The #1 Diversity Recruiting Prerequisite No One's Talking About
💥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. 💥
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👉🏾 Two New JTC Course Releases | Increase Diversity 101 Virtual Workshop Series | Class #02 How to Create a Work Environment that Supports the Retention of Underrepresented Populations | Learn More || Class #03: Leaning into Diversity: Identifying and Minimizing Internal Resistance | Learn More
A great question came up during a live Q&A about a month or so ago.
Q: If a recruiter does not feel qualified to discuss sensitive topics about diversity, what is the best way for the recruiter to signal to their manager that they need support in this area?
A: I believe that ALL recruiting leaders should assume that every single person on their talent acquisition team likely struggles in some way with feeling qualified, capable, and confident in diversity recruiting especially if this space is new to them. Do not wait for a recruiter to come to you. As a leader, proactively provide access to formal training and support to each individual in the same way you would for any new responsibility.
Why am I bringing this up?
This is the time where I get to talk again about the topics that recruiters will never bring up. I already shared the first topic which is, “I do not fully understand what I’m accountable for in diversity recruiting.”
Here is a second.
“I am struggling with inner resistance.”
The number one diversity recruiting prerequisite that we do not hear about is the struggle we all have with inner resistance. The longest journey any of us will take is the journey outside of what feels most familiar to us. Our ability, as hiring professionals, to identify and remove areas of inner resistance is connected to the organization’s ability to increase diversity.
Simply stated, inner resistance is an opposition to a natural flow. Maybe what felt natural to you is your perception in an ability to fill positions without seeing color. Though you may not have had to address this in the past, today you may be feeling stuck. One minute you are a high performing recruiter. In the next minute, you feel lost because now your performance is being measured by your ability to see and appreciate differences in identities and achieve a candidate pool representative of the workforce. That frustration, no matter how great or small, is your inner resistance to change.
Now, it is important to note, and read closely here, inner resistance is personal and completely unique to unconscious bias. It is what comes BEFORE. You cannot and will not be able to address unconscious bias if you do not first acknowledge your internal resistance.
Even though resistance is personal, it can and will show up on your recruiting team as:
Overthinking and delayed action. Due to your mindset, this typically results in your making an excuse not to do something when you are the most qualified person to support the task to increase diversity. My earliest memory when I worked in the Training field was when I was asked by a recruiter to attend a career fair held at an HBCU in her place. I will never forget what she said, “I have blonde hair and blue eyes…what could they possibly have in common with me?” Although there is so much to unpack in this statement, in short, that was the moment her inner resistance emerged. She overthought it and delayed action by removing access to herself.
Minimal efforts in sourcing. You attend one diversity recruitment fair just to check it off of your list. If no one gets hired from that event, you make the recommendation to remove them from the list and you mark it as a terrible event and continue to pour thousands of dollars in other events that are just as “hit or miss” with hiring.
Avoiding topics about diversity. You believe you are the least qualified person to speak about race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, etc. You are afraid to use the wrong words, ask the wrong questions, make the wrong statement and therefore, you stay quiet.
Based on what you have read so far, do you remember the last time you felt resistance? It will have been that moment that you felt a barrier to going all in on the requirements of your role.
The longest journey any of us will take is the journey outside of what feels most familiar to us
- Jenn Tardy
I know I have felt this inkling before that something was holding me back from doing everything I needed to truly build an expertise around all historically underrepresented populations. I share my own story of working through inner resistance in workshops about this topic. But the lesson here is that I had to identify where it was coming from and why it was present. It took quite a bit of research and self-reflection. What is also noteworthy is that inner resistance appears as this uneventful, automatic notion. A slight hesitation like, hmm, I don’t know about that. It was not something big and scary, but it was enough to impact my decisions without me realizing it right away.
I know that it is alarming to think that resistance could be impacting numerous leaders and hiring professionals with decision-making power in the workplace as these are the same individuals who have access to and influence the hiring system, but it does. Resistance is a human characteristic and is unavoidable, but with work, we have the ability to overcome it.
As owner of JTC, a diversity recruitment consulting firm, checking my own resistance was the first step into this work for me and our team. I needed to be able to support ALL minoritized individuals to effectively bridge the gaps to build a more equitable and inclusive hiring system whether or not their pain points felt familiar to me. To get to this place, I set out to do the work necessary for identifying and minimizing my own internal resistance. I am not the only one. We all experience internal resistance to that which feels unfamiliar and it is not because we are bad people. It is because we are human. Moving beyond it is what is most important. It is simply a matter of recognizing and learning how to overcome resistance, especially in the workplace. Are you willing to do the same?
We all experience internal resistance to that which feels unfamiliar and it is not because we are bad people. It is because we are human.
- Jenn Tardy
My final question to you is this.
Is your internal resistance hindering you from leaning into diversity recruiting?
For those who would like to dive more deeply in identifying and working through your own internal resistance, join me in the next Increase Diversity 101 Virtual Workshop: Leaning into Diversity: Identifying and Minimizing Your Internal Resistance, where I walk with you on a journey to identify and overcome personal, internal resistance. This workshop is available now as an on-demand, virtual workshop that you can take on your own time and is entirely self-paced.
Join us in the comments: How would you define resistance?
✅We will use the weekly #IncreaseDiversity newsletter platform to do five things:
1. Challenge organizations to dig more deeply when it comes to diversity recruiting and retention programs
2. Clarify misconceptions or demystify complex topics related to diversity recruiting
3. Share best practices in diversity recruiting and retention
4. Answer frequently asked questions related to diversity recruiting and retention
5. 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.
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