The Brokerage The Overlooked Advantage - Flipbook - Page 18
Box 1 below demonstrates how one employer identified and tackled implicit perceptions of disadvantaged
young people in recruitment.
Box 1: Case Study A
“When I joined, we outsourced many of our entry-level roles, and the workplace experiences we
did run were generally offered to staff members' children, or clients' children. We were only ever
getting the same kind of talent through - the people with previous knowledge or experience of
insurance. Our recruitment approach had to change to ensure we attract and capture a different
kind of applicant at the earliest possible stage.
“The first thing we did was put applicants’ education and experience into context, to ensure we
don’t oversee someone talented because of how the environment around them impacted their
achievements. We looked at 50 CVs to decide whom to interview, and of those 44 applicants
came from [schools and places] we’ve never heard from before.
“We also started using a virtual interviewing platform to be able to see more candidates at the
interview stage, and be able to reflect on their responses in light of what we learnt about their
socioeconomic backgrounds. We watched back [the interview recordings] from that perspective
and ensured that line managers are much more aware of the socioeconomic side of things.
“To address bias, we trained everyone on EDI, including on managing unconscious bias. This is to
make sure that candidates can talk about examples of strengths they developed in their personal
life as evidence of competency. So that if candidates are willing to share these experiences with
us, we are not unfair in judging them negatively because of their background or the way the
example is presented. We asked managers to look for the advantage instead of the
disadvantage.
“Having worked with The Brokerage, it is refreshing to be hiring people who don’t have the
experience or privilege of knowing about the industry. This means we have a new perspective on
how to appeal to candidates and clients who don’t know about us. And many of our managers
have become passionate about mentoring and developed their own skills.”
Step 2: Design equitable selection methods that allow underrepresented
young people to contextualise their strengths
Research suggests that recruitment design is the single most important intervention to have an
impact on eradicating bias and unequal outcomes. Therefore, a vital step for employers who wish
to move to a strengths-based approach as a design principle for their recruitment practices, is to
review all stages of existing processes to identify implicit barriers and biases.
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