
Recruiting and training diverse talent in your organisation is to be celebrated but there is also a need to retain these colleagues and develop them within your business.
This will involve:
- Supporting them before they join your team (role models)
Essentially, having a role model means looking to someone you feel is ‘like you’. As a leader, you will need to examine your current team and ask yourself whether they feel they can be themselves, whether they feel included and as they belong. Employees who feel they have to change to suit an organisation are unlikely to stay and unlikely to attract others looking up to them.
- Supporting them while they are in your team (sponsorship and mentoring)
Leaders can facilitate sponsorship and mentoring by introducing their diverse talent to people who will be especially useful to their careers. This supports them to build networks and take advantage of opportunities that will benefit them in their career progression.
- Learning lessons when they leave (exit interviews)
Leaders must conduct honest and revealing exit interviews to ensure clarity about why colleagues are leaving. They may elicit responses such as ‘you said you wanted a diverse workforce but I felt side-lined’ and so on. Exposing issues like this will allow leaders to deal with them openly and honestly.
You can find out more about promoting and retaining a diverse workforce at www.adinamay.co.uk, who ensure fair and transparent recruitment processes across a range of organisations.