Build For Better Diversity

Jo Major, Founder of Diversity in Recruitment & Co-Founder of Inclusive Recruitment Foundations on why the identity shopping list isn’t the solution to your lack of diversity.

Diversity is very much the priority of the moment. The drive to suddenly make our shortlists diverse, pack them full of people currently not visible across our businesses and hire ourselves out of our overrepresentation issues almost feels like a movement.

I’ve sat back and observed the way we’ve almost de-humanised candidates, turned searches into shopping lists, treated people and their identities like commodities, and picked and chosen the demographics we want and don’t want in our recruitment processes, as though we are selecting fruit and veg from the local supermarket.

The practice of the ‘identity shopping list’ – It’s wild, very real, and extremely dangerous

As a DEI practitioner who centres their work around breaking down the barriers that historically excluded and systemically marginalised candidates face, I am consistently blown away by the lack of regard, acknowledgement, and deep understanding as to the main reasons that businesses find themselves in a position where the majority groups, like white, straight, non-disabled, neurotypical, degree educated, middle-class men as an example, dominate the workplace, especially in upper management and senior leadership.

In a society that’s rich in difference and diversity, it’s critical that we stop, reflect and ask ourselves two questions. How did we become one large homogeneous group of people, and how come we only just noticed?

We’ve got to truly understand the root cause of our over-representation challenges and the reasons why people who don’t fit the mold of our majority groups, either don’t get into our recruitment processes, get hired, or get to develop their careers and reach their full potential within our business.

Until we have multiple flipchart sheets (or a Trello board) packed full of ideas, thoughts, observations and explanations, we are not ready to hire in difference, we may even find ourselves asking these two questions over and over again until the diagnostics are complete.

And when I say we, that’s your CEO and Leaders right there, this isn’t a ‘Recruitment or HR’ issue to fix.

Tackling overrepresentation is change management

It sounds like a lot, right? But honestly, you’ll thank me later, this type of critical thinking and analysis will help us start to build the foundations required to not only safely welcome difference but grow and evolve people and, most importantly – retain folks!

Moving from a diversity-first hiring strategy to something that involves much deeper strategic work takes change, education, resources, money, and time. Something that many businesses don’t seem to have a lot of.

But let’s look at it like this. We wouldn’t introduce a new ATS, switch from your current LMS, redesign our entire compensation and benefits package, restructure the HR function, or digitally transform the onboarding process without any of the above, would we?

So why should transforming our business’s diversity and demographic makeup, quite possibly changing the business culture and evolving how you recruit, select and hire, be any different?

The Equity first hiring process

After we’ve looked under the bonnet, as suggested in the previous paragraphs, it is time to start getting our house in order by building a secure foundation.

I use the image above to explain to the recruiters and hiring managers that I support what I mean by an equity-first hiring process.

EQUITY is the absolute bedrock of any DE&I strategy. If we miss this bit, we may as well go home.

Our ‘equity foundations’ could include inclusive leadership training, company-wide education & training, fair and inclusive policies, a commitment to equal pay, hybrid & flexible working, anti-racism work, faith inclusion, accessible workspaces and tech, great family-building policies, mental well-being, language and banter policies, neurodiversity training, solid anti-discrimination policies, a full suite of inclusive benefits, the list goes on.

All of this great work creates EQUALITY in our organisation. Every employee should now have fair and equal treatment and access to the same opportunities to access work, learn and develop, get a promotion, and be paid fairly regardless of their identity, background and circumstances.

That’s ultimately what candidates are really looking for, not the gimmicky initiatives, pledges, charters, events and ‘culture days.’ These are not the real reasons folks choose to work in our business, right?

Back to the pyramid – once we have a tonne of equity and equality in our business, people should start to feel INCLUSION, they feel safe, valued, and respected, empowered to show up as themselves to work because they are seen and heard and able to contribute fully at work.

Now the magic really starts happening; our people feel they BELONG, and our DE&I efforts are landing with impact. Employee commitment, productivity, happiness, loyalty, creativity, you name it, exciting things happen when humans feel they belong to their organisation.

Okay, so now and only now are you ready for DIVERSITY. The people who previously weren’t showing up can be safely brought into your business because we’ve strategically addressed why, completed the necessary deep work, and created the right culture, ethics, and behaviour for them to thrive and succeed.

Get this right for retention

Get this right for historically excluded employees, get this right to stop perpetuating inequality

If you are reading this and can relate to the diversity-first approach, I encourage you to truly re-think your current hiring strategy and avoid the revolving door situation. After all, no matter how fancy the invite was, why should underrepresented, underrecognised, systemically marginalised, and historically excluded employees stick around at a party where they don’t feel like they belong? Quite simply put – they won’t.

People are not commodities

This should be the mantra of every person within the business responsible for attracting and hiring talent. Collectively, we must hold a big mirror up to ourselves and reflect on the trauma this type of corporate behaviour is causing. Marginalised candidates are not there to solve our representation goals or our ‘diversity’ problems. We are responsible for doing that work ourselves, creating a safe working environment free of isms, bias, discrimination and prejudice and, most importantly, addressing the roots cause.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jomajordiversityinrecruitment/
https://www.diversityinrecruitment.com/
https://www.inclusiverecruitmentfoundations.com/