Why Inclusive Hiring Isn’t Optional: Lessons from Oli Monks at Made Tech

“If you’re short-cutting processes, you might not feel it immediately—but six months down the line, you’ll be asking why your team isn’t performing.”

Hiring inclusively isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s good business. On the Move Talent Podcast, we spoke with Oli Monks, who leads Talent Acquisition and Mobility at Made Tech, a UK-based public sector consultancy. Oli shared practical strategies on building inclusive hiring processes, supporting neurodivergent candidates, and scaling hiring in a way that improves outcomes for everyone.

Here’s what we learned.

1. Hiring Manager Enablement Needs a Rethink

“One of the biggest risks right now is losing objectivity in the hiring process, especially when everyone’s being asked to do more with less.”

Oli stressed that hiring managers often operate under intense time pressure, especially in consultancy environments where speed-to-utilisation matters. The danger? Relying on gut feel or shortcuts like hiring based on name recognition or employer brand.

Made Tech’s approach:

• Equip hiring managers with objective, defensible criteria.
  
  
• Bake structure into every stage: question banks, clear evaluation rubrics, and consistent scorecards.
  
  
• Use the ATS not just as a scheduling tool, but as a system of record for decision-making logic.
  
  

“You’re gambling when you choose a candidate based on the name on their CV instead of what you’ve actually assessed.”

2. Inclusive Hiring Is a Long Game (but Worth It)

“You might think, job done, I made the hire. But if the process wasn’t inclusive, you’ll feel the impact in six or twelve months.”

When inclusivity is compromised, it shows up downstream in attrition, performance issues, and disengagement. Oli recommends thinking beyond the immediate hire:

• Track and correlate quality-of-hire metrics with hiring process rigor.
  
  
• Watch for patterns in attrition, onboarding satisfaction, and team engagement.
  
  
• Use that data to advocate for long-term investment in fairer hiring.
  
  

3. Multidisciplinary Interview Panels Work! Here’s Why

“We introduced multidisciplinary panels across all roles. It helps us move faster, reduce interview fatigue, and bring in more diverse thinking.”

Made Tech now includes someone from another function in every final-stage interview. This creates multiple benefits:

• Faster scheduling: A broader pool of trained interviewers speeds up hiring.
  
  
• Better decisions: Cross-functional perspectives highlight behavioral strengths others might miss.
  
  
• Team integration: Interviewers learn more about roles they’ll collaborate with post-hire.
  
  

Bonus effect? Interviewers gain a better understanding of adjacent roles, strengthening internal collaboration.

4. Supporting Neurodivergent Candidates Starts Before the Interview

“Don’t put the burden on neurodivergent candidates to know what they need. Show them what support looks like in practice.”

Oli made it clear: you can’t talk about inclusive hiring without addressing neurodiversity. His top takeaways:

• Create a living document outlining what “reasonable adjustments” look like at your org.
  
  
• Offer real examples, case studies from your own team so candidates can self-identify support needs.
  
  
• Send questions in advance by default. “We’re not trying to catch people out in interviews—why act like we are?”
  
  

“If you offer to ‘support if needed,’ but don’t explain what that means, you’re not really being inclusive.”

Also: include neurodivergent team members in your process design and candidate experience materials. Let them advocate and help shape future practices.

5. The TA Market Is Shifting! AI Is accelerating It

“If you don’t have a position on AI use in hiring, get one. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s better than silence.”

Oli sees the next 12–24 months as a moment of reckoning. With AI increasingly embedded in candidate workflows and internal processes, talent teams must:

• Define what “AI literacy” means for their org and roles.
  
  
• Determine where AI usage is encouraged, discouraged, or irrelevant in the hiring process.
  
  
• Upskill internally to focus on what humans do best; interviewing, influencing, and decision-making.
  
  

“If your edge was process or scheduling, that’s going away. What’s left is how good your interviews are. That’s where humans need to shine.”

6. What TA Teams Actually Need Right Now

Oli closed with a few asks for the market:

• Elastic capacity: Talent teams need short, sharp bursts of help, not always long-term headcount.
  
  
• Advisory support: Most teams are too busy firefighting to zoom out. Help with process audits, tooling reviews, or candidate experience design is welcome.
  
  
• Market intelligence: Bring insights from across clients, sectors, and tools. Make it digestible and actionable.
  
  

Final Word

Oli’s advice is rooted in experience, not theory. His message is clear: inclusive, structured hiring is how we build better teams and better businesses. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it.

“Do not let your nervousness about getting it wrong stop you from creating a great experience for neurodivergent candidates.”

🎧 Listen to the full episode: Open Source Hiring Podcast – Oli Monks
📨 Connect with Oli on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oli-monks

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