Sian Govind on revolutionizing talent acquisition with DEI, maximizing the power of people data and authentically building your employer brand.

Sian Govind is the Founder of BeHeard Aotearoa, a social enterprise based in Aotearoa (New Zealand) with a mission to help organisations reap all the benefits of cognitive diversity while enabling more Kiwis to experience the rewards of a career in tech - without the barriers and obstacles so many from non-dominant groups face. Sian's career in People & Talent spans a decade, working across five continents in some of the world’s fastest-growing tech companies such as Uber, Tesla and NZ’s own Halter. Working in People & Talent she realised the significant power she had to impact candidates, employees and employers experiences and felt a responsibility to harness that privilege to support the movement towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive tech sector.

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Dinal: How does integrating DEI principles in talent acquisition drive sustained organizational success and transformation?

Sian: With any DEI work, there needs to be a deliberate effort from the organisation to see an outcome. Talent acquisition is no different, without embedding DEI principles in your talent acquisition strategy, you are not likely to see any change in the diversity of talent that your organisation attracts.

So, I really see it as key to your overall DEI strategy. That said, a common mistake I see organisations make when they are early on in their DEI journey is to address the diversity in their talent pipeline in isolation, without understanding the work involved to successfully lead a diverse workforce and cultivate a culture of inclusion and belonging. So it is really important that organisations are thinking holistically about DEI and not just representation.

Dinal: Can you share examples of organizations or processes that have successfully embedded DEI principles into their talent acquisition strategies, going beyond representation, and how they measured the impact of these initiatives?

Sian: Companies that do this well go beyond numerical targets of attracting and hiring diverse candidates. It is an easy trap to fall into, focus on what you can measure in numbers. But that approach alone very rarely equals sustainable success as it can lead to tokenism and in the end a "leaky bucket" where your diverse talent leaves as quickly as they were brought on because they are not coming into an environment that is set up for them to succeed. 

Companies that do well at integrating DEI into their talent acquisition strategy have a far more holistic approach. They look at their systems, processes, tooling, and training of their interviewers to make sure they are building an equitable and inclusive hiring process that is objective and eliminates bias.

“It is an easy trap to fall into, focus on what you can measure in numbers. But that approach alone very rarely equals sustainable success.”

They utilise their people data to understand where the biggest areas for improvement lie and they build specific strategies to address those areas. Their quantitive diversity targets go beyond the number of "diverse" hires/applications and they are analysing their recruiting funnels at each stage of the recruiting process, looking for potential bottlenecks so they can address those. Lastly, they don't stop measuring once they get that diverse talent in the door. They look at engagement, performance and retention data, both qualitative and quantitative, to understand if their efforts are leading to success for the organisation and the employee and iterating along the way.

Dinal: How does a genuine commitment to DEI in talent acquisition contribute to building a strong employer brand and positively influence stakeholders, such as employees, candidates, investors, and customers? What frameworks or metrics can assess the business impact and ROI of DEI-focused talent acquisition efforts?

Sian: The beauty of an employer brand is it is hard to fake! A true employer brand reflects employee experience and if you try to fake it, you are quickly figured out. 

A genuine commitment to DEI in TA has so many benefits. When candidates feel they have been treated fairly and had a positive experience interviewing with a company (regardless of outcome) that has a huge impact on the employer brand. Likewise, when employees see candidates being treated fairly it builds trust in the organisation's commitment to an equitable and inclusive hiring process that hires the best person for the job. 

“The beauty of an employer brand is it is hard to fake!”

Investors know that the highest-performing organisations are the ones with diverse workforces. Many VCs now are writing DEI commitments into their term sheets. So organisations that may not have put much thought into their DEI strategy previously are having to address it to be able to "keep up" & raise capital.

Lastly, diverse organisations build more equitable solutions because they bring together the experiences of people from all walks of life. The outcome for the customer is a product or service that serves everyone better. A very clear metric that can point to the business ROI of DEI focussed talent acquisition efforts is the diversity of the customer base. In large organisations, I have seen cases of geographical markets booming after the company has brought on someone of that nationality to their leadership team, or start-ups selling to their first female customer after they hire their first female sales exec. These things are never a coincidence but a result of having a diverse team driving business growth!