5 Best Practices for Company Culture when Recruiting Diverse Populations
- Establish a Culture that will Practice Representational Equity, Not Tokenization- In order to do this your company must understand that there is a need for more than just visible and invisible diverse identities. You should work nonstop to create a culture that understands that you are recruiting employees who have diverse identities and you relate the job qualifications to competencies and not just quotas. Representational Equity is about having a voice that has decision making impact. Tokenization is you are there because of your identities and symbolic diversity efforts, not for your contribution to change.
- Try Competencies, not just Quotas- If you want to increase the number of diverse candidates and you are only tracking that data to measure surface level success you will run ito tokenization and issues of retention. It is important to understand the important contributions of diverse people. In order to do this, you must determine what competencies are necessary for the job outside of only the technical hard skills etc. Do you want a person who has worked in and for certain communities? Yes, numbers are important and should be part of the process but they should not be your only factor.
- Plan for Diverse Representation at Every Level of the Company- If you are a company that is lacking diverse representation I am almost positive that there is not much in your leadership level. Most companies, especially large companies, usually will have diverse representation at lower levels of the company, usually the entry level. This is also where they want to prioritize recruiting positions for. We understand that different levels have different needs, especially in the numbers. You must plan to recruit populations simultaneously for roles at every level. There are a number of systemic reasons that this happens and if you want representation be willing as a company to contribute to the journey it takes inside and outside of your company for a person to have the equal right to earn the qualifications you require for the role.
- Stop Defining Race and Gender as the only Diversity Dimensions- Race and gender are very important components of the conversation about diverse identities. Many companies have started to understand this. But, some of you still have a long way to go. Remember that there are both visible and invisible components of diversity that are not just physical. Many of these intersect with race and gender as well. If you expand your definition, you can expand your recruiting networks and connections. It will open doors for your company and open your company’s doors
- Don’t Make Your Employees with Oppressed Identities the Only Responsible Parties for your DEI Initiatives- It is not only their job to fix what the privileged has broken. DEI is everybody’s job. To understand this it requires establishing DEI deliverables and accountabilities for every department and role in your company.
