DIVERSITY, Inclusion & Equal Opportunities
Beyond Search is an equal opportunities employer and applies the same code of ethics and diversity policies to our practices of working with our client organisations to hire an individual for a specific role.
Diversity is at the core of our service as an Executive Search consultancy. As a global search business we know the importance of delivering talent from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible, not just for altruistic but for solid business reasons.
ALL OF OUR WORK IS APPROVED BY a DiVERSITY AND INCLUSION CONSULTANCY - our partner, Enabling Abilities
We have a market leading reputation for delivering diversity. Our success here has been achieved due to our innovation and our unwillingness to accept the previously poor returns being received from the traditional diversity press. We have developed new networking groups, more robust search methodologies and innovative advertising to ensure that we were reaching traditionally under-represented groups.
Our approach
We ensure that all our consultants are trained in equality and diversity issues (including specialist disability training) in order to have the skills necessary to produce practical solutions to diversity challenges. We also work with a leading disability and diversity consultancy to ensure this.
We have an organisation-wide steering group on diversity and frequently organise conferences and seminars to help give practical advice to under-represented groups on achieving executive and non-executive director roles.
We then pursue a number of approaches, both on an ongoing and assignment specific basis, in order to position us to best deliver a truly diverse shortlist for our clients.
When deciding how to obtain a diverse range of candidates for a particular post we first need to judge the likely diversity make up of the candidate target market.
Often a target market for a senior role poses significant initial challenges on the diversity front. Frequently the desired candidate is perceived as already operating at a senior level, often in a complex environment, and the different strands of diversity are generally under-represented at senior management level. Consequently pro-active steps are needed in order to ensure a significantly diverse shortlist is delivered. This predominantly includes the use of effective targeted executive search.
Diverse search
On a vacancy-specific level we will regularly push our contacts and referrals to think of individuals from under-represented groups as part of our search strategy. We have found even this simple step helps boost the diverse response for a search.
More fundamentally, we also look at under-represented communities at a macro, national level to determine which senior individuals would be appropriate for future assignments. We maintain a carefully sourced active database of senior executives and non-executives from different under-presented groups consisting of hundreds of individuals. Included in this list are substantial numbers of people from a female, disabled or BME background already operating at senior management level.
Following a further refinement of the characteristics required for specific vacancies, we approach individuals from this database, encouraging them to apply or seeking referrals as appropriate.
Through a process of recommendation and referrals as well as publicising examples of valued advisory contributions to our clients from minority candidates, we are able to extract the strongest response from a diverse field of headhunted candidates.
Our results
We believe that our capacity to recruit credible diverse candidates at senior levels is second to none, and that we can be judged by our results to date.
As well as improving diversity across the board, Beyond Search have also been entrusted to recruit a number of senior diversity-specialist roles, further expanding our networks and understanding in this sector.
Legal requirements
As a basic foundation of our diversity approach we uphold and comply with all legislation that governs our business operations. We believe having strict policies and procedures in place with regards to employment and anti-discrimination allows us to:
Make full use of the expertise of our workforce
Provide the same level of opportunity for everyone
Improve our management and personnel management practice
Strengthen our reputation as a good employer and service provider
Attract and retain new recruits and candidates
Show our clients that we promote equal opportunity and fair employment
Ensure that our employment practices do not infringe the law
Demonstrate our commitment to be an equal opportunities employer
To comply with these policies and government legislation, careful consideration is given to the media chosen for our campaigns in order that knowledge of such opportunities is not restricted unjustifiably to certain individuals or groups.
Advertisements are carefully worded to ensure that no inference may be drawn of an intention to advantage or disadvantage a certain individual or group in respect of the published opportunity in a manner that would be contrary to this policy statement.
Recruitment procedures are designed to reach eligible applicants from all sections of the community, encourage applications from suitable individuals, and ensure that the selection process is based on the skills, ability and experience of the applicant to perform the job advertised. This is measured against predetermined objective criteria and competencies that are made available to all applicants.