The Only Formula You Need to Increase Diversity
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
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When you have a well-represented candidate pool AND bias is eliminated among the interview team, THEN the hiring manager can select the most competitive person. That is how increasing diversity works. It is simple concept that requires intentional action.
Here’s what that formula looks like…
[Well-Represented Candidate Pool] + [Interview Team Bias Eliminated] = [Select Most Competitive Candidate]
Understanding this simple formula can be a game changer for workplaces. So, to support your journey, I am going to break down this formula below, talk about what it means, and share where companies tend to go wrong in their pursuit of increasing diversity.
Rule #1: Generate a Well-Represented Candidate Pool
To increase diversity, the candidate pool must be well represented in spaces where there has been historical underrepresentation within your workplace. This requires an understanding of where your workplace is underrepresented compared to workforce availability. Is your workplace underrepresented among, women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, or other groups? Knowing where you are strategically working to increase representation is a huge first step in moving the needle toward increasing workplace diversity.
Where workplaces go wrong: Sourcing only in familiar spaces. | I hear from recruiting teams often that “top of funnel” has been a major challenge. Learning how to find and attract job seekers from historically underrepresented groups tends to be the top reason employers reach out to our team at Jennifer Tardy Consulting. One of the biggest hurdles that must be overcome in order to increase candidate pool diversity is the desire (or conditioning) of a recruiter to source in spaces that are overrepresented in the same areas where their workplace is already currently overrepresented. Attracting talent from historically underrepresented groups means first understanding talent from historically underrepresented groups.
Rule #2: Ensure Interview Team Bias is Eliminated
To increase diversity, the interview team (i.e., recruiter, hiring manager and other employees to who support interviewing) must be aware of their own biases in context to interviewing and selecting candidates.
Where workplaces go wrong: Ineffective training. | Many interview team members receive general and generic unconscious bias training which means that they have been told about what bias is, but now how it shows up during the interviewing and selection phase of the hiring process. So, many recruiters and hiring managers, in particular, are not aware of their own bias in this context. They are not aware of their own biased ideas, feelings, and beliefs that shape the lens through which they view which candidates are qualified and which candidates are not qualified, who is professional and who is not professional and who has leadership presence and who does not have leadership presence, for example.
Being a part of a team that makes a selection decision for your workplace is not a role that should be taken lightly. Careful selection, training, and (I would even go as far as to recommend) assessment should be mandated for each recruiter, hiring manager, and supplementary interview member to ensure that they understand interviewing bias and how to eliminate it – before joining the interview team.
Rule #3: Select the Most Competitive Person
Once the candidate pool is well-represented AND the interview team has eliminated hiring process bias, THEN the hiring manager is able to make a final selection decision, choosing the most competitive individual.
YES! The hiring manager (or final decision maker) is responsible for selecting the most competitive individual to extend an offer to.
Myth #1: Increasing diversity does NOT require a hiring manager to select based on a person’s identity. As a matter of fact, hiring a person based on how they identify is just as illegal as not hiring a person because of how they identify.
Myth #2: Increasing diversity does NOT mean that you have to hire someone LESS qualified or competitive. As a matter of fact, many candidates who are getting rejected are MORE competitive. It is just hard to see the competitiveness through a lens of antiquated expectations that candidates must show up “packaged” in a certain way.
Let’s take this one step further. The challenge is NOT that women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community are less qualified or competitive.
The greatest challenge we face as recruiters and hiring managers is our inaccurate view of what someone should look like (i.e., packaging and pedigree) to demonstrate that they are qualified.
As interviewers, we continue to get in our own way and trip ourselves up by assessing the person’s affect, packaging, and pedigree when our only goal is to assess the person’s qualifications.
Again, here’s what that formula looks like…
[Well-Represented Candidate Pool] + [Interview Team Bias Eliminated] = [Select Most Competitive Candidate]
It is a simple formula that requires intentional action, commitment and a partnership between recruiters and hiring managers.
To reach more equitable outcomes, employers must move beyond the conversation of increasing diversity within the candidate pool to ALSO investing in immersive inclusive hiring training so that we can ultimately move away from thinking that diversity recruiting is about hiring people based on how they identify. That is not what diversity recruiting is about. Diversity recruiting is about eliminating the bias that causes great candidates to be overlooked and rejected simply based on how they identify. That is what equity looks like.
