Part II of II: Is Your Hiring Process Creating an Obstacle Course for Marginalized Groups?
Today’s article edition is dedicated to our newest e-book, The Hiring System (+Its Hidden Obstacle Course). It’s been said that one of the fastest ways to find the solution to a challenge is to first ask the right questions. If you are an employer struggling to increase diversity—this e-book is your solution. It includes 113 straight-forward questions that you can ask to identify barriers potentially baked into your hiring process that may be preventing your organization from increasing representation among people of color, women, veterans, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, and other minoritized populations. Learn More
💥This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter series sharing best practices for employers who want to implement effective diversity recruitment programs. To see previous editions, visit www.JenniferTardy.com.💥
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In last week's article edition, Part I of II: Leaders, do you really want to increase diversity? Try a Checklist, I made a very bold statement.
"Candidates are being funneled into a hiring process historically meant to weed them out. So, in order to increase diversity, it is not just about what an employer must start doing. It is also about what they must STOP doing."
This week, I want to talk about the hiring process--but through the lens of a candidate. Have you ever experienced what it is like to be ambitious, but perceived as different? Do you know what it feels like to want to climb the corporate ladder, knowing that with every rung there are less individuals who identify similarly to you? Do you know the pressure of being the first [anything]—the feeling of bringing the diversity to an already homogenous, exclusive team or organization?
Many people of color, women, people with disabilities and other marginalized populations know all too well this feeling of living at the intersection of ambitious and different to the white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied overrepresentation in the workforce. In other words, different to what our society has come to consciously and subconsciously define as the norm. They know what it feels like to reach for more while simultaneously carrying the psychological cost of being a fish out of water. These individuals can tell you stories of what it felt like to be “the only one” in the room, or having to cover, assimilate, or code-switch to make others feel comfortable with their presence.
It is a part of an all-too familiar obstacle course job seekers face when trying to reach new levels in their career. If I had to describe the hiring obstacle course, here is what it would look like:
Being ambitious and different means having to climb beyond perceptions put upon you whereby others question your ability, or the likelihood of your success because they’ve never seen “someone like you” do this work.
Being ambitious and different means running through the psychological harm caused by culturally incompetent leaders and the smoke of gaslighting while trying not to come out traumatized or damaged on the other side.
Being ambitious and different means jumping over landmines of appropriate versus inappropriate behavior based on standards of professionalism rooted in whiteness and middle-class norms.
Being ambitious and different means crawling through the muddiness of cultural misunderstandings in an effort to unnecessarily be perceived as a “fit” for the team.
Being ambitious and different means swimming through seas of microaggressions where people misuse adjectives and disrespect pronouns.
Being ambitious and different means balancing the tightrope walk of assimilation versus authenticity to be likable and make others feel comfortable enough to award you the job or promotion.
To job seekers from historically underrepresented backgrounds, moving toward their highest career potential means paying a high cost. One cost is having to navigate external perceptions whereby others question if you are enough. With time and accumulation these perceptions, it can lead to the most expensive cost of all: the internal cost, which is having to wrangle the inner dialogue of questioning one’s own enough-ness.
After navigating the hiring obstacle course a sufficient number of times and growing more frustrated each time, it is at this intersection where we meet our job seeker clients. Our firm coaches job seekers who are ambitious, but dangling on the edge of the question, “am I enough?”
Suffice it to say, it is exhausting being ambitious, but perceived as different. Like any obstacle course, the hiring obstacle course tests your speed, endurance, and agility:
Speed. Who will be the first to be awarded the job offer?
Endurance. Who can withstand the prolonged discomfort associated with the obstacle course?
Agility. Who can navigate and maneuver the bias well enough to land the new opportunity?
If as a leader, you want to change this experience at your company, know that inaction is not an option and hope is not a strategy. If you are not actively working to dismantle the hiring obstacle course, you are preserving it. In order to dismantle the hiring obstacle course, you must be able to not only see it, but identify the points in which the obstacle course impacts your candidates. Especially if you have yet to experience any particular part of the obstacle course, it can be hard to identify it. Here are two useful tips:
Tip #1: To identify any potential hiring obstacle course at your company, ask the right questions. Download our newest e-book, The Hiring System (+Its Hidden Obstacle Course). It includes 113 thought provoking questions that guide hiring leaders and recruiters in identifying the systematic hurdles, obstacles and barriers underrepresented populations face when trying to gain employment.
Tip #2: Review data for outcomes. Run reports with a spotlight on racial, ability, or gender demographic data, for example and see if there are any patterns in the data. It does not matter if you are a good person with great intentions, data like engagement surveys and exit surveys show you where policies, practices, and behaviors are creating barriers to career growth for top talent from marginalized populations.
Once you discover the hiring obstacle course, to dismantle it, go beyond equality—create equity.
Image Credit: CulureOrganizing.org
Make it so that opportunity is accessible by all, not just some. Also, according to Ben Hecht in his article Moving Beyond Diversity Toward Racial Equity, instead of trying to change some people to fit the organization, focus on transforming the organization to fit all people. Finally, plug the holes and close the gaps. If the data suggests that candidates are withdrawing or getting rejected from your external (or internal) hiring process, brainstorm ways to proactively plug the hole or close the gaps. Whether it is providing cultural competence training or unconscious bias training to your hiring team, conducting public workshops to show interested candidates how to get noticed at your company, or creating a workplace culture where it is acceptable and encouraged to respectfully dialogue about why certain language or actions may be exclusive to marginalized populations, think of actions that you can do as an employer to keep more top talent within your company’s talent pipeline.
Join me in the comments. What is one action that your company can take today to dismantle the hiring obstacle course?
If you liked this article, you would also like, Part I: The Hiring System (+Its Hidden Obstacle Course)
P.S. Don’t forget to check our newest + free Platinum Checklist for Hiring Professionals: 10 Immediate Actions Leaders Must Stop Doing in Order To Increase Diversity. Finally, to see previous editions, visit www.JenniferTardy.com.