The Best of Aquent x Team JTC
This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter series + Increase Diversity Toolbox sharing best practices for employers who want to learn how to….well, increase diversity. To see previous editions, visit JenniferTardy.com. | IG: @IncreaseDiversity | Increase Diversity - YouTube
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Here at Team JTC, we feel blessed to be working with some very inspiring partners and businesses who are playing an important role in embracing and promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). One such partner that I have had the privilege of working with very regularly is Aquent Talent, a global leader in talent and recruiting for marketing, creative, and design.
For me, what makes Aquent Talent stand out is their commitment to DEI and how this is at the heart of the work they do. Aquent Talent and Team JTC could not be more aligned with this statement shared on their website: “It’s [DEI] not just the right thing to do. It’s key to innovation and growth.”
I have had a lot of fun writing blogs for the Aquent Talent community and so, this week, I wanted to acknowledge this and share some quotes from our partner blogs.
#1. Position senior leaders within your organization to talk more openly about representation.
When leaders speak, people listen. Leaders have a lot of influence within an organization as well as externally. So, it is essential to position these leaders within your organization to talk more openly about representation, the importance of diversity, and your company’s commitment to inclusion.
Read the blog: Increasing diversity in the workplace is everyone’s responsibility.
#2. People leave managers, not companies...in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.
I have stressed this multiple times - the number 1 reason for employees quitting their job is a bad boss or immediate supervisor. It does not matter how good a job may be, if the reporting relationship between an employee and their manager is not healthy, you will experience a higher turnover.
Read the blog: Is your company really ready for diversity?
#3. When the population represented in your workplace is greater than the population available in the workforce, they are overrepresented.
In this blog post, I shared different scenarios to understand who is underrepresented and who is overrepresented within your organization. What you need to understand is that to be well-represented, the percentage of a specific population in your workplace should at least match the availability of the same population in the workforce. For example, if there are 10% of people from a specific group in the workforce, but only 2% of the people in your workplace are from that group, then that highlights underrepresentation.
Read the blog: How to improve your diversity recruiting strategy and move the needle forward.
#4. Hiring an individual BECAUSE of how they identify is just as illegal as NOT hiring an individual because of how they identify.
We should not hire anyone simply because of how they identify just so we can enhance the demographic optics in our workplace. What we should aim for is equity in the hiring process so that individuals from historically underrepresented groups can also have a fair chance of being hired for their knowledge, skills and abilities. Instead of hiring someone based on how they identify themselves, we should look for the answer to this question: “Can they perform the essential elements of the job successfully.”
Read the blog: Managing diversity and inclusion ethically and legally.
#5. The more thoroughly your organization understands the lived experiences of your customers, the more positively nuanced your products and service offerings will be.
Lived Experience Intelligence (LEI) is not only important to increasing diversity and inclusion in your workplace - it is also essential to gaining a competitive advantage in the market. If your employees have a good understanding of the actual lived experiences of your customers, they will be in a better position to develop new ideas to serve them.
Read the blog: Building diversity, and a competitive advantage using Lived Experience Intelligence.
#6. Encourage the new hire to open up to the recruiter about their real 90-day experience, and partner with your recruiter to do a check-in with the new employee.
Throughout the hiring process, a candidate that is hired grows to know, like, and trust their recruiter as a representative of that organization. This is why, as recruiters, it is important for you to leverage this relationship and encourage the new hire to have a check-in after 90 days of working for your organization. Use the information they provide to learn about new ways for you to continue creating more inclusion, making them feel a stronger sense of belonging.
Read the blog: Inclusive onboarding strategies that impact the initiative to increase diversity.
I encourage you to read these blog posts as well as learn more about Aquent Talent and the awesome work that they are doing. And finally, thank you, Aquent Talent for collaborating with me. I can’t wait to see what you do in the future.
