Inclusive hiring in the UK is losing momentum. A 2024 survey revealed that 55% of employers no longer specify an interest in diverse candidates in their job adverts—an increase from 49% in 2023. Even more striking, 44% of employers failed to use inclusive wording in their job descriptions, compared to just 28% the year before.
Scaling back on equitable hiring practices isolates teams from the perspectives they need to thrive. Innovation slows when ideas come from a narrow group, and employees feel disengaged when they don’t see representation at every level. This isn’t just a workplace issue; it’s a systemic problem with measurable impacts. Diverse teams are more creative, more productive, and better at solving complex problems.
Without intentional, data-driven strategies, businesses may find themselves stuck in outdated hiring patterns that exclude the very candidates who could propel them forward. A shift toward equitable hiring—where recruitment processes actively remove barriers and ensure fairness—can help companies move beyond intention to real impact.
Many organisations still say they value diversity, but translating that into measurable, effective hiring strategies remains a challenge. The gap between intention and action is often where the problem lies—whether it’s due to a lack of leadership buy-in, inadequate data infrastructure, or outdated recruitment practices.
This article will explore what’s working in equitable hiring today, highlight common pitfalls that derail progress, and explain how people and culture analytics platforms, like Diversio can help organisations turn their inclusivity goals into measurable business outcomes.
What is equitable hiring—actually
Equitable hiring is a recruitment approach that actively removes systemic barriers and ensures that every candidate has a fair opportunity . While inclusive hiring focuses on opening doors to diverse talent, equitable hiring ensures the process itself is fair—so that all candidates are evaluated on their skills, not their background. It starts with recognising how traditional recruitment practices—whether intentional or not—tend to favour certain groups over others. This isn’t always obvious. Bias often shows up in small, routine decisions: how a job description is written, how candidates are evaluated, or how interviews are structured.
Take job descriptions, for example. The language used can subtly signal who belongs and who doesn’t. Words like “competitive” or “dominant” might seem neutral, but research shows they can deter women and minority candidates from applying. Similarly, unstructured interviews often reward familiarity over qualifications, giving an edge to candidates who “fit the culture,” which can be a euphemism for sameness.
Equitable hiring goes deeper than adjusting language or tweaking processes. It involves rebuilding recruitment systems to identify and remove barriers that prevent talented individuals from even getting through the door. The move from surface-level diversity efforts to data-driven inclusion is significant. Diversity quotas might improve statistics, but they don’t explain why certain candidates aren’t advancing or why turnover rates remain high. Data does. It helps organisations see patterns—like which roles consistently lack diversity or where candidates from certain backgrounds drop out of the process—and gives them the tools to address these issues in a measurable way.
Legal frameworks shaping equitable hiring
In the UK, the foundation for inclusive hiring is built on the Equality Act 2010. This legislation protects candidates from discrimination based on characteristics like race, gender, age, and disability. It sets clear rules about what’s legal in recruitment and workplace practices.
But meeting legal standards doesn’t automatically create fair or inclusive hiring practices. Many companies comply with the law while maintaining hiring practices that unintentionally exclude diverse candidates. The law prevents discrimination, but it doesn’t offer guidance on how to build systems that actively promote both equity and inclusion.
Organisations that want to move beyond just following rules, use people analytics tools to measure equity and inclusion at every stage of hiring, and take targeted actions. For them, inclusion is part of how they operate.
Barriers to implementing equitable and inclusive hiring
In recent years, DEI initiatives have faced growing scrutiny, particularly in the US. High-profile companies have scaled back their diversity programmes, and public figures have questioned the role of DEI in business. While the UK hasn’t experienced the same level of backlash, these global shifts have sparked quieter conversations in boardrooms across the country. Leaders are becoming more cautious, wondering how far they should go and whether inclusion efforts will deliver the expected results.
This hesitation reveals the deeper challenges companies face when trying to build inclusive hiring practices. Even with the best intentions, organisations often struggle to turn DEI goals into lasting change. Here’s where the most common barriers tend to emerge:
- Lack of leadership buy-in and accountability
When leadership isn’t fully invested, inclusive hiring stalls. It’s not always outright resistance—sometimes it’s subtle, like viewing DEI as a side project rather than a strategic priority. Leaders might assume it’s an HR issue, disconnected from the broader goals of the organisation. But without leadership driving the effort, inclusive hiring loses momentum before it even begins. - Limited access to data and analytics
Many organisations want to improve but don’t have the tools to see where they’re falling short. Without solid data, it’s hard to track hiring outcomes or spot patterns of bias. Poor data infrastructure means decisions are often made in the dark, and without real-time feedback, it’s impossible to adjust the process as issues arise. - Resource constraints and DEI fatigue
Budgets are tight, and DEI initiatives are often the first to be scaled back when resources are limited. There’s also a growing sense of fatigue—organisations may have rolled out diversity training or workshops in the past, only to see little change. Over time, this leads to scepticism, and companies revert to outdated methods that feel safe but don’t deliver results. - Fear of resistance or backlash
Some organisations worry about internal pushback—whether from managers who are hesitant to alter their hiring habits or employees who feel unsettled by shifts in company culture. There’s also a lingering misunderstanding of DEI’s business value, which slows adoption and keeps companies rooted in familiar routines, even when those routines no longer serve the business.
What works in equitable hiring
When building inclusive hiring processes, it’s often the small, deliberate changes that make the biggest difference—tweaks in how candidates are assessed, how feedback is collected, or how data is used to track progress. Organisations that succeed in inclusive hiring aren’t necessarily doing more; they’re doing things differently. They focus on processes that reduce bias, promote fairness, and adapt to the unique needs of their workforce. Here’s what those approaches look like in practice:
Structured hiring processes
Bias doesn’t always come from bad intentions—it often sneaks into the hiring process in ways we don’t expect. Take interviews, for example. Unstructured interviews, where hiring managers rely on gut instinct, are some of the least reliable predictors of job performance. They tend to favour candidates who feel familiar, which often means people from similar backgrounds.
Implementing blind recruitment is one way to address this. By removing identifying details like names, gender, or educational background from CVs, hiring teams can focus on skills and experience without being influenced by unconscious biases. Another effective strategy is using standardised interview techniques and scoring rubrics, which ensure that all candidates are evaluated against the same criteria.Structured processes create a level playing field for merit-based hiring. When paired with flexible recruitment strategies that bring in diverse candidates, structured interviews make it easier to spot the best person for the role—not just the most familiar one.
Broadening how we define talent
When companies struggle to diversify their workforce, the problem often isn’t a lack of talent—it’s the narrow lens through which they’re looking. Many organisations rely on standard hiring filters: degree requirements from specific universities, job boards that attract the same types of applicants, and interview processes that favour polished, confident speakers over those with practical skills. These methods feel safe because they’re familiar, but they often exclude the very candidates companies claim to be seeking.
What changes things isn’t a massive overhaul, but a shift in perspective. Skills-based hiring—prioritising what candidates can do rather than where they’ve been—opens doors to people with non-traditional backgrounds: self-taught professionals, career switchers, or those from industries that don’t fit the usual mould.
Unstructured interviews, for instance, often reward confidence and familiarity with corporate norms more than actual competence. Replacing them with practical assessments—like real-world problem-solving tasks or work samples—gives a clearer, more accurate picture of a candidate’s abilities.
Data-driven decision-making
Most organisations want to believe they’re fair in their hiring practices, but without data, it’s impossible to know for sure. This is where people analytics becomes invaluable. By tracking inclusion metrics at every stage of the hiring process—application, interview, offer, and retention—companies can identify exactly where gaps or biases are occurring.
Regular pulse checks and sentiment analysis are equally important. These tools help organisations understand how candidates and employees feel about the hiring process, providing real-time feedback that can highlight issues before they become systemic. For instance, if candidates from underrepresented backgrounds consistently drop out at the interview stage, that’s a signal something needs to change. Data doesn’t just expose problems—it points to solutions.
Leadership accountability and communication
Inclusive hiring doesn’t stick unless leadership owns it. When leaders set clear, measurable goals for inclusion and hold themselves accountable, it shows that this isn’t just an HR project—it’s a business priority. But accountability is about tying inclusion efforts to real outcomes—like performance reviews, promotions, or KPIs—so that progress isn’t optional. When leaders are measured on their inclusion and engagement impact the same way they are on revenue or growth, inclusion becomes part of how success is defined.
But numbers only tell part of the story. How leaders talk about inclusion matters just as much as the goals they set. Employees and candidates don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty. They want to hear what’s working, where things are falling short, and what’s being done to improve. When leaders are transparent—sharing both wins and challenges—it builds trust. People are more likely to engage in inclusion efforts when they see that leadership isn’t just delivering good news, but is also willing to have the tough conversations.
Inclusion thrives in environments where trust and accountability go hand in hand. .
Using technology to make hiring fairer and smarter
Most companies think they know how inclusive their hiring process is. The truth is, without the right data, they’re guessing. Bias hides in plain sight—in the language of job adverts, in how candidates are filtered, and in the questions asked during interviews.
Diversio’s People & Culture Analytics gives organisations a way to see what’s really happening. It tracks inclusion metrics at every stage of hiring, flags where diverse candidates are dropping off, and shows how a company stacks up against industry benchmarks. But knowing the numbers isn’t enough. The real question is: What are you going to do about it? The platform gives you AI-powered insights that point directly to what needs fixing based on real data.
Lumi scans job ads and picks out language that quietly tells certain candidates they don’t belong. Words that sound neutral on the surface but send the wrong message. Lumi suggests changes that make job descriptions more inviting to everyone, without watering down what the role requires.
Technology doesn’t make hiring more human. People do. But the right tools give teams the insight they need to make decisions that are fair, thoughtful, and actually work.
What doesn’t work in equitable hiring
Equitable hiring isn’t just complex—it’s uncomfortable. It forces companies to rethink who gets ahead and why. Most try to fix the problem with inclusive hiring—casting a wider net, running DEI training, tweaking job descriptions. That’s easier. It feels productive. But it doesn’t touch the real issue.Companies spend time and resources on diversity initiatives, only to find that the same problems persist: underrepresented candidates drop out of the pipeline, new hires don’t stay, and the culture doesn’t feel any more inclusive than it did before.
Hiring is a system. And most systems are built to favour the people who have always benefited from them. That’s why surface-level fixes fail. If the hiring process itself still rewards familiarity over fairness, diverse candidates don’t just drop out—they never had a real shot to begin with.
The truth is, many organisations approach inclusive hiring with good intentions but flawed strategies. Without data to track bias and accountability to fix it, equitable hiring stays a goal, not a reality.
Here’s where most organisations go wrong:
One-size-fits-all DEI initiatives
Diversity workshops. Unconscious bias training. A checklist of DEI goals that sound good on paper but don’t lead to real change. These are the hallmarks of one-size-fits-all initiatives that treat diversity as a generic problem with a standard solution.
The issue isn’t that these initiatives exist—it’s that they’re often disconnected from the unique challenges within each organisation. Generic diversity training tends to address symptoms without digging into the root causes of exclusion. It might raise awareness for a day, but it doesn’t shift behaviours or systems in a lasting way.
Then there’s the checklist mentality. Companies set inclusion targets, tick them off, and assume the work is done. But inclusion is a continuous process that requires regular evaluation and adjustment.
Inconsistent data collection and analysis
Many organisations think they’re tracking DEI progress because they conduct an annual survey or collect basic demographic data. But inconsistent data collection tells an incomplete story. It’s like checking the weather once a year and expecting to predict the seasons.
Annual surveys often gather feedback that gets filed away, with no clear action plan to follow. Leaders might see the data, acknowledge it, and move on without addressing the deeper issues. This creates a cycle where employees feel unheard, and the same problems resurface year after year.
Ignoring real-time feedback is another common pitfall. Inclusion isn’t static, and neither are the challenges that come with it. By failing to collect and analyse data continuously, organisations miss the opportunity to spot patterns, respond to emerging issues, and make timely adjustments.
Overlooking employee and candidate feedback
Hiring decisions often focus on the company’s perspective—what the organisation needs, what qualifications they’re looking for, and how candidates fit into the culture. But overlooking feedback from employees and candidates is a critical mistake. The people going through the hiring process often have the clearest view of where it falls short.
Ignoring sentiment data—how candidates and employees feel about the hiring process—means missing valuable insights into why diverse candidates aren’t applying, why they drop out of the pipeline, or why they leave shortly after being hired. Feedback loops aren’t just a nice-to-have; they’re essential for identifying blind spots and making informed decisions..
Superficial compliance over genuine inclusion
Meeting legal requirements for diversity and inclusion isn’t the same as building an inclusive culture. Superficial compliance focuses on avoiding lawsuits and checking boxes, while genuine inclusion requires a deeper commitment to transforming workplace norms.
Companies that treat DEI as a compliance task may meet the minimum standards but fail to address the structural barriers that prevent true inclusivity. This approach often leads to short-term gains—a few diverse hires or improved metrics—but it doesn’t create the conditions for long-term business success.
And when DEI efforts are shallow, people notice. Performative initiatives don’t just fall flat—they can spark resentment. Employees begin to question whether diverse hires were brought in for their skills or to fill a quota. This is how the damaging label of “DEI hires” starts to take hold, not because diverse candidates lack merit, but because the process that brought them in wasn’t transparent or sincere. In the worst cases, it can lead to a backlash against DEI efforts altogether, undermining the very goals these initiatives were supposed to achieve.
Equitable and inclusive hiring works when it’s woven into the fabric of the company’s values, decision-making processes, and leadership accountability—not when it’s treated as a box to tick on an HR form.
How Diversio supports equitable and inclusive hiring in the UK
Inclusive hiring works when it’s backed by systems that show results. Most companies don’t know where their hiring process fails because they aren’t looking in the right places. Diversio’s People & Culture Analytics Platform gives you the data and tools to find the problems, fix them, and prove it’s working.
- See bias in real time. Diversio tracks recruitment data at every stage. It tells you where candidates drop off and where bias is holding back your hiring decisions.
- Write better job ads. Lumi, Diversio’s inclusive hiring assistant, scans job descriptions for biased language and suggests edits to attract a wider range of candidates.
- Spot gaps in your process. Detailed analytics highlight the points where your hiring system fails, often in places you don’t expect.
- Listen to what people aren’t saying. Flexible survey tools capture how candidates and employees feel about your hiring process. It’s not always what’s on the feedback sheet—it’s what’s missing.
- Adjust in real time. Pulse checks give immediate feedback so you can fix issues before they become long-term problems.
- Benchmark your progress. See how your hiring process stacks up against industry peers and find out where you need to improve.
- Set goals you can hit. Use data-driven targets that make sense for your organisation and lead to measurable change.
- Turn insights into action. The Recommendation Engine™ gives specific, actionable steps to improve hiring—from refining interview questions to widening recruitment channels.
- Show the impact of inclusive hiring. Diversio connects your hiring efforts to clear outcomes like retention, engagement, and performance.
- Make inclusion and cultural change a business case. Transparent reporting ties inclusion efforts directly to growth and performance, giving leaders the numbers they need to justify continued investment.
Also see: An Overview of Diversio for Organizations in the UK & EU
Turning intent into impact: your next step in equitable hiring
Most companies don’t fail at inclusive equitable hiring because they don’t care. They fail because they rely on good intentions instead of good systems. When nothing changes, they’re left wondering why diverse candidates aren’t applying—or staying.
The organisations that succeed are the ones that treat inclusion like they treat any other part of their business: with data, accountability, and a plan. They know where bias creeps in, they track progress, and they adjust when something isn’t working.
The future of inclusive hiring in the UK isn’t about ticking boxes or chasing metrics. It’s about building hiring systems that attract, retain, and empower diverse talent—because it’s good for people, and it’s good for business. Companies that figure this out will lead, not just in DEI, but in innovation, performance, and growth.
If you’re ready to move from guesswork to data-driven decisions, book a demo with Diversio. See how real-time insights can transform your hiring process, improve retention, and prove the ROI of inclusive hiring—not with promises, but with numbers.
