“Sometimes the greatest gift you can give another person is to simply include them.” – Unknown***
People are the greatest barrier to hiring a more diverse workforce.
They effect the process of diversifying the workforce in a variety of ways that can be deadly to the typical diversity recruitment plans and goals. Consider the following statements:
It’s not that “they don’t apply,” “they don’t want to live in this region of the country” or “there aren’t many diverse candidates in this field.” These are typical explanations that I have heard people refer to when discussing the need to improve diversity in hiring. Whether they are attempting to justify the lack of racial, ethnic, religious and other types of diversity in their recruitment pipelines or they are sincerely asking for guidance in changing their recruitment methods, the statements are basically the same. The statements are reflective of most people’s beliefs. Those who have no interest in such hiring usually have other responses, such as “We need to hire the most qualified candidates… or something similar to dispel the necessity for what they believe is a form of reverse discrimination. What am I basing this on? Experience. I have had the conversations multiple times and these are the camps in which people dwell when the conversation take place.
Definition of Diversity
Every organization should determine their specific definition of “diversity” to use within their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Definitions help put everyone on the same page of understanding and helps to debunk the erroneous thoughts people have about what DE&I is about and what diversity means. The common mistake is to belief it is only focused on race and gender. In general, however, the term diversity in the DE&I arena refers to the practice of respecting and including the differences that exist among a collective group of people, such as a company, a work group, a community etc. These differences, also referred to as dimensions of diversity, include age, culture, ethnicity, gender, physical/cognitive ability, race, religion, sexual orientation and social/economic status.
Describing the Diversity Initiative
A “diversity initiative” is an organization’s strategic approach to the diversity that exists within their environment and the community in which they reside and serve. The initiative looks at the internal and external needs of the organization in the area of diversity and responds with a strategically aligned approach to problem solving, customer service, employee experience, supplier diversity, recruitment and retention, employee development, community engagement and more.
It is not enough to define diversity or identify parts and pieces to concentrate on for a diversity initiative. An organization should analyze and strategically define goals and objectives to advance the state of the organization and communicate those goals and expectations to its internal and external community. Part of the strategy is to aide all individuals in seeing how they fit in the new paradigm and how they can actively participate in the process of inclusion. One such way is to help others understand the importance of leveraging diversity and being inclusive.
Leveraging Diversity and Understanding Inclusion
Instead of everyone attempting to act the same, look the same and think the same, differences are recognized and accepted. The differences are not ignored, instead they are leveraged. This allows and encourages the sharing of new and different ideas as it leads to innovation and creativity. Innovation and creativity results in a new synthesis that emerges from the varying viewpoints, giving an organization a competitive edge and more attractive positioning in a diverse and competitive world.
The goal and meaning of inclusion is to make every person feel a part of; to feel welcome to engage, to participate, to contribute and to succeed. Everyone is fully and respectfully involved in the work activities and “life” of the organization.
One of the key components necessary for targeted work in the average DE&I initiative is recruitment. We cannot leverage diversity or benefit from the synergy of inclusion when there is little or no diversity among the organization’s population.
When developing a Diversity Recruitment Plan be aware of the barriers to a successful process on the front end and build in defenses to guard against disruption to your plan. Here are some of the common problems, perpetuated by people that should be eliminated so you can move forward.
1. Speed
When people have hiring needs they tend to want to fill the position yesterday. It’s a hurry, hurry, hire fast and hurry process and taking the time to seek out a diverse candidate base doesn’t go over well if it will prolong the hiring process. Most hiring managers will forego the goal of diverse hiring in exchange for getting the job filled and maintaining productivity and workflow.
2. Lack of Diversity or Inclusion in Your Workplace
A lack of diversity and inclusion will tend to breed a greater lack of diversity and inclusion in the average workplace. A diverse team of leaders, for example is likely to hire a diverse team of employees because they will hire individuals who are as diverse as they are in many ways. Homogenous environments breed more homogenous environments… unless there is an intentional effort to change that. The best way to start this change is to model diverse hiring from the top and encourage and train all hiring managers to do the same. Setting hiring quotas is not an appropriate route but setting an expectation to attract, review and hire diversity of varying dimensions i.e. racial, ethnic, abilities, age, sexual orientation etc. will help move the bar. Be sure to incorporate accountability across the organization to avoid intentional talk that results in little or no action.
3. Poor Customer Service History
Making sure our past experiences with customers reflects positive experiences within the community is very important. Maintain this awareness and maintain positive relations across the board. This requires effort and intentional community relations and marketing. There is nothing worse than attempting to hire individuals from various communities to increase racial, ethnic and other dimensions of diversity only to discover our reputation in one or more of those communities has been damaged by a series of adverse events.
4. Familiarity
People have a tendency to hire people who are like themselves. When I worked as a recruiter, that was one of the basic lessons received during interviewing training and that I found to be quite accurate. I made it a point to emphasize this point when I conducted interview training myself because it cannot be stressed enough. These leanings can affect the selection process and one has to make a concerted effort to think differently and think fairly when screening and interviewing individuals. I remember the first time I recognized how easily we can lean in the direction of people who are like ourselves. I interviewed a young woman, who I learned as I interviewed her, attended the same high school I had attended, had some of the same teachers I’d had, she had also attended the same university and majored in Journalism; just like me! We had a great deal in common and hit it off famously.
Needless to say, I thought she was a great candidate! Was she really a great candidate or was she more like an old friend because we had so much in common? The same holds true for those we truly have relationships with and who we consider for open positions in our organizations, whether we know them or their parents or their aunt or uncle. There is something to be said for the referral but we sometimes hire someone simply because of the relationship, not the qualifications.
Then there is yet another familiar preference which is the preferred source of candidates; a particular school, training program or agency perhaps that we have utilized for years to access qualified candidates. We build relationships and allegiances with these organizations to the exclusion of others and they may be lending themselves to supporting and maintaining the homogenous workforce we are working to diversify.
There are pluses and minuses to doing business as described in each of these methods that we are most at ease with but proceed with caution when trying to build a more diverse work environment. Moving outside the norm and beyond our comfort zones to bring in the diversity and inclusion we are committing to develop, is essential to the realization of these goals.
5. Safe Decision Making
Safe decision-making can encompass several poor tendencies.
Group Interviews
One of these is group interviews and decision making. I have often been a supporter of group interviews when teams are hiring supervisors or new team members, however, I cannot deny the outcome is usually a group decision to hire someone who mirrors the current group as opposed to one who will complement the team and add an element of variation as well as improvement to the incumbent crew.
One group, who said they wanted to hire a more diverse team, chose not to hire an individual because she was too quiet. Though the individual was appropriately loud and strong enough when she spoke during the interview and her answers were quite impressive, they believed her quiet persona would not serve her well as a receptionist. They were more comfortable with a loud, boisterous person greeting their customers?! That makes no sense. This team of individuals was a group of about 14 people. Of these fourteen people, 13 were white, all 14 were female, none with disabilities and all were in their early to mid 30’s. The candidate was a bilingual, Latina in her mid to late 20’s with a solid resumé.
Bias and Assumptions
Watch out for the tendency to jump to unfounded conclusions about a candidate because of an isolated comment, notation or personal idiosyncrasy. Making decisions on interview candidates is a process and an art that should be guided by someone who is trained in that art and that process. Even with that person in place however, people making decisions to hire new people should be very aware of their own biases and how these biases can seep into their decision making through assumptions about the candidate’s skills and abilities. The reason you are interviewing candidates is to determine how well they can perform the duties of the open position, the skills and experience they would bring to the position for the advancement of the team and to assess how well they fit… with the vision and values of the organization, not necessarily with the current team. Sometimes the current team is not the best team and you need to make a concerted effort to change the nature and culture of that team. It starts by bringing in different people and different personalities. The only way to transform your culture is to start hiring the differences you want to see.
I remember a conversation I once had with someone who shared her experience in an interviewing process. She innocently shared with me how one particular candidate repeatedly used a term incorrectly when expounding on some of the interview questions. The term was not a technical term and really had little to do with anything, but this hiring manager hated the fact that the candidate used the term several times in the same incorrect way during her interview. The term was a fairly obscure term that can easily be misused for another very common term. Most people would not be able to gauge whether the term was used correctly or not. What bothered me more than anything was that this was cited as the primary reason why the hiring manager did not hire the individual for this rather high impact position. From what I could determine, the individual was more than qualified for the position and might have truly performed at a level of excellence that was needed for their opening. They offered the position to someone they knew and with whom they were more comfortable, believing she would handle the position better.
Hiring Friends and Family
Many companies encourage staff to refer others, which is definitely a good idea for building a larger team. Referrals are ideally meant to be a way to get good referrals from good employees. This isn’t always the result but it is the goal. The problem with relying on this method of recruitment when you have a virtually homogenous staff is that people tend to refer people who are like themselves. They usually, look, act and are basically at a similar education level as the one referring them. If you are seriously looking to add more diversity and inclusion to your current staffing, you will probably not achieve your goal with this method of recruitment. That is not to say you should abandon the practice but maybe put less emphasis on it until you have a more diverse employee base. Referrals will then hopefully yield even greater diversity.
Closing Thoughts
One term that I did not define in the DE&I explanations is Equity. The equity in DE&I efforts is another barrier in the process of diverse recruitment, retention of those we hire and utilization and benefit of inclusion. As stated earlier, diversity refers to all the many ways that people are different, equity is an essential part of the process that focuses on creating fair access, opportunity, and advancement for everyone in that diverse workforce.
Diversity, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Diversity Recruitment are all huge realities and huge undertakings. Exciting yet challenging. Beneficial and unavoidable. It’s the work we must continue to embark upon and strategize on while eliminating the common barriers that keep rising up to maintain the status quo. Intentional and unintentional, all barriers should be sought out and eliminated lest we end up right where we started…hearing the “they don’t apply,” “they don’t want to live in this region of the country” or “there aren’t many diverse candidates in this field” excuses. When we end up there, we’ve made no progress and we’ve gotten nowhere!