You are a Part of the Problem (+7 Signs You Are Creating Barriers to Increasing Diversity)

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You. Are. A. Part. Of. The. Problem.

These seven words are the most courageous words I had to learn to say to leaders. Imagine saying this phrase to a leader in search of training and consulting services with your firm. You risk losing a potential partnership. That is how much we believe in disrupting the bias that feeds the hiring process. We are willing to take that risk when necessary. All actions that preserve underrepresentation must be acknowledged in order to be fixed.

Without these seven powerful words, “you are a part of the problem,” company leaders are unable to see how their mindset and the collective mindset of the senior leadership team is preserving underrepresentation. Even with the best intentions, they may not be able to see bad habits. In day-to-day decision-making, it is difficult to see and understand how seemingly small, unconscious decisions can lead to a lack of diversity within the company.

If you are a company leader, influencer, or decision maker, here are seven signs that you may be a part of the reason your company is unable to increase diversity. I will start with #7 and countdown to #1, the most popular sign.

You may be a part of the problem if:

◀ Sign #7: You deplete your budget to invest in damage control, rather than investing in the actual problem.

Example: This is the leader that looks for a DEI partner only after employees are disgruntled and there is a reputational or brand issue.

You are a part of the problem. You keep having to throw money at retention packages for top talent, public relations campaigns to fix your company brand, and apology statements from your leaders. 

So, what should you do? Measure outcomes. Even with the best intentions, check data for impact as it may show gaps in policies, processes and behaviors that are disproportionately affecting specific populations. Survey your employees and learn about their experience of the workplace environment. Segment the data by populations based on identity. You may find that challenges within the workplace environment are disproportionality affecting smaller groups and without data segmenting, their experience can get lost in the experience of the majority. Invest proactively to get ahead of challenges.

◀ Sign #6: You have historically looked at diversity recruitment outsourcing as your only solution.

Example: This is the leader that pressures search agencies to send over BIPOC candidates.

You are a part of the problem. Do you recall the proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Though there are sources available to teach hiring professionals how to fish, you are unwilling to learn and invest in the training. You make status quo recruiting your priority and outside firms accountable for increasing diversity at your company. 

So, what should you do? Take accountability within your company too. Increasing diversity within a candidate pool must be everyone’s priority—your company and any search agencies with which you partner. Diversity recruitment must become systemic in order for it to become a normal way to approach recruiting.

 ◀ Sign #5: You have been unwilling to invest in supplier diversity.

Example: This is the leader that only works with consulting companies like the McKinseys and Accentures of the world, for example.

You are a part of the problem. Just like homogenous networks and homogenous candidate pools, leaders are also challenged with homogenous supplier lists. Everyone looks alike. Just as hiring professionals are being challenged to think outside of Ivy league universities for top talent from historically underrepresented backgrounds, I would also encourage employers to think beyond Ivy-league-like consulting companies for valuable partnerships.

So, what should you do? Create space for supplier diversity. And remember that the external vendor with whom you interview will likely not come packaged the same way traditional consulting firms are packaged. Pay close attention to how your resistance and bias shows up in your partnerships.

◀ Sign #4: You invest in ineffective training solutions.

Example: This is the leader that invests in recruiting bootcamps that teach recruiters how to conduct complex Boolean string searches, likely with a trainer that continues to call non-White individuals diverse. 

You are a part of the problem. Boolean string search training is NOT diversity recruiting and continues to perpetuate the idea that it is acceptable to sit behind a computer making judgements about a person’s race, ethnicity, gender, accessibility, sexual orientation, etc.

So, what should you do? Research training programs with learning objectives in mind. Ask yourself, what do you want your recruiters and hiring managers to be able to do by the time they complete training? Be intentional about the learning objectives you have in mind for the hiring professionals that need training.

◀ Sign #3: You have historically invested only in surface level solutions.

Example: This is the leader that invests in artificial intelligence solutions intended to remove names and addresses in order to create blind resumes.

You are a part of the problem. As a leader, you approve tossing money toward superficial solutions though bias is an internal challenge that must be addressed. Bias is the core problem. Without addressing the core problem, bias will show up in other ways. It is like the orchestra implementing blind auditions to help eliminate gender bias, and later discovered that the sound of a woman’s clicking high heel was distinctive and bias showed up in a new way. 

What you should do. First, invest money to resolve the resistance happening within your employees that shows up in the thoughts and feelings about people who are unique to them and in the ideas of people who are unique to those overrepresented at your company. Then layer the training with tools like artificial intelligence and create a system of checks and balances. 

◀ Sign #2: You refuse to try and understand the problem.

Example: This is the leader that only wants to invest in getting a “secret list” of top sources for recruiting Black and Latinx top talent, for example.

You are a part of the problem. Finding new places to source will not move the needle on increasing diversity especially if the challenge within your company is not rooted in the ability to attract candidates. You keep thinking you can find the solution to a problem you may not even fully understand. Maybe the challenge is rooted in a broken hiring process that keeps kicking talented candidates out.

So, what should you do? Use workforce and workplace data to find the core of the challenge to increasing diversity at your organization. 

◀ Sign #1: You look for quick fix training solutions.

Example: This is the leader that I meet most often. It is the leader that wants to invest in a 60-minute diversity recruiting crash course because your recruiters and hiring leaders are “too busy” to invest any additional time.

You are a part of the problem. You cannot fix in one episode a problem that took a series to create. In other words, you cannot fix diversity issues that have taken years to develop in a 60-minute workshop. Training your recruiters and hiring managers on diversity recruiting takes time and layering. From addressing resistance, to learning foundational DEI concepts in context to recruiting, to talking about the full hiring process and where bias hides in each step. This takes time. Otherwise, your recruiters and hiring managers will be drinking from a firehose, overwhelmed with information, and paralyzed to take action.

So, what should you do? Invest in more immersive learning experiences where your hiring professionals get to learn over time and add to their learning overtime with more advanced concepts. If this is not an option for your company, consider taking 60-minute trainings that breakdown 1-3 diversity recruiting concepts at a time, not a crash course on diversity recruiting. Invest in these 60-mintue trainings monthly or even quarterly.

I begin each of our training programs with a commitment to all students that I will say things that others will not say, and I will bring up topics that others will not address, so that you and your company are able to have extraordinary results in diversity recruiting. This is true, even if it means telling you that you that you are a part of the problem and are a barrier to your organization’s ability to increase diversity—whether you meant to do it or not. The good news is that if you find that you are a part of the problem, you can make the decision to turn things around and become a part of the solution too. These honest and transparent conversations are necessary if we are ever going to dismantle the hiring obstacle course.

Join me in the conversation on LinkedIn. What are some additional signs you’ve seen that confirm that you or another leader you know has been a part of the problem and a barrier to increasing diversity?