The firms who are making the most progress in taking on a broader range of individuals at graduate level are those who view the principles of diversity and inclusion as critical to their business agendas.
That’s the view of some of the firms who were nominated for the 2015 GradIreland Diversity Recruitment Award, which was won this year by Dell Ireland.
Gareth Cullen, senior manager of Dell Ireland’s Talent Acquisition (TA) team, says: “The one ingredient I think is absolutely key is that the focus on achieving diversity needs to be a business agenda.
“To drive any aspects of diversity from a point of corporate responsibility is not enough. We need to drive the agenda from the perspective that this approach is a business approach and will give best possible outputs and best return on equity.”
In seeking to be a “welcoming workplace” for people of all backgrounds, Dell has a number of employee resource groups, such as True Ability (employees with disabilities and special needs), Pride (LGBT employees), Gen Next (young recruits) and Wise (women in the workplace).
“These are communities where team members with common interests bring their collective voices together to drive innovation, business opportunities and develop inspiring leaders,” says Geraldine Collins of Dell’s TA team.
The multinational firm also employs people representing 65 different nationalities who help support the 22 languages used.
The runner-up of this year’s award, but which won the category last year, is Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC). According to group HR manager Leslee O’Loughlin, the business case for diversity and inclusion centres on two key factors.
“The first would be from a recruitment perspective. As a company, we are a very large graduate recruiter across Ireland and the UK, and so to get the best talent you have to cast a very wide net; you have to be prepared, willing and focused on bringing lots of different people into the organisation.”
Mentored placement
The company has worked with groups such as Glen (Gay and Lesbian Equality Network) and has been a participant in a mentored work placement progamme run by Ahead (Association for Higher Education Access and Disability).
O’Loughlin says ERAC tends not to focus so much on graduates’ grades in college so much as what the do outside of college and in the time that they have finished their degree, including stints abroad, volunteer work, etc.
“From a customer service perspective, we’re a customer-facing organisation. For us it is critical to hire and develop a culturally competent and culturally aware workforce, and we want that workforce to know the communities that we serve, that’s critical for us as well.”
Diversity and inclusion has been a core value almost from the very beginning, O’Loughlin says.
“The diversity programme is very much promoted from the top down. It’s a family-owned, privately-held company that is very focused on ensuring that employees embrace those values.
“So when we talk about things like diversity and inclusion, it’s not my job to talk about it, it’s my boss’s job to talk about it, and her boss’s job to talk about it and so on.”
KPMG Ireland was a new entrant to the Diversity award category this year. “KPMG wants to attract and retain the most talented and diverse workforce available,” says the firm’s head of resourcing, Paul Vance.
“We believe that diversity in our teams broaden our experience and social awareness, which in turn enhances our performance.
“We believe people with diverse perspectives help generate more comprehensive views of problems, offer alternative interpretations and ultimately generate more creative, robust solutions.
“Thus from a recruitment perspective, we seek to attract the best talent to the firm and that means hiring from the full pool of talent – nobody is excluded.”
Boost female participation
Although the ratio of male to female graduate entrants to KPMG Ireland is roughly equal, the firm said last year it is aiming to boost female participation at equity partner level to 30 per cent by 2030.
Thousands of organisations hire graduates but there may be a perception that only multinationals pay proper attention to achieving diversity, not least because they make up most of the nominees in this award category.
This is partly because they can afford to invest in comprehensive graduate training programmes. But what can small or mid-sized firms do to follow in their diversity-focused footsteps as far as graduates are concerned?
“I suppose for a small company, a great place to start looking is at your values, ensuring you have a strong set of values, and not just promoting a value system but that you are ensuring that the you and the people in the organisation are living those values every day,” says O’Loughlin.
“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to be an inclusive recruiter, you can just ensure that things like your job postings are very inclusive and that you are reaching that wide range of candidates and then you can ensure that everybody in the organisation lives a philosophy of zero tolerance of harassment or discrimination.”
