Who Will You Hire?

Small Steps Towards Diversity in your Workplace

Diversity in the workplace is starting to be more than a buzzword. Many companies are making diversity one of their top priorities. Amazon, the biggest retailer in the world, recently announced that it will nominate women and minorities to its board of directors.(1) Amazon said in a statement that:
    "...diversity will benefit companies by providing greater access to talent, harnessing existing talent more effectively, and improving decision making by reducing groupthink and similar psychological biases."

The issue of "groupthink", defined as "the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility" is more common in non-diverse workplaces, to their detriment.(2) 

If you are a hiring officer, chairman, or leader at your workplace, consider how you can get ahead of your competition by hiring people of diverse backgrounds.  Here are some ideas to help you improve diversity in your workplace.

Stop with the Excuses Already! Stop saying that you can't find good minority candidates to hire.  That is no longer a good excuse.  Although there are still small numbers of us in some sectors, particularly in academic STEM fields, there are at least some minority if you know where to look.  For example, I direct a research program for minority graduate students.  Every year, I receive 400-600 applications for 10 spots.  There are many great candidates in that pool of applications.  Similarly, if you advertise broadly you will be able to attract a diverse group of candidates.
 
Learn about Diversity: Incredibly, it is 2018 and many leaders don't know what we mean when we talk about diversity and even worst, they don't know how diversity may benefit their organizations. An increasing number of business leaders and academics are becoming aware of the evidence that shows that diversity in their teams can improve their revenue, but this knowledge is not yet widespread in many organizations.(1) 

Train Staff: Researchers at Montana State University conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether they could improve hiring of women faculty in science and technology positions. In the study, search committee chairs in the intervention group received training on gender bias and work-life integration. The researchers found that the search committees that received this training were much more likely to hire women for faculty positions as compared to the search committees that did not receive this training.(3)

Outreach: Advertise positions available in your institution broadly, particularly through organizations for minority professionals. Many professional associations and societies have chapters for underrepresented minorities in their profession and they can help you advertise through those channels.

Diversify and Empower your Committees: It is particularly important that search committees for positions available are diverse and have the mandate to consider qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds. This is important for at least two reasons. First, a search committee that is racially and gender diverse will distribute announcements for positions available through their networks which are more likely to be diverse as well. Second, candidates who are underrepresented in the fields may find it encouraging to see that the recruiting team is diverse. No one wants to be the only underrepresented minority in a team, so minority candidates may be more likely to accept a position in a team that has more diversity.

Create and Implement a Diversity Policy: Make sure that when you advertise positions available, that you include an equal opportunity statement. And mean it! We have all seen the now ubiquitous: "Equal opportunity employer". But companies that value diversity are being more explicit advertising their employment policies. For example, Google includes this statement:
   “At Google, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.”
Boston University gives examples of more proactive language for improving recruitment of underrepresented minority faculty, such as:
     "BU is committed to building a culturally diverse faculty and strongly encourages applications from female and minority candidates. Women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply. BU is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from minorities and women. Candidates should describe how multicultural issues have been or will be brought into courses. Candidates should describe previous activities mentoring minorities, women, or members of other underrepresented groups."

Lead by Example: Create a culture of diversity by showing that you GET IT. As a leader, you set the tone for your organization. Show that you support a corporate community of inclusion. You can do this by supporting, promoting and encouraging diversity. Start by looking around your organization and ask yourself if it reflects the population outside company's door.

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1. Reuters. Amazon adopts new policy to promote board diversity. New York Times, May 14, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/05/14/business/14reuters-amazon-diversity.html
2. Johansson, A. Why Workplace Diversity Diminishes Groupthink And How Millennials Are Helping.  Forbes, July 20, 2017.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/annajohansson/2017/07/20/how-workplace-diversity-diminishes-groupthink-and-how-millennials-are-helping/#36a327c4b741
3. Jessi L. Smith, Ian M. Handley, Alexander V. Zale, Sara Rushing, Martha A. Potvin; Now Hiring! Empirically Testing a Three-Step Intervention to Increase Faculty Gender Diversity in STEM, BioScience, Volume 65, Issue 11, 1 November 2015, 1084–1087, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biv138