Another Friday, another reason why every business leader SHOULD be a Feminist!

Yes, it’s that time again. Friday has approached and here at Wellbeing with Cari, we are counting down our top 10 reasons why every business should strive to be more inclusive, and drop the act of exclusivity in their organisation!

This Friday, we have our eighth reason …

What is Feminism?

  1. You do not have to be a woman to be a Feminist
  2. Feminism is not about elevating women above men
  3. Feminism is a movement that is in favour of equality and inclusiveness
  4. If every organisation is run by a Feminist, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to change the current leadership – maybe just their thinking

No. 8 – Feminist Leaders SHOULD be inclusive NOT exclusive

We all love exclusivity – stop denying it! It’s like when you refuse to buy a plain T-shirt for its lack of flair, yet, as soon as a brand comes along and smacks its logo on there and tells you it’s part of an ‘exclusive collection’, everybody jumps out of their seat to buy it.

Exclusivity may sound appealing – like a posh club, although I sympathise with Groucho Marx on this point – “I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member…” Exclusivity means deliberately leaving some people out. There are lots of ways to be exclusive – without even realising it.

We’re not here to talk about exclusivity in the fashion industry, instead exclusivity when it comes to building a more diverse and inclusive atmosphere at work. In order to be an inclusive employer, you must banish the ‘exclusive’ jobs specs that alienate individuals, preventing them from even applying to the role!

To all you Feminist bosses out there – throw out the ‘exclusive’ job specs – and make them flexible!
A job specification details the things we want – but how do we know what we want?

We know what we know; however, there is a whole world of things we don’t even know and therefore, we don’t know that we want!

This may sound overcomplicated, but it really isn’t!

Here’s the gist – It’s almost impossible to write a job spec that is inclusive. This is why when we are interviewing, let’s say we are recruiting a new board member, we need to accept that the person may not tick all the boxes and if they have some protected characteristics –those characteristics may, in themselves, be the very criteria that make them worth employing.

Let us all take our blinders off when interviewing potential employees. It can be overwhelming when you’re attempting to fill a position where 4,000 applicants have sent in their CV’s, what we find some employers doing is putting roadblocks in place to quickly and efficiently slice the applicant pool down – personality, numeracy and situational tests are taken – we all know how horrible these can be.

But do these tests really determine who the best candidate would be?

No! Not really! They allow for quick dismissal of candidates to move onto the next phase, yet what some recruiters fail to understand is that some incredible applicants don’t even make it past this first hurdle.

We need to remove the importance of these tests in recruitment, and actually spend the time and effort to get to know the applicants, not just their academic qualifications, but their own experiences and skillset, and whether this will improve the business.

Three ways to be a more inclusive employer:

  1. Widening the talent pool (stop dismissing applicants before you’ve even given them the chance to meet you – stringent job requirements act as roadblocks to both the applicant and the recruiter).
  2. Remove bias in the hiring process (A recruiters first impression of a candidate is an important part of any hiring process, however, what if this leads to bias? Some employers are removing key information from CV’s, enabling them to view the individual for their personal characteristics opposed to their educational background, allowing for less bias in the hiring process).
  3. Address structural issues within the organisation (Whilst the organisation may cite itself as inclusive, is it actually? You might find that candidates undertake their own research into the inclusivity of the business. Is there diversity at all levels of seniority? Is each job level offered the same opportunities for development? These are just some of the things that candidates might examine to determine the inclusivity of the business).

Bearing these three bullet points in mind … Do you think your organisation could be more inclusive?

The answer WILL and probably SHOULD be yes! There are always ways to better improve the inclusivity in an organisation – what are your next steps?

That concludes No.8 of the reasons why every leader SHOULD be a Feminist… our next blog in the series will be published on the 12/03/21!