While weaving DEI into your hiring practices is the right thing to do, it also brings many other benefits, such as reaching a more extensive talent pool.
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the benefits of integrators transitioning to becoming master systems integrators—moving beyond just providing “AV integration” or “security integration” to offer something more.
To make this happen, however, having the right people on your teams will be critical.
Finding and hiring talent has long been an obstacle for integration companies, but those challenges are now compounded by employee turnover, concerns about inflation and the economy, and companies trying to “poach” from competitors.
To discuss these challenges, NSCA recently teamed up with NSCA Business Accelerator Insperity, NSCA Member Advisory Councilmember livingHR, and NSCA member Visual Sound in a webinar to talk about strategies to build the right teams, recruit new talent, and retain the talent you have.
One of the keys to talent recruitment is a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Historically, the commercial integration industry hasn’t been known for its overly diverse workforce. Many agree that diversity and inclusiveness are starting to improve, but these developments are happening at a snail’s pace.
While weaving DEI into your hiring practices is the right thing to do, it also brings many other benefits, such as reaching a more extensive talent pool.
Are you making an effort to integrate DEI into your hiring and recruiting efforts? These two pieces of advice were discussed in our Redefining Talent Recruitment: An Action Plan webinar.
- When recruiting and hiring, consider capabilities instead of direct experience. Because our industry currently operates within somewhat of a bubble, there are only a certain number of people who understand the work we do—and have relevant experience doing it. If an integration firm decides to search only within groups of people who already have direct industry experience, then diversity, equity, and inclusion will continue to grow slowly because we’re pulling from the same resources and the same homogenous pool. Instead, open your talent pipeline by looking at capabilities instead of just direct experience. While someone may not have direct experience in this industry, or doing the specific work required, they may still have the ability to get the job done (or learn how to get it done).
- Take time to think about where you’re focusing your recruiting efforts. For example, are you finding new and underrepresented groups to introduce to the industry (a local association of female business leaders or a group for young professionals, for example)? What types of career fairs are you attending? Are you reaching out to HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) to explain this industry to students who may not be familiar with what we do?
For integrators trying to determine where they fall on the diversity and inclusion maturity model, livingHR is sharing a self-assessment worksheet with NSCA members that you can download here and complete.
Finally, it’s important to understand what we mean when we talk about diversity. There are many dimensions of diversity that extend beyond race and gender. Creating a diverse workforce means including people with all types of religious and education backgrounds, people with all types of physical abilities, people with varying political beliefs, people with different marital statuses and family structures, etc.
If you want to learn more about non-traditional hiring practices and how DEI plays a part, you can watch the on-demand webinar any time here.