How Organizations Can Create More Inclusive Hiring Practices and Accessible Candidate Experiences

Inclusivity is often looked at from two lenses: accessibility and diversity. These lenses often overlap in their interests, intents, and vocabularies. Accessibility in hiring practices refers to the hiring of people with disabilities and the accommodations necessary for those individuals to succeed in the job search and hiring process. The diversity lens in hiring practices is focused on building workplaces with the widest range of knowledge and lived experiences as possible. This includes those with visible and invisible disabilities. This blog is going to focus more strongly on the accessibility lens, though you’ll find plenty of tips that apply to the diversity lens, too! 

A Brief Guide to Inclusive Hiring Practices

There are many, many angles from which to look at inclusivity and accessibility. We want to highlight that this is a brief guide because much more could be written on the topic than this blog has space for! Below are some frequently asked questions around accessibility and inclusion during the hiring process with Edgility’s suggestions on how to get started addressing them within your organization. 

How Do You Write An Accessibility Policy?

The most important step to writing an accessibility policy is knowing why you’re writing it. Many organizations, especially mission-driven and education-focused organizations, already have public facing statements about their commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as accessibility statements on their websites. An accessibility policy, however, creates formal steps for how an organization will ensure an inclusive environment that enables the success of all people. These steps could include everything from how an organization makes “reasonable accommodations” to how it makes building and construction decisions. The size and scope of an accessibility policy will vary by organization and be determined by its mission, vision, and services. Accessibility policies have so many possible facets, that knowing why you’re writing it is the best way to make it effective for your organization and your particular use cases; you can always add as new, relevant areas arise. 

Because of the enormity of this topic – and since many organizations have existing accessibility policies for their current staff – let’s dive into an area where an accessibility policy can be forgotten: during the hiring process.  

How do you create a more inclusive hiring process?

Start with the job description. 

When it comes to hiring people with disabilities, making your hiring process more inclusive starts with how you describe the job. Make the essential functions of the job clear, and work to eliminate anything that’s been carried over from a previous position or that isn’t actually essential. For instance, many job descriptions state that a person should be able to lift up to 25 pounds to complete their job duties, when in fact they will never need to do so. Think about other potential points of flexibility, such as if the role can be remote (either part of the time or all of the time), and whether or not the work must be completed during certain times of the day or if the schedule can be flexible. Once you’ve reviewed these key aspects, you’ll want to ensure that your job description and application also meets web accessibility standards. Here’s a great resource you can use from the Web Accessibility Initiative.

It’s also important to include your accessibility statement and your accommodations policy in the job description. This will make clear your commitment to providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities once employed, but also clearly express your commitment to do the same during the hiring process.  

Focus on clarity and consistency. 

Language matters. Use clear and consistent language in both job descriptions and interview questions. Beware of ableist terminology or of writing a job description that assumes a required task must be completed in one way, such as stating that something must be typed when it could in fact be completed with voice-to-text software. 

Internally, your hiring team should focus on crafting questions that clearly evaluate a certain skill, requirement, or past experience. Use these questions for all interviewees, not just those with disabilities. This will allow your team to truly evaluate a candidate’s qualifications for the role.

Put policies in place that increase objectivity.

Unconscious bias can so easily creep into the hiring process. One of the best ways to “beat” bias is through standardized operating procedures (SOPs). For hiring, make sure to implement a standardized hiring and interviewing process; an example of this would be ensuring that every candidate gets the same information at the same cadence.

Another way to increase your objectivity is through the use of a role scorecard. Scorecards allow every candidate to be measured against the same criteria. They also allow for all members of a hiring team to put down their thoughts and observations before being influenced by others in the group.

What is an inclusive interview process? 

An inclusive interview process is one that provides reasonable accommodations to interviewees, as well as one that is welcoming to the widest range of candidates possible. Here are some things to consider for both aspects. 

• Be forthright in offering accommodations. A simple “Is there anything we can do to accommodate you so that you have all the tools necessary to succeed in this interview?” is the easiest way to approach this. 

• Consider location and format. Can you do the interview remotely? If the interview is in person, is the space able to accommodate mobility aids, is it free from excess stimuli? Could questions be answered in writing or provided ahead of time? Can you add time to the interview to allow interviewees plenty of time to gather their thoughts? 

• Diversify your hiring team. Who is currently on your hiring team? Is it always the same group of people? Are they all managers? Do any of them represent your disabled employees? 
• Improve Consistency. Create a consistent interview process that works for all individuals, rather than changing things only when someone needs it, so that your candidates’ experiences are as similar as possible, allowing you to more accurately determine their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Accessibility in Practice

Using accessible hiring practices is one way you can create a more welcoming environment for more candidates. This increases your talent pool when hiring and improves the likelihood that you’ll find the best person for the role. This short list of questions is just the beginning of how your team can approach making your hiring practices more accessible. If your team is new to its accessibility journey and is interested in additional support in finding the best candidates for an open role, Edgility’s Executive Search team can help. Reach out today to see how improving your hiring practices improves your organization.