Diversity and inclusion in mechanical design teams

Diversity within workplace teams plays a significant role in driving innovation, improving problem-solving, and growing business success. As such, ensuring mechanical design teams are diverse and inclusive is essential for attracting and retaining top talent.

Strategies for attracting diverse talent

There are several methods you can use to attract diverse talent to your business to ensure diverse and inclusive mechanical design teams.

Recruitment channels

The first strategy for attracting diverse talent is to expand your recruitment channels. Recruitment channels refer to the places where you source candidates for roles, such as candidate databases, social media, or events.

One method for expanding recruitment channels to ensure diverse and inclusive mechanical design teams is by using specific job boards targeted at sourcing inclusive and diverse candidates. Some examples include Black Tech Pipeline, Women Who Code, and DiversityJobs.

Setting up an inclusive internship program is another method for ensuring inclusive mechanical design teams. Setting up diverse internships, co-op programs, or apprenticeships that specifically target under-represented groups is a great way to showcase that your organisation is diverse.

One more method for expanding recruitment channels to ensure diverse and inclusive mechanical design teams is by parenting diverse organisations. Professional organisations, academic institutions, and groups are all diverse organisations to consider partnering with.

Make sure that these professional organisations focus on underrepresented communities within engineering and technology fields to gain the most benefit. Examples of groups include the Association for BME Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers.

Inclusive job descriptions

Another strategy for attracting diverse talent is creating inclusive job descriptions. One way to create inclusive job descriptions is through language choice. Removing gendered language, jargon, or exclusive terms will increase the appeal of job vacancies to inclusive candidates.

It’s also crucial that you only focus on the core competencies required for the role within the job description. Avoid listing an extensive range of requirements that is likely to prevent some engineer applicants from applying, especially if they lack the necessary skills.

Avoid specifying specific or rigid qualifications, as this can also deter some inclusive candidates from applying. This is especially the case for women, who are less likely to apply for a job if they don’t fulfil all the required skills and qualifications listed.

It may also be ideal to state in the job description that your organisation is committed to diverse teams. Stating your commitment in job descriptions sends a clear message to candidates that you value diversity within your organisation’s culture.

Hiring processes

Certain hiring processes can also be changed to help attract diverse talent. Blind resume screening that removes any identifying information (such as names, gender, and ethnicity) helps eliminate bias during the initial screening process.

Having a structured interview in place also helps deter any bias during the recruitment process. Having a set of questions and criteria for all interviewees is another way to minimise bias, as it ensures all candidates are assessed on the same experiences and competencies.

Changing how you run skill-based assessments can also help in ensuring diverse mechanical design talent. Focusing skill-based assessments on practical skills and design challenges as opposed to credentials and experiences helps eliminate bias.

Employer brand

Your employer brand has a significant impact on whether candidates will apply for a role at your organisation. The same is true for candidates in the minority. There are a couple of ways you can ensure your employer brand focuses your commitment to inclusive teams:

  • Showcase diverse role models
  • Set inclusive workplace policies
  • Engage on social media
  • Commit to corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Creating inclusive environments

Creating inclusive environments in your organisation is another method to ensure diverse and inclusive mechanical design teams. Just like the various strategies we explored for attracting diverse talent, there are several strategies you can implement for creating inclusive workplace environments.

Company culture

The first method for creative, inclusive environments is through the company culture. To cultivate a culture of diversity and inclusivity, you need to promote a diverse culture. This includes people of different genders, races, ethnicity, religion, age, or sexuality.

Leadership

Leadership’s commitment to an inclusive workplace is also vital for creating inclusive workplace environments. This begins by setting clear inclusion goals for growing a more diverse team. This should be reflected in mission statements, policies, and company strategies.

Allocating resources needed to ensure inclusive teams is also required by leadership. Providing any relevant resources, such as training or mentorship programs, helps to support inclusivity efforts. Leading by example by addressing biases and demonstrating a fair commitment also helps.

Mitigating bias

As we mentioned, addressing bias and demonstrating a fair commitment is important for creating inclusive environments. One method for achieving this is providing implicit bias training to help individuals recognise and address unconscious biases.

Fostering equitable decision-making that implements inclusive processes also helps in creating inclusive environments. This includes practices such as bling hiring or standardising the evaluation process to reduce the impact of bias.

Inclusive leadership training also helps in mitigating bias. Training leadership to better manage diverse and inclusive teams helps to create an environment where all voices are heard and valued.

Other methods for creating inclusive environments

Alongside the methods outlined above, here are some additional methods for creating inclusive environments:

  • Ensure accessibility for people with impairments or disabilities
  • Create diverse teams by growing team dynamics
  • Set inclusive policies
  • Provide inclusive education and training
  • Encourage employee/participant resource groups
  • Measure and monitor progress to determine inclusion efforts
  • Encourage and promote advocacy

By building diverse and inclusive mechanical design teams, your organisation can benefit in many ways. From better business growth, access to more diverse talent, greater innovation and creativity, encouraging diverse teams is essential.