In recent years, companies have begun to increasingly value diversity in the workplace. With research that shows less homogenous teams perform better on key financial metrics, hiring is a critical process to diversify teams and bring in new perspectives to any company's culture.
Below are some reflections from an example of hiring process adaptations and recommendations to create a more equitable hiring process. It's important to note that while creating equitable processes can support an increase in diversity in new hires, focusing on the processes themselves is what will sustainably create long-term guardrails to encourage team members to slow down, notice, and check their biases.
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Signal a strong commitment to diversity in any job description
To begin, ensure job descriptions actively encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. This includes checking an existing description for language that may be unnecessarily or unintentionally exclusive of candidates of certain identities, such as ensuring the use of inclusive pronouns ("they/them" pronouns rather than solely "he/him" or "she/her" pronouns). It also means reducing the reliance on access to certain institutions (minimizing references to "top tier" universities, for example).
As social psychology researchers at Stanford SPARQ have shared, organizations that embed unnecessary or masculine-oriented requirements in recruiting processes may find it harder to attract people who are not socialized to display these characteristics. As seen in a real-life example, changing the ideal candidate requirements from "unreasonably talented" and "driven," to someone who is "deeply excited by the opportunity of creating thoughtful digital products that have lasting impact," was proven to draw in more women applicants.
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Additionally, a company's job description should proactively state a dedicated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), both in terms of benefits that may be interesting to diverse candidates (such as parental leave policies or flexible or remote work offerings) and with regards to your dedication to creating an inclusive and equitable culture. Candidates will be using the job description as a starting point to evaluate whether they would feel safe and happy working at a company and in its existing culture.
One interesting example of this signaling is a job description from an education technology investor for an open role; the job description states: "We strongly encourage people of color, LGBTQ and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply. Research has shown that women and people from marginalized communities apply to roles when they meet 100% of the job requirements, versus male applicants who apply if they meet an average of 60% of the requirements. If you think that your skills are transferable and can add value to this role, please apply so we can determine whether it's a good fit."
Collect demographic data to understand whether the initial pipeline of candidates is actually diverse
In order to understand whether the pipeline of current candidates is diverse, collecting self-reported demographic data is a must. It's critical to consider collecting this data in an anonymized and de-identified way so that candidates feel comfortable self-declaring their race and gender and feel confident that sharing this information will not affect the ultimate hiring decision, per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It's also necessary to provide the option for candidates to select "choose not to respond" for all demographic reporting questions.
Companies and their leaders can also set targets, whether they remain internal or are externally communicated for transparency; in a hiring process, commit to keeping the initial application open until gender and racial distribution targets are met. Targets can also serve as a benchmark for the demographic data collected; if a certain demographic (e.g. Latina women) is lagging, this informs further outreach to partners that can source candidates in the specific demographic (e.g. organizations that help share open roles with Latina women). If an ample amount of time has passed and targets are still not being met, companies should consider partnering with organizations that can help source diverse candidates. This investment will go a long way in terms of increasing diversity within the applicant pool and ultimately in the workplace.
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Commit to equitable communication with all candidates
Commit to emailing all candidates and letting them know their application has been received, with additional information on when they can expect to hear updates in terms of timeline. Candidates, particularly candidates who have had negative experiences at other workplaces, do not want to waste their time if they do not believe their efforts to apply (and often complete long cover letters or application exercises) will be considered fairly. It's also critical to ensure that beyond the first round of interviews, company leaders interview all potential candidates within the same week or concentrated time period and communicate the same standardized information to all of them.
Below is a real-life example of a candidate's response to proactive and clear communication in the hiring process:
"Thank you for being transparent about the whole process. This is one of the few times I feel comfortable applying for a job!"
Importantly, equitable communication also includes asking the same interview questions of all candidates. The questions asked anchor the kinds of responses candidates provide, so asking the same interview questions phrased in the exact same way of all candidates is the best way to provide an equitable set of opportunities for candidates to share information about their lived and professional experiences. This prevents any potential gender inequities that may arise from the well-researched phenomenon that women company founders are asked more questions about downside and risk, whereas men who found companies are asked more questions about upside and opportunity.
These tips provide a starting point to seek an increasingly diverse and inclusive workplace. Small changes to ensure a hiring process is equitable can shift the comfort of diverse candidates in applying to (and accepting) a job in any company's workplace. Ultimately, while hiring is a key process to diversify the workplace, working to reduce biases to embody an inclusive culture and create equitable promotion processes is equally critical to retaining diverse talent.
