Creating balance in the workforce when it comes to factors like cultural background, belief, social status and gender, is not an easy feat. But having a team that is a mix of all these qualities creates the potential for new ideas and solutions to be created. When each person approaches a problem differently, it leads to healthy discussions and the growth of ideas, rather than a uniform approach that offers the same results every time.
Dario Paolini, Head of Employer Brand at Flight Centre Travel Group, talks about the importance of diversity for the innovation of your brand.
I see diversity as an opportunity to grow your business by having a greater understanding of your customers. Organisations need recognise that their customers are diverse, therefore their employees should be too. When so much of a business’ success relies on relationships and outstanding service, the most effective foundation is one which is built on people who can personally relate to the people who choose to do business with you.
Diversity attracts diversity. Organisations that have homogenous teams, particularly at management level and in recruitment functions, will have a harder time achieving diversity in their workforce. When these teams are diverse, it sends a signal to the employees in your organisation that you’re serious about achieving balance.
Here are three things we’re doing at Flight Centre to create diversity in our workforce.
At Flight Centre, we are continually looking for ways to reduce bias in our hiring process. We ensure that we are monitoring our recruiters' application volumes and conversions to see where bias may be creeping in. This can be on a state level, or even down to an individual recruiter. It gives us an opportunity to understand why a certain conversion rate is happening, and if it is being caused by a human factor such as bias.
Another way we minimise bias is to have a second round of screening on applications that have been rejected. In this process, we ensure that an application has been rejected because it does not fit our hiring criteria, and not because of any subjective factors. If the application is progressed by the second recruiter, we also look closely at the reasons why the first recruiter chose not to move it forward. Having this system in place gives us the ability to have discussions around bias where we feel it has affected an application and take appropriate measures to keep our processes tight.
Looking to the future, we plan on using artificial intelligence and technological tools to further help us eliminate bias in our recruitment process. The ability to utilise screening and assessment tools to help candidates move further along the hiring path will be a great step to eliminating bias in our recruitment process. It will ultimately enhance our communication with candidates and improve their experience applying for roles with Flight Centre Travel Group.
Diversity is important because it creates a comfortable space for your employees to express themselves authentically. At Flight Centre, we pride ourselves on our relationships with our customers and employees. By supporting our employees to be their most authentic selves, we've created a culture where each member of our business, regardless of background, can share in equal opportunity and enjoy success as they define it, along with ours as an organisation.
To learn more about Flight Centre Travel Group's diversity policy click here, or check out our job opportunities at fctgcareers.com.
