How Remote Working Promotes Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Remote work helps breaks down location barriers. Location bias is often dismissed, yet it’s an important element in hiring diverse candidates. There are often many talented prospective hires who aren’t willing to uproot their life and move to another city. Without the restriction of location, organizations have the liberty to recruit diverse talent from anywhere around the globe. Similarly, employees can choose where they want to operate, based on factors such as location preferences, cost of living and proximity to family and friends. From a recruiter’s point of view, they can cast a wider net and reach more diverse candidates with exceptional talent and experience.

Remote work helps close the gender gap. Remote operations offer better opportunities and greater flexibility for women. This is one of the major benefits of remote working. The ability to work from home can help close the gender gap, especially in conventionally male-dominated industries. This type of flexible, remote work can be especially attractive to single, working mothers, enabling more women to pursue professional careers.

Remote work makes it easy for workers with special needs. Millions of people live with special needs, which not only impacts their everyday activities, but also job opportunities. It is common that people with disabilities often have to pass on an opportunity for which they’re qualified because of challenges related to commuting, accessibility within the workplace and more. By working remotely, it allows these employees to work in an atmosphere that’s more customized to their needs.

Remote work helps eliminate visual bias in the workplace. Failure to integrate with the rest of the employees can lead to both conscious and unconscious visual biases for some employees. Visual bias leads to assumptions about a person based on their appearances, such as skin color, hairstyle, fashion, tattoos, etc. Such visual bias may make it challenging for some people to not only find appropriate jobs, but also advance in their career. Remote work helps eliminate the visual element from work. This becomes even more beneficial if it relates to race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation — in a remote working environment, these visual biases are less apparent.

Broaden your job search parameters. As you start your hunt for qualified, talented, diverse candidates, open your search parameters to include remote Look for candidates from across the globe who are open to remote work opportunities.

Write inclusive job descriptions for remote workers. If candidates see that your company is based in a particular city, they will be much less inclined to apply if it’s out of their geographical range. In your job description, make it clear that your company is open to hiring remote workers and how you promote diversity and inclusion within the workplace.

Create policies and procedures to support remote work. Organizations should re-examine their processes and policies if they truly want to support diversity and inclusion and make remote work a success. To make remote hiring and onboarding smooth and hassle-free for the remote employees, it’s imperative to update current company policies and procedures to accommodate remote interviews, onboarding, performance management, etc.

Promote a culture of transparent communication. Creating a culture that makes remote workers feel heard and part of a larger team will allow organizations to leverage their remote talent to the best of their ability and have higher chances at retaining these employees.