ISE research showed that improving diversity is the number one challenge for employers in 2018. Research Analyst, Samuel Gordon considers what can be done to address the issues.

While our Annual Survey showed that diversity has overtaken Brexit as a key challenge for student employers, this isn’t just a case of talking about the problem: 75% of employers took specific actions to improve their graduate diversity this year. Data also revealed that in three years average gender diversity had improved by 5%, and average ethnic diversity by 2%. 

However there is still much more work to be done to address imbalances. For example, 54% of university students are women but only 43% of graduate hires on average are women.

There isn’t just a moral argument for improving diversity. Business benefits include wider access to talent, addressing skills gaps and helping to improve productivity and growth.

Here are three ways that employers can improve the diversity of their workforce:

#1 Set the right targets

It’s commonly assumed that for gender diversity, we should be aiming for a 50/50 balance. But if we look at the student population, we can see that we should be aiming higher – 54% of university students and 52% of school students are female. So you may want to set your targets and strategy based on the pool of candidates that you are recruiting from. Also consider using benchmarks for specific subjects. For example, 61% of law students and 18% of engineering students are female.

#2 Track diversity data

Diversity data is key for improving social mobility, but less than 10% of employers know whether hires from a low socio-economic background are advantaged or disadvantaged in their selection process. In many cases, organisations don’t know what to measure. Recommendations include whether a candidate is a first-generation graduate, was state-schooled or privately schooled, or received free meals at primary school.

Another important step is to use this data effectively. A simple test is to compare the share of applicants with one characteristic versus the share of hires with that characteristic. If there are big differences e.g. if the share of state-schooled applicants is 80% but the share of state-schooled hires is just 50%, then something in your selection process may be turning people off. Making these simple comparisons can help you identify where to focus.

#3 Tailor your recruitment process

Consider the ways that you market to candidates. Our annual survey showed that 42% of student employers made sure that they sent diverse representatives onto university campuses in 2017 and 33% ran outreach events for final year students to reach a wider pool of candidates. Some even ran specific diversity internships with the view to re-hiring those people into graduate roles.

On many diversity challenges, there is still a long way to go. But the good news is that employer efforts are becoming more focussed and effective. Let’s keep sharing what we’re doing and speed up our collective progress.