Phaidon International is continuing the Inclusive Talent series exploring the issues being faced by companies with challenges regarding diversity in the workplace. We begin 2017 discussing the key challenges that will be faced in the coming year to make companies more diverse, focusing on; Attraction, Retention & Advancement.

1. INCLUSIVE TALENT I N T E R N A T I O N A L
INCLUSIVE TALENT
CHALLENGES 2017

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Across STEM industries Diversity is one of the
key conversations among hiring managers and
Human Resources andTalent teams. Diverse talent
attraction, retention and development are relevant
issues across the recruitment industry.
Over time, Diversity has moved beyond
compliance, and has evolved to become a priority
from a business strategy perspective as well.
Studies have shown that companies with diverse
senior management achieve greater commercial
success; supporting research by the University of
Maryland and Columbia University showed that
female representation in top management leads to
an average increased firm value of $42 million.1
“Diversity is more than any one gender, race, or
ethnicity. It’s richly representative of all people, all
backgrounds, and all perspectives. It is the entire
human experience.”, states Denise Young Smith,
Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources.2
In order to fully integrate diversity within an
organisation,it’s important that executive leadership
takes action to challenge cultures making companies
more diverse, as well as supporting women and
minorities already employed; Attraction, Retention
& Advancement.
“Diversity is more than any one gender,
race, or ethnicity. It’s richly representative
of all people, all backgrounds, and all
perspectives. It is the entire human
experience.”
DeniseYoung Smith,Vice President of
Worldwide Human Resources.
INCLUSIVE TALENT 2017

3. Inclusive Talent | Enabling Exceptional Careers
1.ATTRACTION
Attraction is a two-fold issue; Employers need to
make their EmployerValue Proposition (EVP) more
inclusive in order to attract diverse candidates, as
well as adapting the hiring process.
With women starting to saturate the workforce,
and studies indicating the huge untapped financial
potential of inclusive policies, companies should
look to prioritise diversity. Microsoft has gone so
far as to link bonuses to diversity targets, in order
to truly incentivise senior management to make
this issue a top business priority.3
However, they are not always successful;
implementing for the sake of implementing is
not the answer either. Facebook, for example,
went to great lengths to tackle its diversity issue,
including a hiring program targeting female, black
and Latino software engineers. Nevertheless, due
to a complicated hiring process, diversity across
the company barely changed, despite the significant
investment.4
“Technology is key when removing
unconscious bias, and not just in the
recruitment process.”
It is often not enough to put diversity strategies
in place if there are issues internally, which might
prevent diverse candidates’ progress. Diversity
must be a genuine business priority with the
support of key internal stakeholders in order to
make headway. Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai says;
“Technology is key when removing unconscious
bias, and not just in the recruitment process – it
can also help when it comes to performance
management, where employees are scored based
on their achievements and objectives, meaning
management can make key hiring decisions and
promote based on performance only.”5
Companies
need to take time to understand their diversity
goals; keep the hiring process simple and manage
expectations. Taking small steps at the start of a
culture change will give companies a more realistic
chance of success.

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2. RETENTION
Beyond attraction of talent; employers must look at
how effectively they retain these candidates.
“52% of women working in tech eventually
leave the sector and are 45% more likely
than their male peers to leave the industry
within the year.”
Research has shown that many women and
professionals of a minority background are getting
into good technology jobs, but often leave to
pursue other opportunities. A recent Harvard
Business Review report found that 52% of women
working in tech eventually leave the sector and are
45% more likely than their male peers to leave the
industry within their first year.6
Figures from Gartner predict that by 2020, 75% of
large enterprises will be using inclusion enablement
criteria as a prerequisite when they select Human
Resource Management Systems.7
In addition, smart
technology is likely to take over from the traditional
diversity survey, and this will give real-time insight
into a company’s diversity,allowing them to monitor
it against KPIs.
There are a variety of ways to develop a workplace
that supports retention. For 2017, four to consider
that are top priorities for diverse talent are:
• Embed Flexible Working Options
Flexible working comes in many facades and does
not have to mean working from home.Time off in
lieu; annualised hours; compressed working hours
and job sharing are all other options that could be
explored. In a recent study of over 1,000 hiring
professionals, 27% agreed that it would be flexible
working options that would most entice talent into
roles over the next five years.8
• Create a CultureThatValues Difference
When businesses embrace diversity, they flourish.
Recent research from Catalyst revealed that
employees actually become more innovative when
they feel included.The Inclusive Leadership:AView
from Six Countries report found that employees
who felt included went above and beyond what
was expected; breeding innovation and ultimately
profitability for organisations.9
• EngageYour Staff Teams
Inclusion training is essential for employee buy-in.
From induction and on-boarding right through to
organic on-going training, there are a number of
opportunities to engage employees with a diverse
EVP inclusion message; demonstrating how being
inclusive benefits them and the company as a
whole. Exit interviews are also invaluable tools for
gaining grass-roots level feedback on the efficacy of
your diversity and inclusion strategies.
• Demonstrate Leadership Commitment
Diversity and inclusion principles only truly succeed
when they are hardwired into an organisation;
accordingtotheBBC’sDiversityInclusionManager
Toby Mildon; speaking at a CIPD conference at the
end of 2016 “…diversity and inclusion need to get
to a similar place that health and safety now is in
the workplace – i.e. to be fully integrated into an
organisation’s daily routines.” Inclusion should be
taken seriously from board level, down, and the
commitment to inclusivity should filter through
every management strata of the business.
Many companies have initiated Employer Resource
Groups (ERGs) as part of their inclusion strategies;
for true success it is important for these groups to
be viewed as profit centres (investments) rather
than cost centres (expenses).10
In addition, they
shouldn’t be implemented to satisfy CSR targets –
instead, as part of wider inclusion training program.

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3.ADVANCEMENT
Women in senior positions have an impact on
the rest of the business; research shows that
women who take over from male CEOs and chief
executives have increased sales of up to 14% per
employee.
52.5 million Employees are now identified as
millennials11
,witharound40-50%ofthesemillennials
representing female employees; according to
figures from the Pew Research Centre. In many
cases female millennials are more ambitious than
previous generations of women, says a study by
PWC.12
Issues such as work/life balance and diversity are at
the forefront for the new generation of workers.
Employers need to re-educate senior management,
helping to adapt the working environment to
minorities, rather than believing this diverse talent
should adapt to their surroundings.
A female CEO has also been shown to have an
effect on the advancement of women – with a
woman at the helm of a company increasing the
salaries of the high-performing women by around
10%, according to research.13
“52.5 million Employees are now identified
as millennials, with around 40-50% of these
millennials representing female employees.”

6. Inclusive Talent | Enabling Exceptional Careers
BOOSTYOUR INCLUSIVETALENT STRATEGY
An inclusive culture is about more than just policies
– it’s about making genuine changes to the way
your company operates. Figures from McKinsey
show that diverse organisations outperform their
less diverse counterparts by as much as 35%.
Employees who are part of this new breed of
hyper-integrated companies are 70% more likely to
report having a new market share, and 45% more
likely to have increased market share.15
“Diverse organisations outperform their
less diverse counterparts by as much as
35%.”
Keep Diversity on the Agenda in 2017
Despite all this, a recent HBR study reported that
diversityprogramsaren’tactuallyincreasingdiversity.
This is thought to be because some companies are
simply ‘ticking boxes’ with their diversity programs,
rather than genuinely embracing the idea of a
collaborative, dynamic culture.
If you’re looking to increase the diversity of your
organisation,why not contact Phaidon International
today?
During 2017 Phaidon International is continuing
the InclusiveTalent series exploring the issues being
faced by companies and producing“How to”guides
for employers faced with such challenges regarding
diversity in the workplace. View further details
about the Inclusive Talent series here and follow
@PaidonIntl and the hashtag #InclusiveTalent on
twitter for more updates on the series.
Sources:
1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-
smarter/
2 http://www.apple.com/diversity/
3 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-
smarter/
4 http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/12/microsoft-makes-diversity-financial-
reward-corporate-execs/
5 https://www.corehr.com/blog/time-change-organisations-can-get-better-
diversity-inclusion-2017/
6 https://hbr.org/2014/03/whats-holding-women-back-in-science-and-
technology-industries
7 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-09/facebook-s-hiring-
process-hinders-its-effort-to-create-a-diverse-workforce
8 http://workplaceinsight.net/employers-must-offer-flexible-working-to-
solve-recruitment-crisis-in-emea/
9 http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/inclusive-leadership-view-six-countries
10 http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2017/01/16/5-reasons-diversity-
and-inclusion-fails/#77a11de523a2

7. I N T E R N A T I O N A L
INCLUSIVE TALENT
Phaidon International is a global
staffing group with 6 micro-specialist
recruitment brands.
We help organisations identify, attract
and secure the best talent for their
requirements across 4 key market
verticals; Financial Services, Energy,
Technical and Professional Services.
Contact us for further hiring trends and
advice, or if you are looking to grow
your team.
Contact us today:
www.phaidoninternational.com
info@phaidoninternational.com
Enabling Exceptional Careers
Phaidon International exists to enable exceptional careers
around the world; we connect exceptional talent, with
exceptional opportunities.