In 2020, our firm undertook a focused recruiting effort to increase the diversity of our applicant pools and ultimately our staff.
Since implementing the changes I’ll describe shortly, we experienced a dramatic improvement in the diversity of our applicant pools, going from 25-30% in 2020 to 45-50% in 2021. Through four hiring processes so far this year, we are on track to hire over 50% of new hires who identify as a person of color (from 25% in 2020). One applicant expressed how welcomed and heard they felt from their first reading of the job description and through our interview steps.
The rationale for hiring diverse teams is well-documented — but getting there takes work. Here are the three main steps we took to begin making progress to become a more diverse organization.
Step One: Scrap Traditional Job Descriptions
We evolved our job descriptions from being a way to screen people out and instead a tool to bring people in. We have two main goals with our descriptions. The first is to help candidates see themselves in the role and get excited about it). And second is to signal that bias won’t impact their hiring chances.
We achieved this through three main changes.
Don’t treat qualifications like a checklist.
Instead, we now paint a picture of life in the role that helps candidates see themselves in the position. Lists of specific skills and experience can trigger imposter syndrome and make some people hesitant to apply. We now position “qualifications” at a higher level, focusing on attributes and traits required for success. We only include skills if they are specifically needed to do the job. We also paint a picture of what to expect during the first 90 days and first year in the role, including what they will do, learn, and accomplish.
Share the salary.
Literally, we say what we will pay. We have a budget and can benchmark with the market, so we just tell people how much we will pay for each position. Asking for salary expectations or using coded language like “commensurate with experience” can leave some applicants assuming bias will creep into salary decisions.
Tell diverse applicants that you want them to apply.
We created a strong, direct diversity statement that is true to our business, and include it right up front in the first or second paragraph of the posting. Just as the order of qualifications lists implicitly signals their relative importance, so does where your diversity message appears.
Tip: Always remember to ask for help to develop your job descriptions. We all have blind spots based on our identities, so ask folks from different backgrounds for feedback. Different perspectives are critical to inclusive writing.
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2018 Team Diversity
2023 Team Diversity
Step Two: Revisit Your Pipeline
Our networks tend to look just like us, so we needed to reach out to different, diverse networks for recruiting. We decide not to expect diverse candidates to be where we are and instead go to them.
Stop posting to platforms without diverse audiences.
“Productive” job listing sources that flood our pool with homogenous applicants are detrimental to building diversity. Instead, we analyzed our data to understand which job boards were referring the least diverse applicants and we stopped posting on those sites. Instead, we post more selectively, with platforms that have a more diverse audience, such as with industry groups specifically for professionals of color.
Share entry-level roles directly with more diverse institutions.
For roles well-aligned for recent graduates, we share postings with more diverse institutions with relevant degree programs. We now post with HBCUs and at more diverse local and state institutions.
Ask staff to specifically share with their diverse networks.
We encourage our diverse staff to share the role with their networks, while giving other employees specific language that explicitly says that we encourage diverse applicants.
Tip: After a few weeks of recruiting your initial candidate pool isn’t attracting enough diversity, don’t give in to the temptation to post on more traditional homogeneous sources to get more applicants. Stick with it, slow the hiring process, and figure out other recruiting strategies to find more diverse applicants.
Step Three: Hire for Diversity
Even with diverse applicant pools, we found our hiring process also lacked inclusivity, so we changed how we interview and select applicants.
We now include an EDI-focused staff member throughout the process to support the interview team. A member of our internal EDI working group is involved with each step in the process with the explicit goal of identifying bias and bringing a more holistic view of the candidates at each decision point.
Prompt hiring teams to reflect on their bias.
Before the interview and before submitting feedback, we ask each interviewer to pause for one to two minutes, take a few breaths, and reflect on any biases they may bring to the interview. We believe people are well-intentioned and that they don’t want to make biased decisions. The simple act of this mindful reflection will help them see any bias and think about the candidates in a deeper, fairer way.
Develop standard interview questions.
Standard questions to minimize bias from shared identities and generate more insightful feedback. We didn’t want to see phrases like, “I can just see them here” in the feedback. We created questions that every candidate received, all designed to generate more objective feedback.
Make group decisions, not individual.
Our EDI lead meets with the interviewers in each round to advance candidates and then the entire hiring team meets at the end to discuss the finalists and decide on a hiring recommendation. While a single person can still retain the final decision, a group hiring recommendation helps ensure multiple perspectives are included and provides a more holistic view of the selected candidate.
Tip: All of these steps are fairly straightforward, but the process can seem daunting under the pressure to hire and full openings. You may not get this right the first time, and you will make mistakes along the way, but by treating each hiring process as a learning opportunity while being open to feedback from your team and asking for help along the way, real progress in creating more diverse teams and a more inclusive hiring process is within reach.
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