Dive Brief:

• HackerRank, a tech hiring platform, has launched a diversity and inclusion center aimed at reducing hiring bias and helping employers build diverse and inclusive technical teams.
• The tool, according to HackerRank, enables hiring managers to account for unconscious bias by hiding applicants' names and identities in the screening process. It also offers the results from skills assessments as the first consideration for hirers. Recruiters also can adjust the time allotted for skills assessments to accommodate individuals with special needs, such as applicants with disabilities, HackerRank said. 
• The company said it saw a need in the engineering and computer science fields, which struggle with underrepresentation of several groups. "HackerRank's mission is to match every developer to the right job based on skill, not pedigree. These features empower businesses to hire on skills, and skills alone," HackerRank's VP of People, Maria Chung, said in a media release. "Making the technical workforce more diverse and inclusive is hard and ongoing work, but we are excited to be launching these features to address a crucial need in the industry."

Dive Insight:

Employers may need to consider whether any underrepresented groups are being overlooked in their organizational diversity and inclusion plans. Individuals with disabilities, for example, are not always given the same consideration in D&I initiatives as others in marginalized groups, according to a report released in June from the National Organization on Disability. The organization's 2019 Disability Employment Tracker found that despite the acute talent shortage employers face, recruiters and hiring managers still aren't sourcing talent among the 20 million people with disabilities seeking work.

The same goes for older workers. Age discrimination remains employment's "open secret," according to some experts. And older workers often are an afterthought in D&I planning, they say.

Tech companies aren't the only enterprises that struggle to attract and keep women, people of color, individuals with disabilities and other underrepresented groups. But that doesn't mean employers can become complacent; companies that fail to make inclusion and equity a priority will struggle to attract and retain talent, according to a report from Globalization Partners. The report, released earlier this year, found that companies were most successful when they, among other things, followed communications practices that made a wide variety of workers feel heard, included and valued.