Diversity drives innovation in science and engineering teams. Members with different strengths, skills, experiences, ideas, and perspectives collaborate to develop and implement creative solutions to company issues.
What Diversity Is
Inherent diversity involves traits a person is born with, such as race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. In contrast, acquired diversity involves traits gained through learning and experience, such as cultural background, fields of study, and work experience.
Individual skills and strengths can change as they acquire new knowledge and experiences. For instance, studying new disciplines and traveling can help someone better understand other cultures and shift their viewpoints.
How Diversity Drives Innovation
Diversity taps into the talent and potential of scientists and engineers with different backgrounds to strengthen problem-solving. Creatively overcoming obstacles drives innovation, profitability, and long-term value.
Developing new ideas, insights, and approaches enhances decision-making. Scientific and engineering teams can consider others’ perspectives and collaboratively reach conclusions. The results increase organizational value and support business growth.
Tips to Hire for Diversity
Talk with your science and engineering hiring teams to determine your diversity goals and measurements of success. For instance, if you want to hire more women and people of color, determine how many are employed and how much you want to increase the numbers. Then, use these guidelines for hiring:
Craft inclusive job descriptions
Use gender-neutral language in your job descriptions. For instance, avoid using masculine-coded words such as “warrior” or “driven” to encourage women to apply.
Provide bias awareness training
Educate your hiring team on implicit bias to minimize its impact on recruitment. Combine regular training with removing personally identifiable information from resumes to strengthen hiring based on qualifications and cultural fit.
Demonstrate hiring team diversity
Include diverse employees throughout each step of your hiring process. Candidates likely will believe the rest of your organization is diverse and they will fit in.
Standardize the interview process
Structured interviews create benchmarks for fair candidate evaluations. Use standardized questions to judge candidates based on their answers and minimize subjectivity.
Get Help Hiring Diverse Science and Engineering Professionals
Element Staffing can help add diverse members to your science and engineering teams to help drive innovation. Find out more today.
