How to Build an Inclusive Workplace Through Smart Recruitment

Creating an inclusive workplace isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. It’s a business-critical priority—one that starts long before a candidate signs a contract. It starts with recruitment.

Smart recruitment isn't about filling roles quickly—it’s about attracting, engaging, and hiring talent that reflects a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. When done right, recruitment becomes one of the most powerful tools a company can use to build a genuinely inclusive culture.

So, how can businesses use recruitment to drive real change?

1. Start With Inclusive Job Adverts

Your job adverts are often the first impression a candidate has of your company. If they’re full of jargon, biased language, or unrealistic criteria, you’re already pushing away talented people before they’ve even hit ‘apply’.

Use language that speaks to a wide audience. Ditch gender-coded words like “ninja” or “dominant”. Focus on the core skills needed, not just degrees or years of experience—those requirements often exclude talented candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.

2. Rethink Where You’re Advertising

If you’re always fishing in the same pond, you’ll keep catching the same fish. Posting on the usual platforms won’t help you reach new or diverse candidates.

Broaden your advertising reach. Engage with community groups, diversity-focused job boards, and professional networks that serve underrepresented talent pools. Partner with organisations that specialise in connecting diverse candidates with employers who genuinely care about inclusion.

3. Train Hiring Managers on Unconscious Bias

You can’t build an inclusive team if the people doing the hiring have unchecked biases influencing their decisions, however unintentional those biases may be.

Equip hiring managers and interview panels with proper training. Teach them how to spot bias, ask fair and consistent questions, and make decisions based on potential, not just familiarity or cultural fit.

4. Make Interviews More Accessible

Interviews are often where great candidates are unintentionally excluded. That can be down to everything from unclear instructions to rigid formats that disadvantage neurodiverse candidates or those with disabilities.

Provide flexible interview formats. Offer additional time if needed, send questions in advance where appropriate, and make sure interviewers understand accessibility best practices.

5. Track Diversity Metrics—Then Act On Them

If you’re not measuring diversity in your recruitment pipeline, you can’t improve it. But data without action is just noise.

Track who’s applying, who’s getting through each stage, and who’s getting hired. Then use that insight to fine-tune your process. If there’s a drop-off at the interview stage for certain groups, look into why. If your job ads aren’t bringing in diverse applicants, revise them.

Why This Matters

Creating an inclusive workplace isn’t just the “right thing to do”—it leads to better business outcomes. Diverse teams are more innovative, more resilient, and more in tune with today’s global customer base. Inclusion fosters belonging, and belonging drives performance.

At Mercury Careers, we believe recruitment should be a driver of diversity, not a barrier. We work with employers who are serious about building inclusive teams—not just for optics, but because they understand the long-term value of getting it right.

We don’t just send CVs—we help build inclusive hiring strategies, create bias-aware processes, and connect businesses with talent they might otherwise overlook.

Inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design—and it starts with who you hire.