Why Implementing a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Makes a Difference at Organization of All Sizes
This article was originally published in
We鈥檝e seen how putting bias-reducing hiring practices and inclusive culture initiatives on the back-burner for too long can build up and erupt: Uber, Google, Tesla鈥攖he list goes on.
Fast growth companies with 鈥渨e鈥檒l focus on diversity later鈥� mentalities have suffered reputational blows as blog posts, emails, and internal memos are exposing weak commitments to diversity and inclusion pledges.
Although it may be too early to tell how long it will take for some of these brands to recover from their respective media backlash, startup founders and entrepreneurs already have a lot to learn from these company culture disasters.
How does your company avoid ending up on Glassdoor鈥檚 鈥渨orst places to work鈥� list? It鈥檚 simple: make diversity and inclusion a core value of your company, and implement the strategy to make it happen.
The benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace isn鈥檛 really a question. that gender-diverse companies were 15 per cent more likely to financially outperform their competitors, and that ethnically-diverse companies were 35 per cent more likely to financially outperform. That鈥檚 probably because diverse teams are more likely to question the status quo and think 鈥渙utside the box,鈥� to report growth in market share or capture a new market. The question that comes out of these discussions is, 鈥淪o when is the right time to make diversity and inclusion a priority?鈥�
The answer: it鈥檚 never too early. The cumulation of these tech sector PR disasters have made that clear. It鈥檚 a crutch of startups; founders鈥� first hires tend to be within their own networks (which is often a homogenous group), and as the company scales, these first employees draw from their own social circles and networks. By the time an organization reaches a size at which it starts to develop brand recognition and media attraction, it has often already implemented unconsciously biased hiring processes and an established company monoculture. It鈥檚 nearly impossible to work backwards from there.
Venture capital firm KPCB chair John Doerr . Doerr鈥檚 advice to startup founders and entrepreneurs is that your first hire should be your head of recruiting and talent acquisition. Why? Quotas or PR statements about a 鈥渃ommitment鈥� to diversity may slightly increase the volume of diverse talent getting in the door, but once these hires get into a monoculture where they feel like outsiders, turnover is inevitable.
If you truly believe people are your company鈥檚 greatest asset, treat them that way. Talent acquisition managers use metrics and data to invest in a culture where people are engaged and included, which allows organizations, teams, and individuals to do amazing things.
Clarity and alignment are key; that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 not enough to just hire a head of talent acquisition to set quotas and metrics without foundational company values. At the same time, it鈥檚 not enough to write your company鈥檚 commitment to diversity and inclusion on the wall and call it a day. Values and strategy must collaborate in an iterative and actionable way.
So maybe you鈥檝e made a commitment to diversity and inclusion a core company value, written on the wall for all to see. Maybe you鈥檝e even hired a head of talent acquisition, so you can start investing your resources into recruiting outstanding and diverse talent. Now what? How do you ensure that you鈥檙e setting up processes that will scale with your company and continue to recruit, hire, and retain top diverse talent? That may seem like a daunting, almost overwhelming, task 鈥� but it doesn鈥檛 have to be.
Designing for diversity is all about taking unstructured processes and structuring them to give every candidate and employee equal opportunities and consideration. Consider re-structuring some of these processes:
- Job postings. Are your descriptions in job advertisements designed to attract diverse talent, or are they copy-and-pasted from your website? The research shows that if a job posting lists 10 required credentials, men are likely to apply if they meet 6 of them, whereas . If you鈥檙e struggling to attract more women candidates, cut down your requirements from an arbitrary list of educational and experiential credentials to focus on what is absolutely necessary to complete the job-related tasks.
- Shortlisting. Are you narrowing down your candidate pool based on a keyword search and a 鈥済ut feel鈥� scan of resumes? Credentials that hiring managers are looking for in a resume 鈥� like Ivy League education or prestigious internships 鈥� are indicative of socioeconomic status, but have almost . Companies like 夜色直播 are upending the resume-first conventional norm by providing a platform that automates shortlisting based on proven predictors of employee success 鈥� like personality, social intelligence, and problem solving 鈥� instead of unconscious bias. 夜色直播鈥檚 hiring tool is just one resource you can utilize to structure your hiring process.
- Interviewing. Are you using the 鈥渂eer test鈥� or the 鈥渁irport test鈥� to assess how much you like a candidate? Or are you using consistent interview questions that mute confirmation bias (skewing your interview questions to fish for answers that uphold initial unconscious assumptions) and more easily allow you to compare candidate responses objectively?
The list goes on. The point is, established recruiting, hiring, and benchmarking processes used by start-ups and global enterprise companies alike are riddled with bias.
Muting that bias is certainly not impossible but it鈥檚 a whole lot more manageable and less susceptible to cultural resistance when your company is small and newly established.
Designing your hiring, on boarding and culture with diversity and inclusion as a priority is not only the right thing to do. In this day and age of transparency through social media, high profile media scrutiny and a whole lot of finger-pointing, you can鈥檛 afford not to.