assessment process for neurodiverse people (graduates: 45%; school and college leavers: 42%; interns and placement students: 40%) and people with disabilities (graduates: 42%; school and college leavers: 37%; interns and placement students: 43%).

Some employers are also offering enhanced candidate support for people from low-socio-economic backgrounds, neurodiverse people and people with disabilities.

Reducing or removing minimum entry requirements is another way to increase diversity, allowing more students from different backgrounds to compete for graduate roles.

While the survey shows less reliance on minimum UCAS tariffs and 2:1 degrees, almost a quarter of employers had no minimum education requirements in 2023-24 – more than twice as many as in 2013-14.

Future consideration
While the data suggests that employers are making some progress in improving diversity and EDI
continues to have a relatively high profile, this data also raises some areas for further consideration.

While tracking and monitoring EDI data, more than half of the employers reported that candidates were unwilling to disclose their characteristics as their main challenge with EDI data monitoring (graduates: 54%; school and college leavers: 66%; interns and placement students:56%). Around a third of employers also reported they are unable to track the data through the process.

The limits in terms of data access mean that there is an incomplete understanding of how EDI issues are playing out in early career recruitment.

This may be exacerbated by internal issues within organisations, which mean that while recruiters are tasked with addressing issues, the data is not available to them or is held in another part of the organisation so they cannot take a data driven approach to tackling the issues.

It is important to recognise that there are conceptual issues about what constitutes success in EDI.
For example, is it a success if applications and hires match up to the proportion of a particular group in the national population, the local population or the student population? How are issues of intersectionality addressed in these kinds of measurements? And does defining success in such measurable terms in fact miss some of the important issues related to the ‘inclusion’ aspect of EDI?

These issues are ones our members continue to grapple with, and we thank our EDI working group for their continued efforts to progress the conversations on these important topics.

Join us on 6 November 2024 when we will explore these topics and more at our annual EDI Conference.

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