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What does it take to increase the diversity of our hires?

Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion

A diverse team of young talents having a discussion

Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion

Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion

For many organizations the hope has been pinned on diversity training that takes hiring managers out for several hours or even days to share the evidence and practices that promote inclusive hiring. And while these programs can be effective on many other fronts, their ability to change a manager’s behavior months later when they make a hiring decision is less well established.

That’s why we decided to experiment with a different way of affecting behavior change. We partnered with experimentation company More Than Now and Professor Iris Bohnet of Harvard Kennedy to find out what really works.

Our experiment involved prompting hiring managers to watch a five-minute video delivered by one of our Executive Team members just before they made important decisions about which candidates to take forward in the process. The video reminded them of the importance of building a diverse and high-performing team, rather than recruiting people who were just like them.

And the result? A 13% increase in women hires and greater diversity of nationalities at much lower cost than most diversity training programs. This demonstrates the importance of intervening in the moment and building these prompts into the system, rather than relying on busy managers to apply lessons learned long ago – no matter how good their intention.

We’re proud to be featured in the FT for this work: Rescuing diversity from the DEI backlash

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