How award-winning companies are building diverse teams

Introduction

Fostering diversity within teams is crucial for promoting innovation, creativity, and balanced perspectives. However, implementing strategies to promote diversity can feel overwhelming for teams, with many not knowing where to start.

We asked the winners from cord’s Gender Diversity Hiring Leaders Awards about how they’ve overcome challenges, the initiatives they’ve implemented, and their top tips for companies looking to improve diversity.

You can find the key action points below, followed by the full Q&A from Kittl, Searchland, and Starling Bank.

Build targeted talent pipelines

Proactively seek out female candidates and create opportunities to engage with them. We previously explored this approach in our Hiring Insights article: How sourcing can increase gender diversity.

• "I've adopted a proactive approach by initially seeking out suitable candidates through platforms like cord or LinkedIn before resorting to advertising positions." - Gabrielle, Searchland

Create inclusive and supportive cultures

It's not just about attracting diverse talent but also about retaining them by fostering an inclusive and supportive culture within the organisation.

• "We are hosting a Girls in Tech event in July and we hope this will help with building an employer brand that shows we are dedicated to building a diverse company." - Rap, Kittle

Educate your team

Providing training to interviewers and hiring managers on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and the importance of diverse teams is essential.

• "Starling has rolled out training to all interviewers to help them gain a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusion and its importance. The training covers ED&I, bias and the benefits of a diverse team." - Alex, Starling Bank

Be proactive

Engaging with potential candidates even before roles become available and maintaining ongoing relationships with diverse talent pools can significantly enhance diversity in hiring.

• "Dedicate resources into scouting the market for diverse talent. Have someone build a LinkedIn Recruiter Project with only diverse candidates that match your requirements." - Rap, Kittl

Transparent and inclusive job descriptions:

Use gender-neutral language in job descriptions and clearly state the essential requirements for the role. Encourage candidates to apply even if they don't meet every single requirement.

• “We use gender-neutral tools to ensure we are using inclusive language with gender-neutral terms and include language in our job descriptions to encourage applications from a wide pool of candidates by promoting our flexible working approach“ - Alex, Starling Bank

Q&A: Rap Paulavicius, Kittl

Rap is the Head of People at Kittl. Since joining the company a year ago, he has build out the TA function from scratch, doubling the team from 25 to 50 in 6 months, with plans to double again to 100+ by the end of 2024.

Kittl isn't just another design platform; it's here to transform the way creators work. Their mission is to make designing easy and intuitive, and present a real competitor to cumbersome professional-grade tools. Kittl has already attracted over 1 million users and facilitated the creation of more than 10 million designs.

What are the main challenges you face in building a diverse team and how have you combated these?

The lack of a diverse technical talent pool (Engineering, PMs, Product Designers, Data Science) is a huge issue. Unless you put in a targeted effort to build diverse pipelines, your company can at best reflect the available talent pool, which would make for a very poor reflection indeed.

To combat this we select certain roles where we intentionally build more diverse pipelines. If your pipeline is balanced, you have a fair shot at hiring a diverse candidate. However once the candidates are in the pipeline, they are evaluated only on their merit.

We are also hosting a Girls in Tech event in July and we hope this will help with building an employer brand that shows we are dedicated to building a diverse company in terms of gender, but also in terms of experience, background, and diversity of thought.

Being a startup, speed is crucial to our survival, so our recruiting teams had to really dedicate themselves to making sure we hire diverse but not lose speed. If you lose speed, the business will start asking questions.

What are the key initiatives you’ve implemented that have had the biggest impact?

We’ve probably identified every node.js and React female engineer in Berlin on LinkedIn :) Knowing how big the available talent pool is helps to understand how many hires you can expect to make in a given time period.

Results were great - we fed more female candidates into our engineering pipelines which then naturally resulted in more female (and male) hires!

What are the top tips you would give to other companies looking to improve their diversity?

1. Dedicate resources to scouting the market for diverse talent. Have someone build a LinkedIn Recruiter Project with only diverse candidates that match your requirements (based on your own definition of “Diverse”, with gender diversity being the obvious one to tackle in the beginning, but surely not the only one to think about). Find all of them (tedious but still necessary work), add to the project, and use them as Leads to boost pipelines when needed. Reach out to 50 people, 10 reply, 5 are interested, and boom you have 5 diverse candidates in your process.
2. Get buy-in from everyone involved in hiring. The challenge is difficult enough without needing to manage stakeholders halfway through!
3. Get involved in local communities! There are people trying to solve this issue everywhere, and if you put the word out, people will notice. Search for diverse tech talent groups and communities on Meetup, LinkedIn, and other social media.

Q&A: Gabrielle Coriolan, Searchland

Gabrielle has been working in HR and Recruitment for the last 6 years. Her background is varied, covering industries such as Property-Tech, Education, Charity, Government, and Law.

SearchLand is a cutting-edge B2B off-market land-sourcing platform that provides detailed and accurate data on property and land. It assists customers like property developers, land agents, architects, and planners in making informed decisions about acquiring land and property for development.

What are the main challenges you face in building a diverse team and how have you combated these?

I've been actively addressing the underrepresentation of women in our industry, particularly in Property-Tech, as well as striving to increase the number of female engineers.

To tackle this, I've adopted a proactive approach by initially seeking out suitable candidates through platforms like Cord or LinkedIn before resorting to advertising positions or reviewing submitted resumes.

After exhausting these avenues, I proceed to evaluate candidates who have submitted their CVs for consideration. Throughout the interview process, I remain committed to actively seeking out and engaging with candidates who can help bridge this gap.

What are the key initiatives you’ve implemented that have had the biggest impact?

I've dedicated myself to ensuring that the interview process thoroughly evaluates both cultural alignment and suitability for our team's needs. During interviews, I often inquire about personal preferences like favourite foods or hobbies to create a relaxed atmosphere for candidates.

Additionally, these questions serve as an assessment of their communication skills, especially when juxtaposed with inquiries about their interest in our company and what aspects drew them to us.

What are the top tips you would give to other companies looking to improve their diversity?

1. Do not make interviews feel like an exam
2. The first person who is interviewing is an example of your company and its culture
3. You already have the CV, get to know the person first then ask the important questions later in the interview

Q&A: Alex Yeates, Starling Bank

Alex is an experienced Talent Acquisition Specialist with 7 years of experience recruiting in the tech industry. He's been with Starling Bank for over a year and focuses on hiring Data, Product, & Testing.

Starling Bank is a leading digital bank on a mission to disrupt the banking industry. They've built an app with smart money management tools to help our customers live a healthier financial life. They also offer groundbreaking B2B banking and payments services.

What are the main challenges you face in building a diverse team and how have you combated these?

We have not fully combated the challenges that we face building a diverse team but strive to continuously focus on and improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I)  here at Starling Bank.

The main challenge for us is how competitive the market is – lots of companies are looking for a diverse range of candidates with high-level technical skills.

Building teams isn't just about attracting candidates from all backgrounds, it's also important to focus on retention. You need to ensure that your employees are happy, and given equal opportunities to progress and develop in the organisation. At Starling, we foster a culture of inclusivity through numerous employee-led networks and employee resource groups to enhance a sense of belonging in all employees. We have also expanded our recruitment resources through partnerships. We currently partner with CodeFirstGirls, Women In Tech and Tech Returners to support women getting started in Tech or get back into Tech.  We have also started using features on candidate platforms like Cord, that can help us proactively identify a diverse range of candidates. The more diverse our team, the stronger we'll be.

What are the key initiatives you’ve implemented that have had the biggest impact?

Starling has rolled out training to all interviewers to help them gain a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusion and its importance. The training covers ED&I, bias and the benefits of a diverse team. It is key that all of our interviewers attend this training to ensure everyone has an understanding of why these areas are important.

We have also formed partnerships with and attended diversity-specific conferences and career fairs. Our partnership with CodeFirstGirls supports our commitment to gender diversity, both externally and internally. In May 2024, Starling hosted a panel with women who completed the CodeFirstGirls degree, sponsored by Starling, and went on to secure jobs with us. We also regularly attend careers fairs with initiatives like Tech Returners. It's important to get in front of the target audience in-person, rather than constantly reaching out over a headhunting platform. We want to build relationships and engage with potential candidates in person where possible.

Finally,  our job descriptions are visible on job boards that are focused on diversity. We use gender-neutral tools to ensure we are using inclusive language with gender-neutral terms and include language in our job descriptions to encourage applications from a wide pool of candidates by promoting our flexible working approach.

What are the top tips you would give to other companies looking to improve their diversity?

1. Build your pipeline. Set up searches that continually alert you to new talent in the market regardless of whether you are hiring or not. Organise your hiring plan for the next 12 months and beyond – the sooner you know the pipeline of roles coming, the sooner you can get to work on those difficult-to-fill positions.
2. Make your interview panels diverse. It's so important for candidates of all backgrounds to meet team members or managers during the interview process who represent them. Don't just tell them you are committed to ED&I, show them! Actions speak much louder than words.
3. Try to get the candidate experience right from day one - every candidate we speak to is a potential hire, if not today then maybe in the future. Make sure your brand resonates with a diverse range of candidates and build relationships so that if one role isn't the right fit, you can talk to them about the next opportunity. We aim for a hiring culture that people find positive and want to tell others about, even if they've been unsuccessful.

Summary

Building diversity strategies can feel daunting, but by following these actionable steps any company can begin taking proactive steps towards building a diverse team.

• Be targeted: proactively build diverse pipelines using diverse hiring tools

• Build inclusive cultures: make everyone feel welcome to promote retention

• Education: keep your hiring teams and managers up to date with DE&I education

• Continuous engagement: be flexible with your hiring plans and consistently engage with diverse talent

• Job descriptions: be cautious of the language used and the number of requirements listed

See what some of our other Hiring Awards winners had to say about building an exceptional candidate experience!

cord is the hiring tool used by technology-led companies to find active people, fill their pipelines and make direct hires. To understand how cord can help you make hires, run a search now to test out the candidate pool.