The Hiring System (+Its Hidden Obstacle Course)

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

JTC News + Events

RECRUITER TRAINING | Ready to certify your entire recruiting team through our Qualified Diversity Recruiter (QDR) Bootcamp + Certification Exam | Register and become QDR certified with our October 2022 cohort. CLICK HERE

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FREE PLATINUM CHECKLIST | We have a FREE, downloadable CHECKLIST for leaders called The Platinum Checklist for Hiring Professionals: 10 Immediate Actions Leaders Must STOP Doing to Increase Diversity. CLICK HERE

A famous author, James Baldwin, once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Building an inclusive and equitable hiring system is not something that happens overnight. It’s not something that can be fixed by simply introducing better processes. It takes much more than that such as behavior change, education, and much more. But we will unpack that another day. The most important part though is to be able to identify the obstacles and barriers that exist in the current hiring system at your organization and then remove them. Now, here is the hard truth. You can have the best intentions and your team can be committed to making your workplace one that champions DEI, but if you have not figured out the underlying hurdles that underrepresented candidates face when applying for jobs at your company, you will most likely not see the results intended.

This is why Team JTC created this eBook titled The Hiring System (+Its Hidden Obstacle Course). This is a guide that offers 113 thought-provoking questions that hiring leaders and recruiters need to ask to identify the hidden systemic hurdles, obstacles, and barriers underrepresented populations face when trying to gain employment. In this week’s Increase Diversity newsletter, I wanted to give you a taster of what the eBook is about and how it can help you in bringing real change to your hiring system.

The HIRING System is One of the Most Powerful systems

As hiring professionals, you have top-level access to and are the custodian of one of the most powerful systems that impact the outcome of human lives - The Hiring System. Being able to decide who to hire gives you the power AND the responsibility to decide who gets access to a job that will put money into their pockets. This money is important for everything, including supporting their homes, families, communities, and even states and economies. Unless we understand this responsibility and how it impacts so many lives, we will be unable to understand the importance of unbias in the hiring system.

And that should not be a surprise; we had 345 years of sameness, exclusion, and unfairness in American history, before the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Looking at the history of our own country, we can say that we are still in our infancy when it comes to creating truly diverse and inclusive communities and workplaces.

The Thought Provoking Questions

The main part of this guide is the Hidden Obstacle Course, which includes 113 different questions that will help you identify the bias hiding in your hiring process. . We have put these questions in nine categories and it is essential that as you go through every question in the eBook, you ask yourself two very important questions:

In my role, what am I doing to contribute to the inequitable outcomes in hiring?
How am I using all of me through my role to get better outcomes in hiring?

Since this is a taster, let’s look at four of the categories or ‘chapters’ of the eBook so you know what to expect from this guide. I have also referred to some relevant videos from our Increase Diversity YouTube channel to give you an understanding of some of these categories.

Job Description + Minimum Qualifications

Job descriptions are at the heart of disrupting bias. They must be inclusive and constructed in a way that they never exclude eligible candidates. The last thing you want as an employer is to make a potentially excellent candidate feel unwelcomed to apply for a role. Watch this video on our channel if you want to understand how you can create an inclusive job description.

The Hiring Team

For any inclusive and equitable hiring process to work efficiently, it is critical that the ENTIRE hiring team gets it, wants it, and can do the work. Developing your hiring team this way will help you to create more dedication, engagement, and accountability among those helping your company increase diversity. This should lead your team to find ways to minimize bias.

Assessing Candidates for Eligibility

Assessing a candidate for an open position requires you to look at three things: their knowledge, skills, and experience. Everything else is non-essential, distracting, and sometimes even a way for unconscious bias to seep into the hiring process. Assessing candidate eligibility starts the moment the hiring team has access to their resume, online profile, application, etc. Watch this video to better understand the Diversity Recruitment best practices.

Pay Equity

Not getting paid fairly is one of the top reasons for dissatisfied employees. Your employees will leave your company to earn fair pay - it is as simple as that! There are many resources available online like Glassdoor’s “Know your worth” that are educating employees on whether they are getting paid fairly or not. This has helped make employees more courageous, as they seek adjustments in pay with their employers. Watch this video on Pay Equity and why it is important to increase diversity.

Are You Ready to Ask Yourself the Important Questions?

I started this newsletter with a famous quote by James Baldwin. You cannot change anything unless you are willing to face it. I am confident that with this eBook, you will be able to identify some things that you may not have noticed about your hiring process in the past and will be able to create a system that is truly equitable and inclusive. I invite you to purchase and download this 20-page, highly informative eBook today and I look forward to your feedback in the comments section below.