When you automate hiring, you get automated results: An algorithm choosing only the people who check the same boxes. Genuinely diverse teams, on the other hand, require hiring with love.
In the past, our company, Softway, made some common mistakes. Namely, we would only hire people like ourselves. New recruits usually had similar levels of education and similar skills. They talked like us, and otherwise reminded us of ourselves in a number of ways. Such hiring practices were good for the ego. But we unconsciously denied ourselves a diversity of talent. This hurt our ability to innovate. Because innovation requires a wider variety of perspectives than we were getting.
Then, we began pursuing love as a recruiting strategy. We looked at the whole person, not just the boxes checked on their resume. Our workforce began to grow more diverse over time. Today, we have people from different ethnicities, backgrounds, and parts of the world. We’ve seen our diversity lead directly to innovation and growth.
To get these same results, I encourage you to look beyond the online application. Consider people with nonstandard backgrounds for a given role. Above all, be open to what someone’s background and life experience might bring to the table.
