Equality
From the start, Novare has actively promoted equality. As of 2017, Novare records all of our recruitments in a Novare Equality Index.
In 2018, Novare’s various recruitment companies completed over 500 recruitments and 52 percent of these were women. Recruitment of women to CEO positions has also increased by 7 percent – from 31 to 38 percent.
“We have a position of power in the recruitment industry regarding equality” says founder and group CEO, Fredrik Hillelson, “more stakeholders should take their responsibility.”
The purpose of the equality index is to track equality targets relating to recruitment transparency and to inspire industry colleagues to do the same.
“My understanding is that many industry colleagues are progressive in this regard, but more than most still shy away from equality issues. They either do not want or do not dare show their numbers, but this approach isn’t practical any longer. Today’s customers demand transparency to a much greater extent,” notes Mr. Hillelson. His view is that transparency is important because it enables the industry to track trends and set clear objectives for change going forward. “We have a significant shared responsibility to create a stronger, more profitable, and sustainable business sector.”
Novare notes a significant lack of understanding, and poor excuses related to equality in the recruitment process. This includes many claiming they do not receive any applications from women who have the required competence.
“My view is that there are plenty of available fully-qualified women candidates. Still, you often need to convince both the customer and the candidate differently than when hiring men. For example,” notes Mr. Hillelson, “women often receive contradictory assessments in their reference checks. They can be seen as both fantastic and ice cold. This is certainly not due to having a split personality, instead, it shows the bias in those around them.”
His advice to anyone wanting equality in their recruitment process
– Train all employees involved in recruitment in ‘Unconscious bias’ to raise awareness of subconscious beliefs.
– Hire external expertise to look outside your own network.
– Demand equality in the listing of candidates when you employ an executive search. Do not accept excuses.
– Review internal processes involved in recruitment to raise requirements for equality.
– Start to count – statistics raises awareness of the issue and help to identify any shortcomings.
