The Challenge
This part of the UK Government had completed internal reviews of its attraction and hiring strategy and made significant changes to ensure that processes were best practice when it came to addressing a lack of diversity in hiring.
However they were aware that what looked good strategically on paper may not be translating successfully into practice so were seeking an independent viewpoint. Key to this would be to understand the real opinions and lived experiences of diverse individuals who had gone through this recruitment process.
The Solutions
We established and led a series of virtual focus groups with government employees to collect opinions and experiences from diverse individuals who had been through the recruitment process.
The sixteen one hour focus group sessions were led by our experienced facilitators and concentrated on a specific aspect of the process to ensure that valuable and practical feedback could be gained. These aspects were:
- Advertising
- Job descriptions
- On-boarding
- Interviewing
To ensure we uncovered a complete picture and didn’t frustrate those unable to attend due to leave or other commitments, we also allowed for a survey option to take feedback.
Effective focus groups require the creation of a safe space so only participants were allowed into the session and these sessions were not recorded. With just 60 minutes for each session it was vital for our own diverse facilitators to build trust and rapport quickly with each group.
Detailed notes were taken throughout all the sessions, and these were then brought together into a single report of findings presented to the client. Given our experience in inclusive recruitment practices we were able to present these findings within the context of both the challenges and successes faced by other organisations when it comes to increasing diversity through hiring.
