Gareth Jones, CEO of diversity recruiting software Headstart, spoke at inclusive.hiring on the necessity to break the cycle of exclusion that our working world has become so ingrained into.
Gareth states that he is not a poster child for inclusion, being “a white male responsible for all the ills in the corporate world”, however the responsibility to break the cycle of exclusion inevitably relys on every individual speaking up within their organisations and making the necessary changes for their candidates, colleagues and more.
Whether you are a small business, or a larger corporate with many moving parts, you can make change. There are often dynamic parts within a larger business which Gareth feels gives them ‘permission’ to opt out on these changes, for reasons such as budget, time etc.
Diving into statistics around diversity and engagement within the workforce, there is no doubt that there are hard benefits to be had for diverse landscapes. However, this is not a new narrative, this has been quantifiable for years and the unfortunate reality is that there is nothing really changing. In Gareth’s 30 years of work, the narrative around people has not changed, and ultimately we’re still ticking away, saying the same thing, Gareth states that this is due to ‘incompetency’ within companies.
Moving onto employees, and Headstart as a company Gareth describes how our digital persona differs from our ‘offline’ persona, the one which characteristics are often ‘softer’ and paint a better, more accurate picture of an individual. At Headstart, employees go through a conformity programme which is completely transparent to all employees within the business.
This assessment intends to understand behaviours of individuals at any given time. Pressure? How do you deal with it, this conformity aims for you to understand the different characteristics of your colleagues in order to best understand and be compassionate towards each other – overall creating a better, more managed workforce. An outcome driven business
Trust first, verify later – Together, let’s change the face of the industry and start playing fair. Are you in?
CEO at Headstart, and writer and speaker the HR and Recruitment industry. Proven business leader with in-depth experience and passion for People and Technology. Gareth’s worked with global organisations, start-ups and led a variety of functions including HR, Marketing, Business Development, Product and Technology. Gareth has a keen interest in architecting and developing new technology and solutions in predicting human potential and talent analytics.