Diverse recruitment panels
A diverse recruitment panel is one that includes representation from more than one broad group of people. Ideally it's not an all-female or all-male panel, and seeks to involve staff with other protected characteristics including people who are:
- African
- Asian
- Indigenous
- Latin American
- people with mixed-heritage
- people who are from the LGBTQ+ community
- people with disabilities.
It may even include representatives of those who access our services to give them a voice in the recruitment of new staff. It's important that these panel members are involved from the start of the recruitment process including:
- advertising plans
- shortlisting
- interview question preparation
- interviews.
Why do we need diverse panels?
When we go along to an interview ourselves, we tend to look for points of "likeness" with panel members who we can relate to, and who we think will understand where we're coming from.
It's also reassuring for candidates to see positive role models on the panel, who may have the same characteristics as them giving them something to aspire to (given most of our panels are members of management).
We're aware that particularly with regard to people who are African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin American, people with mixed-heritage, people who are from the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities, representation on our recruitment panels is low, and we’re keen to increase the involvement of managers from our diverse communities in our recruitment processes.
Who is involved?
Whilst the logistics of having diverse interview panels for all recruitment would be quite a challenge to facilitate, we’re ambitious to work towards that goal. At the moment, we’re focussing on recruitment to senior positions (Service Manager and above) as this is where representation from African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin American people, people with mixed-heritage, people who are from the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities is least evident.
We have three diverse interview panel co-ordinators, who oversee the selection of panel volunteers, and their allocation to recruitment panels.
We have a pool of diverse interview panel volunteers, who have been trained and have experience in recruitment and selection, and they are available for recruiting managers, as and when senior posts are being recruited to.
All senior managers involved in recruitment are expected to liaise with the diverse interview panel co-ordinators ahead of starting recruitment activity.
How are they organised?
As soon as a senior post becomes vacant (and possibly during the notice period), the recruiting manager will liaise with the co-ordinators to identify a volunteer panel member.
That individual will be linked up with the recruiting manager, and will then be actively involved in all aspects of that recruitment, through to job offer.
