4 Secrets to Diversity Recruiting That Recruiters Won’t Tell You (But Really Want To)

It is nearly impossible to find any company recruiting for the best talent today who will not also shine a spotlight on their focus on inclusive recruiting.

Yes, they have learned all the right language to use, polished their heavily branded brochures, engaged diverse organizations, and added Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian images to the recruiting and diversity sections of their websites. But as they track their progress, they take note of the many struggles to significantly moving the numbers on attracting, and retaining, underrepresented talent for the organization.

Talent Acquisition is arguably one of the most important assets a company has in their arsenal for recruiting diverse talent. But rarely are organizations engaging this population to ask their thoughts on how to improve their ability to be successful.

In my nearly 20 years working side-by-side with some of the best recruiters and their leaders, I have taken note of four secrets to diversity recruiting that these experts would love to share (if they could).

Many Organizations Do Not Have an Integrated Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Strategy that Includes Inclusive Recruiting

It may shock you but there are more than a few organizations that have put the cart before the horse by asking recruiters to find diverse talent without properly creating and supporting the function. Oftentimes this can be tied to a company's pending lawsuit(s) or a lack of Diversity in the organization being reported upon by the media and the organization wanting to quickly change the narrative.

But an organization that understands the value of the recruiting function will bring together leaders from...

• ERGs,
• Talent Acquisition,
• HR Business Partners,
• The Lines of Business,
• The Office of Diversity, and
• Learning and Development.

Each component is necessary to develop an integrated approach that ensures everyone takes ownership in ensuring the company's success.

Most Leaders Aren't Held Accountable and Are Not Fully Invested

Let's face it, we mimic the behaviors of our leaders. And when leaders do not hold each other accountable, we cannot expect hiring managers to hold themselves accountable.

I will never forget the leader who talked about hiring more diversity in leadership; however, when presented with - not one but two - different opportunities to hire at the C-Suite level they chose to hire the white male candidate even though the slate had more qualified ethnic and/or female talent available.

If there has not been a transformation at the leadership level, recruiting and retaining diverse talent will be impossible. It is not just what leaders say but even more important is what they do. Organizations must hold leaders accountable if success is the goal.

Zero-Tolerance Is SUPPOSED TO BE a Requirement (but it isn't)

I have witnessed leaders using the most derogatory terms when referencing members of diverse communities, while at the same time take stages making their claim of being inclusive and that it is "everyone's job to bring everyone in."

I have also witnessed, and reported, incidents of sexual harassment and downright discrimination and instead of those leaders being shown the door, they were moved to other departments and/or provided "coaching" instead.

And I have even seen hiring managers state their disgusts with having to interview someone from an underrepresented group when they knew they were just going to hire their white male friend anyway.

Until a company's leaders agree what they wrote in the company handbook - that there is a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment and workplace discrimination - we won't see the company numbers change much. And trust me, Recruiters know this.

The Process is Riddled with Bias (Unconscious AND Conscious) and Training is No Silver Bullet

While many organizations have delivered unconscious bias training, few organizations have measured the performance of that training. In fact, Harvard Business Review highlighted an experiment designed to measure the impact of diversity training.

The experiment included 3 approaches:

1. One training focused on addressing gender bias;
2. One training addressing biases of all sorts (e.g., gender, age, race, and sexual orientation); and
3. One training, serving as a control, that did not mention bias but instead focused on the importance of cultivating psychological safety in teams.

They then invited over 10,000 employees from a large global organization to participate and randomly assigned the more than 3,000 who signed up into one of the three versions of the online training course. The final sample was 61.5% male, 38.5% female, included employees located in 63 different countries, and was composed of roughly 25% managers.

As Harvard Business Review explained the experiment, "To examine the effects of the training, [they] measured employees’ attitudes toward women and racial minorities immediately after they completed the training. [They] also measured their behavior over the next 20 weeks by observing whom they chose to informally mentor, whom they recognized for excellence, and whom they volunteered time to help."

The Good News.

The bias-focused trainings had a positive effect on the attitudes of employees who they believe were the least supportive of women prior to training.

The Bad News.

Very little evidence was shown that the training affected the behavior of men or white employees overall—the two groups who typically hold the most power in organizations and are often the primary targets of these interventions.

One interesting conclusion I noted was the version of their training that centered entirely on gender bias and gender stereotyping. "Despite its clear focus on gender, it also had positive effects on U.S. employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward racial minorities. Even though there was no mention of race or racial bias in this training, U.S. employees who took it were more willing than their counterparts in the control group to acknowledge their own racial biases, provide informal mentorship to racial minorities, and recognize the excellent work of their peers who were racial minorities."

There is data that shows white men who have daughters support more egalitarian gender roles, and that male lawmakers, judges and corporate executives with daughters are more likely to support gender equity and policies that benefit women. While this shows an inclusive approach to gender, it doesn't necessarily show that inclusion extends to Women of Color.

Given this, I would have loved to have known of the 61.5% males in the experiment, which had daughters?

No matter how you look at it, it is clear, not all trainings are built the same and measuring your efforts is paramount in discovering if you need a refresher. Let's schedule time to discuss how to bring transformative training to your organization.

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