After working in HR in close proximity to diversity my whole career, a couple of years ago, I realized I didn’t really know how to increase diversity on my own team. To be honest, I was embarrassed to even talk about it. I’d built a strong team, but it was more homogeneous than I wanted. As a founder, I knew our company needed to change how we recruited and hired people.
I’ve learned a lot about hiring for diversity over the past year and a half, and want to share some insights with you because diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to how we all do business.
One of the first things I did was get in touch with my trusted friend Steven Matly of SM Diversity, to ask for his advice on how to approach diversity hiring. His first piece of advice? Be inclusive in all you do as a company: how you market yourself and who you build relationships with, for example. Here are some other things I’ve learned.
Do an “inclusivity audit” – and be open to making changes.
After connecting with Steven, I started looking at how our company could be more inclusive, including how we represent our business. We made changes, including updating imagery and content where needed, taking care to include representative images, and to cite all voices, not just white women and men. Two important questions to ask about your company at this stage: Are you using inclusive imagery and content that represents all communities on your blog, website, and marketing materials? Are you supporting diverse individuals and organizations? A good example is avoiding “manels” — all-male panels at conferences and events, a standard practice for decades in the modern business world that’s changing over time.
Be transparent about where your company needs to improve diversity hiring.
Our team looked hard at where we were and then had open, transparent conversations about where we lacked diversity. This meant talking about what kinds of diversity we lacked, in which roles. As a result, we committed to increasing the number of women of color and men in our company – something we are continuing to work on.
Ask for help with referrals, and be specific.
Why is talking about a lack of diversity so awkward? In my experience, it’s because we’re not used to being specific about diversity or people being direct with us about how we need to improve. Acknowledging a lack of diversity, talking about it, and being clear about how to change it feels abnormal because in most cases, we’ve never done it before. But uncomfortable conversations are absolutely necessary to make progress on diverse hiring.
At a board meeting recently, a black, female board member was direct with the group about our lack of diversity, saying: “I don’t see black people in your organization. I don’t see men in your organization.” And she’s right. We aren’t used to people being that direct (especially here in the Pacific Northwest) but we need to be.
A key step for me in improving our company’s diverse hiring was asking my network for help. I asked a small, trusted group of people in my network for referrals and I was specific about our need to hire male coaches and women of color, which was uncomfortable but necessary. As a result, I received seven referrals — four women of color and three men.
Get expert help to focus your diversity and inclusivity efforts.
I know, hire another consultant? Yes. Our company doesn’t specialize in diversity hiring, and we recognized we needed expert help to improve. We worked with a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist, our advisor Cheryl Ingram of Diverse City and Inclusology, to create a diversity statement for our company. We began training our team on diversity, inclusion, and unconscious bias. Cheryl helps us make sure our training materials are inclusive in the way we speak to participants and the examples we use. She’s also encouraged us to build long-term relationships with groups such as diverse Chambers of Commerce and business associations.
There are many resources to help companies in the Pacific Northwest with diverse hiring, and people in the community who are willing to help well-intended leaders if you don’t know where to start.
Diverse hiring isn’t a box you check or something that will happen overnight. It takes clear goals, intentional planning, and relationship building. It may feel awkward to be transparent about the specific gaps in your hiring, but it’s the only way to make real progress.
In Cheryl’s words, “Diversity is about representation; inclusion is about culture.” Watch out for next month’s post about creating a healthy, inclusive culture in your organization.
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