5 Quick Wins Aimed at Increasing Diversity [+ One #TeamJTC Challenge]
💥This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter + monthly LIVE workshop series sharing best practices for employers who want to implement effective diversity recruitment programs. To see previous editions, visit JenniferTardy.com. 💥
News From #TeamJTC:
👉🏾 We have a new, FREE, downloadable CHECKLIST for leaders called The Platinum Checklist for Hiring Professionals: 10 Immediate Actions Leaders Must STOP Doing in Order to Increase Diversity. Click to download your free copy.
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According to The Quick Wins Paradox article, a quick win is a new and visible contribution to the success of the business made early. When taking on an initiative, especially one as urgent as increasing diversity, quick wins can easily lower the temperature of an already hot topic as stakeholders observe the pace of the needle moving within the workplace.
Admittedly, establishing an effective diversity recruiting program takes time. For one, it is ideal that it comes in partnership with an already established DEI office with your company. If you must first establish this office, or identify the right external consultant, getting to the business of diversity recruitment may take several months. Second, identifying, disrupting, and removing the bias found in an organization’s policies, practices, and behaviors is not an overnight activity. This also takes time.
However, I talk to organizational leaders often who share that time is running out. Employees are holding leaders accountable for change. Hiring leaders need quick wins in diversity recruiting...now!
So, here are 5 quick wins that you can get done within the next 30 days that can easily help your recruiting organization make process improvement in a way that is visible, has instantaneous value, and is swift.
Quick Win #1: Create and publish a baseline of common inclusive language. Create a list of 10 terms commonly used (and misused) in diversity recruiting and share it with the anyone responsible for hiring (i.e., recruiters, hiring managers, etc.). This list signifies language that the company collectively agrees is effective and inclusive as well as clarifies any misconception around specific terms. When executing this list it is important to note two things: (#1) you should be responsible for creating and publishing the list not an ERG and (#2) be sure to add to this list monthly as you notice new words entering or exiting your organization’s baseline of common inclusive language.
Benefit: This helps hiring teams feel more qualified to lean more fully into the work of diversity recruiting. Further reading? Creating a Baseline of Effective Language to Use in Diversity Recruiting.
Quick Win #2: Create and publish unwritten rules. What are the unwritten rules that help employees get ahead (e.g., promoted) at your company? Start with three unwritten rules. An example of an unwritten rule could be that high performance is connected to the amount of funding you bring in each month regardless of the quality of work you produce. Either publish for all employees to access or eliminate the unwritten rules from the decision-making process immediately.
Benefit: Not only does this exercise help employers to identify bias in promotional decisions, but it also helps create equity in access to those same opportunities for all employees. Further reading? What are the "Unwritten Rules" to Interview Success at Your Company? Share Them.
"Either publish unwritten rules for ALL employees to access or eliminate the unwritten rules from the decision-making process immediately."
- Jenn Tardy
Quick Win #3: Train your recruiters and hiring managers. Register your recruiters and hiring managers into a course that teaches foundational elements of diversity recruiting beyond new job boards for sourcing and new Boolean string search techniques. Teach hiring teams the history of labor and discrimination, how bias shows up in recruiting, how retention impacts recruiting, how to make effective selection decisions, etc. Go deeper in the learning.
Benefit: This empowers hiring teams with the tools to effectively find, attract, engage, and hire more historically underrepresented job seekers. Check out the diversity recruiting training courses we offer at JTC.
Quick Win #4: Make a STOP list. Make a mandatory list of 3 things ALL recruiters and hiring managers must STOP doing immediately. Think of it as an executive order. An example of this could be something like this. "Starting today we will STOP making hiring decisions without meaningful feedback (i.e., relevant, on time, unbiased) from hiring teams. It is mandatory that all hiring teams must submit meaningful interview feedback before the final selection decision is made."
Benefit: When you provide meaningful feedback, it creates a space for the person providing the feedback to stop and consider how that feedback aligns with the minimum qualifications and responsibilities of the job. Further reading? Part I of II: Leaders, do you really want to increase diversity? Try a Checklist.
Quick Win #5: Develop a memorandum of understanding between Recruiting and DEI. Develop a partnership agreement between your DEI leader and Talent Acquisition Leader defining the type of partnership necessary to increase diversity. Within this agreement, identify how you will support one another, who is accountable for what activities, and how you will measure the success of the partnership.
Benefit: A written agreement encourages conversation and partnership between two departments that must work together to increase diversity. In addition, it specifies accountability in that each party knows how they will be measured on the journey to meeting this initiative. Further Reading? 3 Solutions to Help Your Recruiting Leader and DEI Leader Partner Effectively
Let’s clear up one misconception. Quick wins are not required to be binary (i.e., we are well represented, or we are not). Quick wins can be directional (i.e., our actions are moving us in the right direction). It is the difference between a mindset of, “Do we have more people with disabilities represented at managerial levels right now,” for example, and a mindset of, “Are we moving in the right direction by changing at least one practice that has been creating barriers for people with disabilities to get promoted in our workplace?”
I know that we want increased diversity to be binary, but this thinking is often what leads to tokenism and performative allyship which can ultimately create retention issues once new hires realize that the workplace was ill prepared for increased diversity. In other words, use these quick wins to help you gain momentum in the right direction to make larger systemic changes.
One more thing! At the end of our workshops and trainings, we like to invite our audiences to participate in a #TeamJTC Challenge. Here is one that I have for you. I invite you to select at least one quick win idea from above and work to implement it within the next 30 days or less. Keep me posted on our success. Good luck to you.
Join us in the comments: Which quick win in today’s article most resonated with you?
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✅We will use the weekly #IncreaseDiversity newsletter platform to do five things:
Challenge organizations to dig more deeply when it comes to diversity recruiting and retention programs
Clarify misconceptions or demystify complex topics related to diversity recruiting
Share best practices in diversity recruiting and retention
Answer frequently asked questions related to diversity recruiting and retention
Build a safe learning community for hiring professionals
✅ Need support implementing an effective diversity recruiting program at your organization? Visit www.JenniferTardy.com to learn about consulting and training programs.