Diverse teams lead to better outcomes in projects. However, recruiting women in the tech industry can be challenging. To address this, companies need to invest in diversity and inclusion efforts from the top down. This includes updating mission statements, holding hiring managers accountable for bias, and fostering an inclusive culture. Leadership must be committed to attracting and retaining female tech talent and setting long-term recruiting goals. Recruiting managers and leaders should also support the use of metrics to track progress in diversifying the hiring pipeline. These efforts were inspired by an interview with Carmen Hudson and her suggested tools below.
Why Hire Women?
Companies should hire women because diversity in the workplace leads to better business outcomes. Studies have shown that diverse teams perform better, are more innovative, and make better decisions than homogeneous teams. Additionally, a more inclusive workforce leads to a better work environment and can help attract and retain top talent. Furthermore, by not hiring women, companies are missing out on a large pool of qualified candidates. It is important for companies to take a proactive approach to diversifying their workforce in order to stay competitive and drive long-term success.
The numbers are staggering around gender bias.
From a recent article by Entelo:
- Recruiters are 13% less likely to open a women’s online profile in a search and 3% less likely to send them a recruiting message.
- Female candidates list 16% fewer keywords in their profiles compared to male candidates with the same level of experience in similar roles.
- Women with children are 23.5% less likely to land an interview than men with children.
- Mothers are considered to be 12.1% less committed to their jobs than non-mothers while fathers were perceived as being 5% more committed than non-fathers.
Recruiters can do their best to build an active diverse pipeline when it comes to sourcing women in tech. I’ve included a list of sourcing tools below to help with that goal:
1. Elpha
Is an online community where women in tech talk candidly online. It’s a community that discusses: career growth, startups, engineering, venture capital, and job news. It’s a fantastic community to source and recruit elite female talent in North America.
2. Unbias (Chrome Extension)
Is a chrome extension that helps Recruiters remove gender information on LinkedIn. Unconscious (or implicit) bias is bias we are unaware of – it’s outside our control, but affects our actions and decisions. Studies show we have unconscious bias toward or against certain genders, ethnicities, or visual traits.This tool will help improve your diversity sourcing efforts overall.
3. Ruby’s Lab
Is a tool that helps track your diversity recruiting metrics. Ruby’s Lab tracks the gender and ethnicity of your candidates throughout the recruiting process. You’ll see where diversity breakdowns happen and know where to focus your efforts. If your team is serious about recruiting diverse leads then they should get a demo of this tool.
4. JobWriter & JobLint
These tools help rewrite your job descriptions to attract diverse applicants. These tools enhance job postings and help reduce bias during the application process. Women are less likely to apply for job openings that don’t highlight a culture or requirements well.
5. SeekOut, Hiretual, & HiringSolved
Are all fantastic tools that offer diversity sourcing search features. You can narrow down your job requirements and focus on sourcing strictly women talent across the globe.
6. Pronounce Names (YouTube)
I always recommend researching how to pronounce an applicant’s name before getting on a phone screen. Do a quick search on YouTube to figure out how to pronounce the name correctly. This is a simple exercise but very important if you want to make the applicant feel comfortable throughout the process.
7. Diversify Tech
Once a week, this site sends out scholarships, events, job opportunities, and more. This a great community of users that post jobs and give career advice to women in tech. There’s a lot of things that you can use this for – networking or sourcing for leads in general.
Recommended Reading:
Top Boolean Strings to Find Diversity Candidates Online
10 Marketing Automation Tools to Use in Recruiting
How to Recruit and Source on Facebook
- Unleashing the Power of AI in Talent Sourcing: Meet Noon - May 17, 2024
- Demystifying Natural Language Search: Crafting Effective Boolean Strings - April 26, 2024
- The Art of Context: Why Rushing to Conclusions Can Lead Us Astray - April 25, 2024