Why Diversity, Inclusion and Equality are NOT interchangeable terms in the workplace.

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It’s no secret that Australia’s rich cultural diversity is one of our greatest untapped strengths within the recruitment and human resource industries. With the differences between men and women with non-school qualifications almost disappearing over the last 15 years, more than 300 ancestries and languages spoken in our homes (including Auslan), the right to marry no longer determined by sex or gender, and the NDIS services now supporting people with disability within the workplace, it’s the perfect environment for employers to rise to the challenge.

 

While it is often quoted that a diverse workforce leads to better performance, engagement and business outcomes, it’s less often mentioned that these outcomes are heavily dependent on the climate and culture for diversity acceptance within the organisation. It is tempting to believe that just by setting quotas or targets you can garner universal approval that your organisation is adequately inclusive. The problem with this approach is that these types of strategies regularly interchange terms like ‘equality’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’ as if they all mean the same thing.

In this first of a three-part series, we examine the difference between the three terms, and how having a clear understanding of their interaction will improve your recruitment and human resource practices.

Let’s start with Equality.

A quick dictionary search would define it as “the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability” but what it really means for your workplace is that all employees, candidates and even clients are genuinely offered the same opportunity to enter, exit, stay or move forward within your organisation. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency reports that men still take home $25,679 more a year than women. Older workers can take up to twice as long to find work compared with younger cohorts. So, the first priority of every organisation should be to remove the bias that leads to some people being selected for opportunities over others. This is no easy feat mind you, but there are several strategies to recognise and eliminate these often unconscious biases.

 

Next up is Inclusion.

In our opinion, Inclusion is what we should be striving for within our talent attraction, retention and people management strategies. An inclusive workplace is one that everyone feels welcome, and that their voice is heard and valued. Where there are means and processes that anyone, no matter their age, race, creed, gender, sexuality, physical faculties, or the way they mentally process information can contribute to the performance of the business. When 46% of job seekers see company culture as very important, and 15% have turned down a job offer because of company culture, we need to ensure that our strategies are addressing the way people are respected and included within our organisations to stay competitive.

 The result will then be Diversity.

There are no ‘perfect’ scores for diversity across all industries, locations and occupations – there is no such thing as the ideal ratio of gender, ethnicity, age, culture, ability or sexual identity. Forming strategies that prioritise unrealistic targets will only lead to reverse discrimination, and resentment within your workforce and talent pools, not to mention place unreasonable pressure to perform on your recruiting teams. However, when candidates and employees see organisations actively seek out and value input from everyone, see them value the background and experience of everyone, and actively champion and reward the genuine achievements and contribution of everyone, this is when you will find the diversity of your candidate pools increasing, and the performance metrics of your business climbing.

So the math is simple.

Diversity, equality and inclusion are not all the same, they are not interchangeable terms, and they are not standalone initiatives. Rather it is the combination of equality and inclusion within a workplace that will result in a diverse workforce; where creativity, innovation and productivity will thrive within a welcoming and respectful workplace culture and environment.

A sweet & simple explanation of programmatic advertising

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So, you’ve heard the hype around programmatic advertising, but haven’t quite been able to wrap your head around the exhaustive list of 3 letter acronyms and jargon speak to understand exactly what it is, and why you should care? Well, never fear. We’re going to break it down for you in a down-to-earth, and relatable way that will leave you salivating…

 

First, let’s start with cookies…

Not the delicious baked goodies you dip into your coffee, I’ll get to those later.

I’m talking about the small files stored on your computer or smart device. They have many other fancy names, like HTTP cookie, web cookie, Internet cookie, or browser cookie, but quite often, they’re just simply called a cookie. They are collected on your computer’s hard drive as you surf the internet and are automatically sent to your web browser (ie. Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc.) when you revisit websites. They help to save your preferences, such as currency, location, time-zone, maybe even what you last had stored in your shopping cart. Don’t fret though, they don’t save any personal data like your name, email address or credit card details, just the basic elements to enhance your online experience.

What advertisers do, is use these cookies to track your activity online – the type of sites you visit, what you are interested in, future purchase research etc. This helps tailor the type of ads users see, where they see them, and how many times they see them. Again, no identifying data is stored and users always have the option to refuse cookies, but, as I said before, these cookies are used to enhance your online experience, and they mean that the ads you see should be relevant to you and your online preferences.

How does Programmatic fit in?

What is programmatic advertising then, and what do these cookies have to do with it?

Programmatic is not a type of advertising like billboards or magazines, but a way of buying advertising. Kenneth Kulbok, the programmatic sales lead EMEA at LinkedIn Programmatic, says that “Put very simply, programmatic is buying digital advertising space automatically, with computers using data to decide which ads to buy and how much to pay for them, often in real time”.

Is this a simple answer to our question? Yes. But it isn’t all that interesting or engaging an explanation, though is it? So, let us spin it to you using a much more exciting and enticing analogy… cookies! Yes, this time I do mean the delicious baked treats!

What’s your flavour?

If we were to put a plate of generic choc-chip cookies out on the table (whether it be at work, home, the gym, doesn’t matter) people would see them, and we’re sure quite a few would take one, but we couldn’t be sure everyone would be interested. But, if we could do the research to specifically tailor the plate of cookies to everyone’s tastes, then it would be much harder for them to resist taking one. Maybe Dave from accounting is more of a gluten-free oatmeal and raisin fan, or perhaps your grandma prefers ginger snaps, or your personal trainer is an absolute sucker for double choc fudge cookies?

The research that goes into knowing who likes what flavour (or in the case of advertising who will relate and engage with which ad) is helped by those digital cookies. What makes programmatic special from traditional forms of buying advertising space is how the research is conducted, who collects that delicious double choc fudge cookie, sorts it from the ginger snaps and oatmeal and raisin ones, puts it on the plate, and places that plate where your PT can easily consume it.

Advertising powered by cookies!

The brilliance of programmatic is that the process, from research to consumption, is optimised through machine learning – meaning it adapts and evolves to consumer behaviours much faster, and with more precision than can be done by a human.

Even better, technology handles the buying process for you, meaning ads can be bought in real-time to further optimise the process.

Programmatic started off as a way of using up remnant digital inventory – the digital ad-space that wasn’t sold through traditional publisher driven sales. It became ‘distressed’ and dropped into the realm of programmatic sales where it can be bought at a much cheaper price. Now though, advertisers are recognising the advantages of programmatic beyond just the cheaper price.

Not only can programmatic advertising be less expensive, not only is it helping tell me whether my ideal consumer is more of a coconut jam drop bickie or a champagne and raspberry macaron fan, it is the one baking, plating and serving their desired confection within their preferred environment.

It is quite simply the sugar hit every advertising budget needs.

Hungry to know more? Contact us today to discuss how we can help.

6 Steps to creating a candidate experience that trumps your competitors

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For those in the world of recruitment and talent attraction, it can be all too easy to focus only on the talent that you successfully hire. While we hope you’ve made the successful applicants feel welcome and fulfilled within your organisation, how did you treat the unsuccessful ones?

Companies around the world are now beginning to realise the awesome power and at times awful consequences of the Candidate Experience.

Jan Tegze has actually created an equation to measure the potential cost to your business through poor candidate experiences, and while we won’t go into all the math-y details, suffice to say it’s A LOT!

Virgin Media UK estimated a potential £4.4 million (approx. $7.8M AUD) in lost business due to applicants severing their consumer relationships with Virgin Media and switching to their competitors. All due to negative candidate experiences. This figure doesn’t even take into account the 27% of candidates that research says will go on to “actively discourage others” from applying to the company – with figures like this, who needs Glassdoor to destroy your Employer Brand?

Can your organisation afford these kinds of costs?

Wouldn’t you rather be the company these people turn to for satisfying, fulfilling, dare we say, even enjoyable candidate experiences? Never fear! Here are six helpful strategies that can light the way to making your candidate experience the best in your industry.

But what is it?

First things first – what the hell is a candidate experience anyway? When does it start, when does it finish, who is involved, what makes it good or bad? Quite simply, the candidate experience is every interaction your desired talent has, not just with your HR department,

but with your whole business.

 

STEP 1

Calling it a ‘candidate’ experience is actually quite misleading, because it all starts before a person even knows they want to work for your company. ‘The Talent Experience’ might be a more apt description.

Your current employees are surely telling their friends and family what it’s like where they work. Are they sharing good things that make potential quality talent want to work for you too? Or are they griping about the lack of communication between the management tiers, or that there’s never any room in the staff fridge for their lunch? Step 1 to improve the talent experience is to work on the relationships you have with your current employees.

 

STEP 2

The next step is to make sure your online presence isn’t turning candidates away before you even receive a resume. Do you fall into the 60% of employers who do NOT monitor their presence or brand on social media?

While you’re at it, why not add us on Facebook?

Not only are recruiters using social media to screen applicants, but 67% of job seekers are also using social media to gain insights into company culture. Make sure your business is putting its best branded foot forward with its online presence. This is important not just for social media platforms, but with your company website as well…

 

STEP 3

Does your career section adequately describe your company and the positions you have available? Because 55% of candidates are saying company career sites don’t tell them enough about working for a company, and 36% say that job descriptions aren’t clear enough. If you want to get a step ahead of your competitors, make sure your career section is crystal clear and diamond sharp in its details.

 

STEP 4

Now you’ve successfully enticed a potential candidate to hit apply, the experience outcome now hangs on how cumbersome your application process is. Having a process that takes too long, or asks candidates to upload a resume, but then still asks them to manually fill out fields of basic questions is going to have negative effects on their experience. It may even deter them completely, as 60% of candidates will abandon applications that are too long or complex.

 

STEP 5

Once you have all of the applicant’s details, and the task of screening, assessing, interviewing and recommendation slowly narrows the candidate pool, don’t forget to spare a thought for those you have turned down along the way. No one enjoys being rejected, but the talent experience isn’t determined by the outcome of the application. Most often it is the level of feedback and communication that determines a positive or negative experience.

Are you letting people know what stage their application is currently at? Do they have an estimated timeline for when they can expect a result? Do they know why their application has been declined? Is there a resource you can direct them to help with future applications? These are all communications you can have with applicants throughout the process that will make them feel that you appreciate their desire to work for you and the time they’ve taken to apply.

81% of job seekers said continuous communication would greatly improve overall experience.

 

STEP 6

The final step to improving the talent experience your company offers, is to keep improving! Requesting feedback from both successful and unsuccessful candidates at all stages of the process is only going to help you understand where you can improve, and help your candidates feel their opinion is valued.

 

Need Help Implementing a New Candidate Experience Strategy?