Posted by: Gurpal Minhas, Consulting Psychologist, Capp

It’s well known that the outcome of a successful selection process is closely related to having a robust, valid and fair assessment methodology. If this is the case, the organisation should have a representative and diverse workforce. But it’s not always guaranteed.

We often see recruiters reflecting at the end of an assessment process about the range and diversity of candidates that they have seen and selected during an assessment process. For most, the results are satisfactory but there is always an innate drive to improve on specific demographics.

For example, many clients we speak to wish to increase the number of BAME candidates applying for their roles. Alternatively, within the Pharma and Engineering industries, we have seen a push to increase the number of female candidates in specific graduate streams.

Over the past eight years we have gathered data on the ways in which a strengths-based approach to recruitment and assessment ensure a diverse range of applicants and recruits. Here are some of our findings:

• Improves social mobility; when organisations take a strengths-based assessment approach, we can help ensure that candidates from socially and demographically diverse backgrounds are not disadvantaged on the basis of not having had past employment or access to fewer extra-curricular activities.
• Our strengths-based interviews enable assessors to ask a broader range of questions that don’t just rely on work or education-based examples.
• Improves gender balance; Nestlé’s female graduate intake for their technical functions grew from 22% to 57% using our strengths-based assessment approach.
• Demonstrates no adverse impact; our strengths-based recruitment processes do not disadvantage applicants from either gender, with almost identical proportions of male and female candidates selected after the strengths-based interview proceeding to assessment centres.
• Ensures fairness from a gender perspective; our Realise2 data suggests that there are no significant differences between the strengths of males and females. This demonstrates that organisations aren’t focusing on certain strengths that are stereotypically preferred by male or female candidates.

To learn more about how strengths can improve the diversity of your applicants please contact Gurpal Minhas Gurpal.minhas@cappeu.com

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