Does your government workforce reflect the diversity—and excellence—of your community? Whilst the public sector promotes a more diverse workforce than the private sector, diversity and inclusion have been at risk since Covid-19.
A diverse team can promote higher productivity as employees with different strengths and experiences complement one another and bring different skills and experiences to the table. It can also lead to new policy ideas and solutions when workers feel comfortable bringing their unique perspectives to the team.
How to Improve Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Using Behavioural Insights
Creating a diverse public workforce can be a complex process. Posting a job opportunity and hoping that candidates from various backgrounds will apply likely won’t make a difference. Can behavioural science help?
The Behavioural Insights Team worked in collaboration with the Volcker Alliance, the US State Government partners and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to outline 11 strategies that may help advance diversity in government. Using a behavioural insights lens, the report distils a vast library of evidence into actionable insights for state government agencies to apply throughout the hiring process, from crafting the job description to deciding on the final hire.
Download the report
Creating Behavioural Insight Strategies for Workplace Inclusivity and Diversity
Working towards a diverse and inclusive workplace is important and can be made easier when using strategies that have been founded on Behavioural Insights. At BIT our strategies are organised using BIT’s EAST framework. To help increase racial diversity in the public sector, our EAST strategy recommends that you:
- Make it easy by updating processes to facilitate applicants’ and recruiters’ decision-making.
- Make it attractive by providing cues to welcome a diverse applicant pool.
- Make it social by expanding your reach via social media, messengers, and employee referrals.
- Make it timely by providing reminders and encouragement to applicants at strategic points in the process.
And these are just the broad categories. Within each section there are practical strategies that you can apply right away, including ideas to reduce bias in the interview process, to signal a genuine commitment to diversity in job postings, to provide support to jobseekers throughout the application process, and more.
Download the Report Today
At The Behavioural Insights Team, we provide Insights and Training that allow workplaces to improve their policies to be inclusive.
Download our Workforce Diversity Report for more insight into strategies you can use to improve diversity and inclusivity during the hiring process.
