Inclusive recruitment starts with how we design the process

Inclusive recruitment is something most organisations want to get right.

In my experience, the barrier isn’t resistance or lack of care. It’s hesitation.

In conversations with hiring managers and HR teams, I often hear the same thing: “We want to be inclusive…we’re just not sure where to start.”

There’s a fear of saying the wrong thing, getting it wrong, or opening up conversations that feel unfamiliar. So, instead of redesigning recruitment, the process stays as it is.

But when we take a closer look at most hiring processes, it becomes clear that many of them are unintentionally designed to exclude.

Not because they’re unfair on purpose, but because they’ve never really been questioned.

Recruitment often tests confidence, not capability

When you break recruitment down stage by stage – job advert, application, interview, assessment, onboarding – patterns start to appear.

➡️ Processes that reward quick thinking over considered responses.
➡️ Assessments that value confidence in the room rather than evidence of ability.
➡️ Unclear instructions that create anxiety rather than insight.

None of this tells you whether someone can actually do the job.

❌ Inclusive recruitment doesn’t mean lowering standards.

✅ It means making sure the process is measuring the right things.

Small design choices make a big difference

One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that inclusive recruitment requires huge change or expensive interventions.

In reality, the most impactful adjustments are often simple:

✅ Being clear about what an assessment is actually testing

✅ Explaining expectations, timings, and formats in advance

✅ Removing unnecessary complexity from application stages

✅ Making interview environments calmer and more predictable

✅ Sharing topic areas ahead of interviews where appropriate

These aren’t radical overhauls, they’re thoughtful design choices that create fairness. Often, it’s clarity that makes the biggest difference.

Communication is the recruitment process

Communication is one of the most overlooked parts of recruitment design.

For many candidates, long silences, vague updates or unclear next steps create unnecessary stress. A short update, even when there’s no decision yet, can completely change how respected someone feels in the process.

The same applies between offer acceptance and day one.

Clear information about:

➡️  what the first day will look like

➡️  who they’ll meet

➡️  where to go

➡️  how the space works

These details may feel small, but they shape someone’s experience from the very beginning.

Good recruitment doesn’t stop at the offer letter.

Preference or barrier?

A helpful question when thinking about inclusive recruitment is this:

Is this a preference or is it a barrier?

Everyone has ways of working they prefer, but for some people, certain adjustments aren’t optional – without them, they simply can’t demonstrate their ability fairly.

The answer isn’t building a bespoke process for every individual. It’s building flexibility and choice into the system. And it’s being honest enough to ask:

If an assessment doesn’t directly relate to the role, why are we using it?

The cost of getting it wrong

When recruitment processes test the wrong things, the consequences show up later.

Candidates may feel they’ve failed, when in reality the process failed them.

Organisations may hire someone without ever having the right conversation about support or expectations. Managers then spend months managing issues that could have been prevented with better design.

No one hires with the intention of setting someone up to struggle, but poorly designed recruitment can do exactly that.

Inclusive recruitment is about better questions

Inclusive recruitment isn’t about tearing everything down and starting again.

It’s about asking better questions:

➡️ What are we really assessing here?

➡️ Where might ambiguity be creating unnecessary anxiety?

➡️ Does our process reflect how the role actually works day to day?

➡️ Are our recruitment partners aligned with our values?

The changes needed are often smaller than organisations expect, but the impact is significant.

When people feel clear, supported and understood, performance follows.

❌ Inclusive recruitment isn’t a separate initiative.
✅ It’s simply good recruitment, designed with people in mind.

➡️ ➡️ And if you’re not sure whether your current process is measuring the right things, that’s exactly the kind of work I look at through The Recruitment Review ⬅️⬅️

Sometimes all it takes is stepping back and asking the right questions.