The Hiring System: Part III: How Employers Can Leverage Keesha’s Spectrum of Perspective
This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly series sharing best practices for employers who want to implement effective diversity recruitment programs. In this edition, we are exploring the hiring system through a five-part composite case study demonstrating the career experience of being underrepresented in the hiring system. In Part 1, we introduced you to a character named Keesha and the obstacle course she faces to land a job. In Part II, we discussed how career coaches and employers can support Keesha while on her job search, during the hiring process, and once employed.
Welcome to Part III, where we will discuss how employers can leverage the value upon which Keesha was hired.
The number one question I receive from employers who hire our company to implement an effective diversity recruiting programs is, “am I required to hire based on diversity?”
My response?
First, ensure that you are using the term ‘diversity’ appropriately. Diversity is not a euphemism for describing a marginalized population. Diversity is adjective used to describe that various elements differ from one another. If you are using the term correctly, you will want to hire with diversity in mind.
Source: Radicalcopyeditor.com
Your duty to the organization is to hire new employees based on the value they bring. I promote our 2-Factor Value Based Hiring Model™ which says that there are two factors to consider when making a selection decision:
Factor #1: What value does this person bring to the role for which they are interviewing? In other words, do they meet or exceed the minimum qualifications in the job description. Do they meet or exceed the preferred qualifications in the job description?
Factor #2: What value does this person bring to the team, department, business unit, and/or organization? In other words, how can they increase an organization’s spectrum of perspective?
To effectively answer the questions in Factor #2, you first must have a solid understanding of the meaning of spectrum of perspective.
Spectrum of Perspective
Spectrum of perspective is a phrase that identifies the range or span of one’s point of view. In context to your organization, the range of the collective viewpoints of your employees means everything to the competitiveness of your organization. What is the spectrum of perspective within your organization today? Let’s find out within a discussion of how spectrum of perspective originates.
How spectrum of perspective originates?
1. Your lived experiences are influenced by how you identify. Your identity, emphasized by your race, gender identity, ethnicity, mental/physical ability, age, and sexual orientation influences how you perceive the world and what you have ease of access to.
Source: Diverse Teams at Work
2. What you have ease of access to, in turn, can influence your exposure to people, places and things. What you are exposed to influences your lived experiences. Your lived experiences influence your perspective.
A study conducted by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler show that, "you are indeed influenced by the people around you. But that influence doesn’t stop anywhere near the five people you spend the most time with. It’s far more dispersed and research suggests it includes people you haven’t even met yet." Think about it this way. How many people around you with shared lived experiences, have a shared perspective?
“Employers are often more focused on hiring someone they would like to hang out with than they are on finding the person who can best do the job, suggests a study in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.” (source)
3. Your perspective causes you to consider and to not consider. What you consider, or do not consider, for the sake of this article, is neither right or wrong, nor good or bad. It just is. The concern is that what you consider and do not consider is often unconscious and creates blind spots. It takes a lot of intention to consider that which has not affected your lived experiences.
"It takes a lot of intention to consider that which has not affected your lived experiences."
Increasing spectrum of perspective means to surround yourself with people who may consider things that you do not naturally consider. If your senior leadership team, for example, is made up of only White, able-bodied, heterosexual men, the odds of similar perspective is high which means that the odds of the similarity around what is considered and not considered is high.
When you add a person with a different gender identity to this senior leadership team, it increases the spectrum of perspective.
When you add a person of color, it further increases the spectrum of perspective.
When you add a person who is differently abled, it further increases the spectrum of perspective.
This list could go on and on...
Diversity, by itself, is of fundamental value because it increases your organization’s overall spectrum of perspective and it decreases blind spots. Decreasing blind spots for your organization is what makes you competitive. It makes you more competitive in the world in which your business operates, to the people you employ and to the customers you serve.
But, listen closely. Do not hire Keesha because she is a Black woman or for any other part of her primary identity (i.e., gender identity, ethnicity, mental/physical ability, age, and sexual orientation). One, "diversity" is more than race and is not a euphemism for Black. Two, hiring is about value--the value a person can bring to the role and to the team. Hiring Keesha because she is a Black woman is what sets Keesha up for failure, leaving others to view Keesha as a “diversity hire” and leaving Keesha to wonder if this is tokenism.
Hiring Keesha because she is a Black woman is what sets Keesha up for failure, leaving others to view Keesha as a “diversity hire” and leaving Keesha to wonder if this is tokenism.
Hire Keesha because, as a person who identifies as a woman who is Black, she made the decision, for example, to skip Ivy league education (though accepted) and instead, to go to an HBCU. She knows what it feels like to be a first generation graduate, and a holder of a post graduate degree. She knows what it feels like to work and balance family and head a household, and to take care of her community. In other words, hire Keesha because her lived experiences are unique to your own causing her perspective to be different. Diversity of perspective enables you to close the gap on blind spots for your team, or organization.
That is the value of increased spectrum of perspective.
But even if a company has learned to hire Keesha for the increased spectrum of perspective that she brings to an organization, most companies will fail miserably to leverage the value in Keesha’s perspective. Rather, Keesha will be hired into a culture that doesn’t consider the importance of inclusion. Instead, it muzzles her voice, penalizes her for not assimilating, and excludes her from key conversations.
If you are an organizational leader who has hired Keesha into your organization, there are many things you can do to leverage the value upon which she was hired. Below are strategies for building a culture of inclusion:
Recommendation #1: Empower Keesha to share her perspective in meetings, on teams, within initiatives, projects, etc. If she sees something, she should say something, whether it appears negative or positive and even if it differs from popular opinion. Do not ignore or trivialize her message. Rather, be her champion and amplify her message.
Recommendation #2: It is not enough to empower Keesha to speak up, you should also create a culture of listening within your team. The best way to ensure others listen (outside of sharing your expectation of them), is to set an example. If your team believes that Keesha has your ear, they will want to know what she is saying too. In other words, set the example by being first in line to hear Keesha. As a leader, if you ignore Keesha, it's likely that others will follow your lead.
Recommendation #3: Position Keesha for authority. I mentioned this recommendation in part II. Keesha’s role should come with the level of authority, influence, and power necessary to meet the role's objectives. Reflect on the systems/processes in place within your team, department, or organization. Do employees have access to the right people, places and things to get the job done? What can you do to ensure equity in completing tasks?
Recommendation #4: Bring Keesha into “behind closed door” meetings. Behind closed door meetings happen quickly and often, especially in leadership. And in the rush of pulling the meeting together, often key voices are left out. When Keesha is hired, have a conversation with her about her role and the discussions and meetings that her role affords her access to. When scheduling behind closed door meetings, discontinue thinking about “who” needs to have a seat at the table, and begin considering which roles, by nature of the function, needs to participate in this meeting.
Recommendation #5: Build a culture of psychological safety. Get to know Keesha in a "normed" environment where who she is and how she identifies is standard among the group. Do this even if your presence creates diversity. See who she is when she can be her full self, unassimilated or covered. Encourage Keesha to speak openly about her working experiences without judgement or fear of consequence. Understanding her experiences will help with environmental process improvements. Creating an environment supporting of your most vulnerable populations positively affects all employees. Furthermore, this fosters a culture of inclusion and belonging where your employees feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work when they want to.
Get to know Keesha in a normed environment where who she is and how she identifies is standard among the group. Do this even if your presence creates diversity.
So, let us bring all of this learning full circle.
The next time you hear a manager ask, do I hire solely based on diversity. Your answer?
Hire based on the value a person brings to the role and the increased spectrum of perspective they bring to your team, department, and/or the organization. Most importantly, when you hire a person based on increased spectrum of perspective, leverage that added value in order to decrease your company’s blind spots to thereby make your organization more competitive.
Next week, In Part IV, I will share a closing message for Keesha (and all of the Keesha’s out there). In this closing message, I will share 10 areas of advice to best help you to navigate the hiring system.
In the meantime, let’s take some time to unpack today's article. Please comment below answering the questions:
What is the spectrum of perspective within your organization today?
How do we tend to show up differently when we are in a normed environment (i.e., in an environment where there is high representation for people who similarly identify)?
When Keesha’s value is leveraged upon hire, who wins?
Do not forget to like, comment, and subscribe to the newsletter. This is part III of a five-part edition. Join us next week, July 28, for Part IV: Closing message for Keesha.
Part I: Keesha meets the hiring system
Part II: How career coaches and employers can disrupt the hiring system
Part III: How employers can leverage Keesha’s spectrum of perspective
Part IV: A closing message for Keesha
Part V: FAQs
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