When something works for us, our first instinct is to replicate it. It is so much easier and safer to follow proven practices that have worked for your company before- especially when it comes to hiring. We all have those great employees that are walking testimonials to our hiring process- so why would we even think about changing it? Often, we can make a list of a few characteristics and qualifications that we regularly look for in potential hires, based on our past experience of employee performance and longevity in the organization. Hiring managers have preferences for certain colleges, specific certifications - sometimes even a particular gender. But, aren’t we ignoring the vast benefits that come from increased diversity in the workplace?

Having a diverse group of people to work with helps outward-facing teams like sales and marketing understand and connect with different sets of customers. By templating the hiring process and "ideal hire", we could be unintentionally creating one-dimensional teams by ignoring those candidates who think and act differently. This means we are running the risk of creating blind spots in our strategy by engaging only those people who think alike. In short, a repetitive process will lead to the ordinary results- when we should be aiming for the extraordinary.

At Dale Carnegie Training India, we have had the opportunity to work with several companies who have faced challenges when it comes to tackling complex leadership issues, precisely because they lack visibility on the certain core areas. With ever-advancing technology and market shifts, it is the intelligent organizations that stock their teams with people from diverse backgrounds, with varied life experiences. A hiring policy that is age, gender, religion and race neutral is a great thing for your company to showcase and it will help if you have the stats to back it up.

A regular review of the internal team structure, when mapped to market trends and the industry will indicate whether you are up to date or not - do you have enough women in your top management?, are you hiring people with disabilities? Or when was the last time you had a team with more than 3 generations in it? Once you have got visibility on your challenge areas, being proactive about changing the employee composition does not have to be drastic or complicated.

It could be as simple as widening recruitment channels, considering candidates without formal degrees (but valuable experience) or hiring from an unrelated industry.

Deliberately introducing some unconventional entries into the candidate pool should lead to more diversity and you could make several valuable discoveries along the way about what works. Building relationships with different universities or even cultural institutions helps put a new group of potential employees in touch with your organization and promotes your employer brand as well. Some companies go even further by setting diversity goals for themselves, so they can measure their progress in this regard.

If you take the goal of being a stand-out employer brand seriously (and you should), make sure you communicate your new forward-thinking approach to the rest of the company. Promote your diversity agenda and transparent hiring process on the company website and in your recruitment materials- it will help attract those atypical candidates who were considering not applying. Consider roping in other functions to help with your new diversity mission so they can get on board with the idea- explain how a more varied group would impact the bottom line. Finally, you can even initiate company-wide diversity training to help existing employees to understand the larger goal and to enable new hires to fit in easily.

We are living through one of the most unique times in corporate history, where up to 5 generations can simultaneously work together at the same company. With globally mobile talent and increased participation from different sections of society, this is a golden opportunity that companies can capitalize on to build one of the most dynamic and future-ready teams. Employees from varied backgrounds bring different thought processes and ideas to the table. In an increasingly complex and volatile economy, it makes sense to think about how we can take a more personalized, flexible approach to hiring.