Diversity, equity and inclusion

Harris Hill is strongly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, not least when searching for candidates.

Diverse candidate pools are important. Rather than tokenism we begin by understanding thoroughly what diversification you need and why.

Is it to reach new donors or communities of service users for instance? Then we will help craft the job description, person specification and advert to ensure they appeal to people with characteristics you require.

A diverse workforce with access to the widest range of talent

We invest heavily in appropriate marketing to ensure we have access to the broadest pools of talent.

Among charity recruiters, Harris Hill is the biggest advertiser with the sector's most widely-read job sites, including The Guardian, CharityJob and Third Sector, each of which make extensive efforts of their own to reach diverse audiences.

We also make extensive use of LinkedIn, quoted in a recent ADP survey as the best route to diverse talent, where we have a following of more than 28,000 that has grown organically, meaning they're people who have actively chosen to engage with the brand. We hold more LinkedIn recruiter licences than any other charity recruiter, giving us direct access to a wider range of candidates and more prominent advertising opportunities.

We're also active across other social media and encourage our own diverse workforce (currently 65% women, 31% BAME and 10% LGBTQ+) to access their own networks and engage with their often substantial number of followers.

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Candidate attraction and selection

Our consultants are trained to understand the importance of diversity and to avoid bias. They are careful in writing our job adverts to ensure the language used appeals to as wide an audience as possible (e.g. avoiding using gender coded words) and can provide appropriate recommendations to ensure compliance.

Harris Hill has a longstanding commitment to displaying the salary for all advertised roles, since a growing body of research shows that non-disclosure discourages applications and perpetuates existing pay inequalities among women and minority groups.

Furthermore, the initial assessment of a candidate’s application can be conducted blind with each candidate’s identity removed for shortlisting if requested by the client. We have an optional DEI form that candidates can fill in to monitor our reach.

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Accessibility is at the heart of our new site design

The new Harris Hill website was launched in January 2023 following a full redesign, with issues of clarity, accessibility and inclusion front of mind throughout the process.

Improvements include a simpler, more streamlined design, more intuitive structure and most significantly, giving users the tools and ability to customise their experience of the site via the award-winning Recite Me assistive toolbar.

Providing an inclusive online experience is essential to support over 20% of the population who may encounter barriers to exploring the web, due to having a disability, learning difficulty, visual impairment or if English is not their first language.

To that end, the Recite Me toolbar offers a vast array of features including screen reading functionality, multiple reading aids, customisable styling options, text-to-speech and live translation into more than 100 languages - all available throughout the site and across all platforms and devices.

In practical terms, it means that users who might otherwise self-exclude for any of the reasons above can now engage with the full range of opportunities on our site, extending access and maximising inclusion.

You can learn more about the Recite Me toolbar here.

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For more information on any of these matters, please email Faye Marshall, Deputy CEO, or get in touch on 020 7820 7303.

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