The value of diverse workforces are widely accepted, so it’s no surprise that organizations are striving to achieve greater diversity at all levels.  Their success has been somewhat mooted, however, new research from Columbia Business School highlights how difficult it can be to even get diverse applicants to apply in the first place.

The research provides a clear link between the gender of leaders in a business and the values of the organization, and the gender split of applicants to vacancies at the business.  For instance, female applicants tend to apply for jobs where the employer is visibly unbiased and equitable.

The study builds upon previous work that explored how men and women choose jobs, which has found that self-segregation is common, even within the same industry and in identical job roles.

Diverse applicants

The researchers created multiple versions of a job advert for market analyst positions, with the only difference being information about the hiring company, including the gender of the leaders and company culture.

It emerged that these changes significantly impacted the kind of people that applied.  When the hiring company was portrayed as being led by a man, 36% of men would apply versus just 24% of women.  By contrast, when the company was led by a woman and made claims about the importance of diversity, 33% of women applied for those roles.

The researchers suggest that job applicants are relying on observable characteristics to understand what an organization is truly like.  The composition of the leadership team and public statements are obvious examples we can lean upon when assessing a business.

They believe that if organizations are struggling to attract diverse candidates, they could do worse than actually putting more diverse individuals into leadership roles, while also publicly highlighting the importance of diversity to the organization.  Groups that have been historically marginalized are likely to be particularly sensitive to issues such as bias and equity and will make career decisions based upon how seriously an organization takes them.