Inclusive Hiring: A Smarter Way to Solve Talent Shortages

Employers across industries are facing persistent talent shortages and shrinking labor pools. While there’s no single solution to this challenge, one of the most effective (and often most overlooked) strategies is simply to open up the talent pipeline. This approach is commonly known as inclusive hiring.

Inclusive hiring helps employers reach more people, fill roles faster and build workforces that are better equipped for today’s changing demands.

What Is Inclusive Hiring?

Inclusive hiring is one component of DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging). While these concepts often go hand in hand, inclusion itself is not about demographics or compliance.

Instead, inclusive hiring focuses on embedding fairness and equity throughout the hiring life cycle, from job design and sourcing to candidate evaluation and onboarding. It’s an intentional process that removes unnecessary barriers and gives more people a genuine opportunity to compete based on skills, potential and experience. When done well, inclusion naturally supports workforce diversity — without relying on quotas or box-checking.

There has been public debate around DEIB initiatives in recent years, but it would be a mistake to assume that inclusive hiring practices are no longer a priority. Research and employer sentiment consistently show that creating fair, accessible hiring practices remains a strategic focus for organizations navigating labor shortages, evolving workforce expectations and long-term talent sustainability.

The Benefits of Inclusive Hiring

Inclusive hiring helps organizations access undiscovered or underutilized talent. When employers shift their focus away from rigid credentials and toward skills, potential and lived experience, they open the door to candidates who may have been overlooked by traditional hiring models, such as career switchers, early career workers and individuals returning to the workforce.

Inclusivity isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s increasingly tied to workforce resilience and performance. While inclusion can be difficult to measure directly, numerous studies point to clear business benefits. For example, a Gartner report found that inclusive teams can perform up to 30% better than noninclusive teams, reinforcing the idea that fairness and performance are not competing priorities.

Inclusive hiring can also strengthen an organization’s employer value proposition. Candidates increasingly want to work for employers that demonstrate fairness, transparency and opportunity. Investors and stakeholders are paying attention too.

Identifying (and Remedying) Hiring Bias

Most employers don’t set out to exclude talent. Yet bias, often unintentional, can creep into hiring processes in subtle ways that limit access and narrow candidate pools.

Here’s how:

Job descriptions. Too often, employers default to job descriptions that overemphasize rigid credentials — such as specific degrees or years of experience — that may not be essential for success in the role. This approach can discourage capable candidates from applying. The growing “degree-optional” movement highlights how removing unnecessary requirements can expand access without compromising quality. (For a deeper look, see Is the Paper Ceiling Holding Your Organization Back?).

Unstructured interviews. In an unstructured interview, the interviewer asks open-ended questions, in no particular order. The advantage of this method is that it allows conversation to flow naturally and lets the hiring manager get a better idea of how the candidate can think on their feet. The disadvantage is that this method tends to rely heavily on intuition, and the interviewer is likely biased toward familiarity over capability.

Narrow sourcing strategies. When employers rely exclusively on traditional channels, they may miss skilled workers who are ready and able to contribute but aren’t plugged into those networks. The result? The same talent pool is unintentionally recycled over and over again.

Recognizing these friction points isn’t about assigning blame. It’s about identifying opportunities to make hiring more effective and more equitable.

Core Principles of Inclusive Hiring Practices

Inclusive hiring isn’t a one-size-fits-all practice, but organizations that do it well tend to rely on the same foundational principles.

1. Shifting from pedigree to capability. When employers focus on what candidates can do, rather than where they’ve been, they create space for transferable skills and nontraditional career paths. This approach opens doors for candidates who bring valuable experience from adjacent industries or roles.
2. Broadening talent pools. Looking beyond traditional pipelines helps employers reach underrepresented or overlooked talent. Community partnerships, workforce development programs and early career pathways can all play a role in expanding access and building long-term pipelines.
3. Standardizing interviews. Rather than relying on unstructured interviews and gut instinct, switch to structured interviews grounded in role-relevant criteria. This means asking every candidate the same core questions, evaluating responses against clearly defined skills and capabilities, and focusing on evidence — not impressions. When interviewers are trained to recognize hiring bias and apply consistent evaluation standards, employers make fairer decisions and gain a clearer view of candidate potential.

Inclusive Hiring Across the Talent Life Cycle

Inclusive hiring doesn’t end when an offer is accepted. Inclusion must extend across the entire talent life cycle, including onboarding, development and advancement. If it doesn’t, retention and engagement often suffer. Employees who don’t feel supported or valued are less likely to stay, grow or perform at their best. In fact, results of a two-year Gallup/Workhuman study found that employees who received “high-quality recognition” were 45% less likely to leave within that time period.

Inclusive practices apply at every level of the organization — including leadership. Some of the world’s most successful business leaders came from nontraditional backgrounds. Applying inclusive principles to leadership search and development can help organizations uncover potential that might otherwise be overlooked.

How ManpowerGroup Supports Inclusive Hiring

At ManpowerGroup, inclusion is rooted in a long-standing commitment to equity, respect and opportunity. Recognition for inclusive workplace practices, including a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2025 Corporate Equality Index, reflects internal accountability and reinforces our commitment to fairness and belonging.

Through workforce solutions that emphasize skills-first hiring, broader talent access and fair evaluation, Manpower helps employers rethink how they attract, assess and develop talent; without adding unnecessary complexity to the hiring process.

Moving From Intent to Action

Inclusive hiring is not a one-time initiative. It’s an ongoing process of learning, refinement and intentional choice. The good news is that meaningful progress doesn’t require sweeping change overnight. Small, deliberate shifts, from how roles are defined to how candidates are evaluated, can make a real difference over time.

Employers don’t have to navigate this journey alone. With the right partners and strategies, inclusive hiring can become a practical, effective way to expand talent pipelines and strengthen the workforce for the future.

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