Historically, people from minority groups have experienced fewer career opportunities due to being actively discriminated against or prevented from participating in the job market. The effects of this legacy are still with us today, with many groups still being underrepresented in the workforce – particularly in positions of leadership or seniority. 

In 1961, President John F Kennedy introduced affirmative action to address this state of affairs. Although affirmative action legislation faces challenges, it is still in force and has a particularly strong impact on businesses that are contracted by government organizations. Meanwhile, organizations hoping to realize the benefits of diversity are also eager to implement affirmative action policies. 

What is Affirmative Action?

In simple terms, affirmative action means affording people from underrepresented groups equal career opportunities while implementing strategies to achieve better representation for minorities in the applicant pool. Beyond equity in hiring, your affirmative action strategy aims to attract skilled applicants from designated groups to promote workplace diversity.

Your organization may take active steps to attract applications from certain groups. For example, it might undertake outreach programmes and offer developmental opportunities such as bursaries. At the same time, it would be unconstitutional to implement a form of “reverse discrimination” in hiring decision-making. This may seem confusing since you must aim for diversity, but may not discriminate against any candidate from demographics that are already adequately represented. This article strives to clarify your role as a recruiter in implementing affirmative action in hiring. 

How Does Affirmative Action Work in the Context of Hiring?

Equal employment opportunity (EEO) means your hiring efforts are merit-based. But, although employment equity practices may see more minorities being hired because they have an equal chance to demonstrate merit, affirmative action in hiring takes this a step further. 

As a recruiter who hopes to achieve diversity in hiring, your goal is to attract applications from skilled candidates whose representation in the workplace has been impacted by historical discrimination. Not only does this offer opportunities for groups who have been disadvantaged in the employment market, but a more diverse candidate pool means that you aren’t overlooking talented potential candidates.

Benefits and Challenges of Affirmative Action in Hiring

What are the benefits of affirmative action in hiring?

When affirmative action measures create more diverse environments, organizations benefit from a wider range of perspectives – resulting in more innovative problem-solving and enhanced performance. It’s a widely reported conclusion reached by multiple researchers, and it’s one of the main reasons many organizations are prioritizing workforce diversity. 

Public perceptions of your organization may also be bolstered – and not only among members of minority groups. Researchers found that the public sees diversity in an organization as a reflection of its moral standing. 

It’s a logical conclusion that society benefits too. Rising above a past where certain groups were more explicitly disadvantaged allows a wider cross-section of society to enjoy successful careers. This, in turn, benefits succeeding generations who have access to better opportunities thanks to improved socioeconomic circumstances.

Finally, there are incentives. The US government requires the organizations it does business with to have, implement, and report on affirmative action policies. These may consist of grants, scholarships and outreach programs targeting groups including women and people of color. 

What are the challenges of affirmative action in hiring?

Affirmative action should not disadvantage anyone, and this can present a challenge when recruiters are eager to achieve workplace diversity goals. Eliminating reverse discrimination in hiring can be difficult when you are hoping to find a certain type of candidate and traditional recruiting processes are followed. Failing to ensure equitable recruitment may prompt unfair hiring practices or even litigation.

Besides this, a 2023 Supreme Court decision impacts educational institutions that previously reserved places for students from underrepresented groups. Just as businesses must be equitable in hiring decisions, so must schools select students based on merit alone. Business leaders predict that the resulting reduction in graduates from designated groups will negatively impact their efforts to implement affirmative action in hiring. 

Common Misconceptions of Affirmative Action in Hiring

Affirmative action in hiring is widely misunderstood. While the intended result of affirmative action is better representation for minorities, it’s not a box-ticking exercise in which you hire people purely for the sake of minority representation. 

It’s often assumed that affirmative action policies result in discrimination against skilled candidates who match a mainstream demographic. However, affirmative action hiring practices are designed to break down barriers to inclusion rather than creating a process that favors minorities unfairly. In this sense, it aligns with the constitutional principle of equality for all, regardless of individual characteristics like race or gender. 

Many people believe that affirmative action in hiring means that people are hired according to a quota system. However, this is incorrect. The only scenario in which an organization may be called upon to meet rigid quotas for representation occurs when a court orders it to compensate for blatant discrimination in the past. 

There’s also a widespread belief that qualified candidates from minority groups are extremely scarce. It’s believed that it may be impossible to find qualified candidates from these groups, let alone ones who can win positions in an equitable hiring process. However, in most professions, this is simply not the case. 

In a similar vein, some may believe that if affirmative action policies no longer existed, minority representation, particularly in high-level positions, would also be a thing of the past. But, with the number of women and people of color earning degrees on the rise despite continued underrepresentation in fields like STEM, this again is a misconception. 

Tips for Incorporating Affirmative Action Into your Hiring Process

As we’ve seen, implementing affirmative action in hiring can be a difficult balance between achieving diversity goals and equity in the hiring process. However, with the right tools at your disposal, selecting the best candidate regardless of their personal characteristics may be easier than you expected. We suggest a two-pronged approach.

1. Attract a Diverse Talent Pool

Audit Job Descriptions and Job Ads

Recruitment processes begin with job descriptions and job ads. Your first task will be to ensure that these do not include language that implies bias that may deter applicants. MIT points out that the language of bias can be subtle. For example, “lead” has male associations while “support” has feminine overtones. On the other hand, “manage” is gender-neutral. Fortunately, there are technological solutions to help you craft gender-neutral job descriptions and job ads. 

Target your Advertising

The placement of ads is also an important strategic consideration. Apart from advertising using conventional channels, you can attract a higher proportion of candidates from minority groups by actively advertising on diversity job boards targeting these groups. Programmatic advertising manages your campaigns on your behalf, allowing you to see whether you are attracting a diverse applicant pool. 

Implement Targeted Outreach

Don’t forget to search your candidate databases and professional networks for talented individuals from minority groups. Outreach targeting designated groups is permissible – as long as you’re not closing the door to talented candidates from well-represented groups. 

2. Work to Eliminate Hiring Bias

The idea that minority candidates may be unfairly favored is one of the reasons why affirmative action is so controversial. At the same time, bias towards majority candidates is far more common. The only solution is to eliminate hiring bias altogether. 

Blind Resume Screening

Strategies to achieve this include blind resume screening. This means that any information indicating applicants’ demographics is not visible when shortlisting candidates. Instead, the focus is solely on relevant skills. While this may sound challenging, software powered by artificial intelligence ensures that the process is both unbiased and efficient. 

Skills Testing

With a list of qualified candidates to choose from, the next step could be skills testing to identify meritorious candidates who will be interviewed by the hiring panel. Ensure that skills tests focus on core requirements and that the wording of questions is unambiguous. 

Interviews

With the human element now entering the selection process, recruiters must guard against any element that may introduce unconscious bias against, or in favor of certain candidates. This can be mitigated by implementing blind interviews or by assembling a diverse interview panel to reduce the effects of unconscious bias. 

Structure interviews to ensure that all applicants have the same opportunity to demonstrate their suitability for a post. Design interview questions that target key skills and develop a rating system with clear criteria that panelists must use in evaluating candidates’ responses.

Finding the Right Tools to Help You Support Affirmative Action Hiring and Employment Equity

Without technology to give you a helping hand, job distribution that supports affirmative action goals can be extremely challenging. The same is true when you seek to eliminate any form of bias when shortlisting and interviewing candidates. 

While there are individual tools available, the ideal choice would be a suite of software tools that work together to improve efficiency while eliminating bias from the hiring process. With this in mind, Broadbean has compiled a combination of best-in-class hiring software solutions to help you achieve your affirmative action goals while upholding the principle of fairness to all candidates. Talk to us about your recruiting goals today.