UK employers losing focus on inclusive hiring, says new report

An annual report has highlighted the decline in the number of employers who are committed to inclusive hiring practices.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) study found that 55 per cent of employers surveyed in the UK do not specifically state an interest in diverse candidates in their job adverts. That’s a rise from 49 per cent in 2023 and 48 per cent the year before.

In addition, 44 per cent of businesses do not use inclusive specific working in job adverts, compared with 28 per cent last year and 33 per cent in 2022.

The findings are likely to alarm job-seekers from marginalised groups struggling to progress in their careers, including the Gen Z cohort. Given the UK’s skills and labour shortages, the findings should be of further concern because employers seemingly fail to understand the commercial and ethical reasons to hire inclusively.

The survey showed how important it is for recruiters to continue to challenge their clients to embrace diversity as a way of opening up talent pools and innovation.

Inclusive recruitment exists, just not being used

While recruitment methods aimed to promote equality and eliminate unconscious bias are growing in popularity, the REC survey showed that it is a marathon, not a sprint when it comes to implementing these methods.

Nearly three-quarters of participants said that they didn’t use blind CV submissions, a method where personal information is stripped, leading to merit and experience-based selections, and only 3.8 per cent plan to use this in future recruiting.

Sixty per cent of employers said they didn’t use diverse interview panels, up five percentage points from last year.

In what may be the only silver lining in the report, 11 per cent of employers said they planned to introduce diverse interview panels in the future.

A new approach is ‘necessary’

An additional question in this year’s survey asked employers what would most encourage their organisations to implement or enhance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in their recruitment process.

The most sought-after help was for training and learning resources on best DEI practices at 29 per cent, followed by stronger internal policies and commitment from senior leaders at 26 per cent.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said: “This survey suggests that many employers still think of inclusive hiring as something to do in better times, rather than a fundamental to being able to hire well in the mid-2020s.

“Despite the unhelpful political framing of work on diverse and inclusive hiring as somehow ‘woke,’ getting this right is both a commercial and a fairness issue. Business leaders need to understand that, even in a cooling market, the world has changed, and engaging with a wide pool of potential employees requires a new approach.”

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