The technical hiring landscape has drastically changed since the pandemic according to software company Karat’s new 2022 Tech Hiring Trends Report.

Now, one of the major hiring priority differences between top performing and lower performing engineering and talent leaders is diversity.

“Top Performing Engineering Leaders are twice as likely to emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as a priority compared to lower performers,” the report stated. In fact, only 33% of lower performing engineering leaders marked “strongly agree” to DE&I as a hiring priority, compared to top performing engineering leaders at 67%.

Mo Bhende and Jeffrey Spector founded Karat in 2014. In hopes of closing the global interview and access gaps, they created “the Interviewing Cloud,” a worldwide interview-conducting platform. 

“For the past few years, the top engineering talent was gravitating toward high-growth companies that were often fueled by cheap capital,” Karat Co-founder and President Jeffrey Spector told SDxCentral.

“Now we’re seeing the best tech talent moving to the safety of larger, more profitable companies,” he continued. “In fact, for the first time in two years, we’re seeing close rates (i.e., the percentage of candidates who accept job offers) at big, stable companies surpass close rates from hyper growth companies.”

Spector and Mo Bhende founded Karat in 2014. In hopes of closing the global interview and access gaps, they created “the Interviewing Cloud,” a worldwide interview-conducting platform. 

Outlining a few investments to improve DE&I within organizations, Spector said increasing interviewing capacity is one simple but effective approach. 

Spector quoted Cat Miller, CTO at Flatiron Health, who said “When we only have so many interviews we can give and need to hit a certain number of hires, it’s easy to fall back into screening exactly the people you know you’ve hired before.” 

But increased interviewing capacity engages candidates outside of that traditional pool, increasing “diversity across a lot of angles,” according to Miller. 

Another initiative for improvement is offering redo interviews, Spector added. “At Karat, we’ve found that offering every candidate the opportunity to redo their interview has a positive impact on both hiring yield and equity,” he said.

“Not only is it a very cost-effective way to make more hires by ensuring you never miss a great candidate who had a bad day, but it also has a tremendous social impact by helping support underrepresented talent who may be less familiar with the hiring process,” he continued. 

Spector alluded to ample amounts of research that suggests workers want to be hired by companies who value DE&I. “What this report shows us is that DE&I is not just a cultural nice-to-have. It’s a competitive advantage,” he said.

Making an inclusive hiring process is synonymous with making an effective hiring process, Spector said. “The companies that have invested in DE&I are much more likely to be top performers when it comes to hiring tech talent.”