Why diversity is NOT a hiring issue.

I’m quite proud that at Figured we have a diverse workforce with a gender balance within both the leadership and management functions, and a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds across our team. It all makes for a great working environment, particularly as people view the world differently and come up with solutions that a less diverse team may not.

But at Figured, we don’t spend a moment thinking about diversity when hiring - none, zip, nada. And we are unlikely to do so. We don’t have quotas when hiring, and we don’t aspire to - quota chasing, at its essence, is some form of  “-ism” and will deny us the opportunity to recruit the best candidate for any role.

So, how have we got to have a diverse team when we don’t actively hire for diversity?

We recruit for it.

Build work practices that attract diversity

Firstly, we have a flexible working environment that allows staff to fit work around their personal obligations. This allows many people who may not be able to work full time or commit to coming to an office on a regular schedule to be included in the  recruitment process without penalty. As a result, we get a more diverse candidate list to hire from. The great thing about hiring people in this situation is that they really value the flexibility that is provided to them - it’s not just a convenience, it’s a necessity that they value greatly.

Keep bias out of the shortlist

Our amazing Head of Talent recruits without bias for roles. She knows what it’s like to be from a minority culture, not have English as her native language, manage three young children and hold down a key role here at Figured. Zainab is unlikely to unconsciously filter out candidates because they have young child that need to be  picked up from daycare, or because they don’t speak English perfectly. Eliminating unconscious bias in recruitment is much more important for us than managing diversity quotas when hiring. Get this part right and a lot of the other issues fall away.

Filter on behavioural competencies

Of course recruitment is about selection and, yes, we apply filters when evaluating candidates - but not the ones you may think. A big part of the recruitment selection at Figured, after skill and experience, is determining the likely fit to our working culture that is based on seven behavioural tenants such as: Curiosity, Coach-able, Authenticity, Give a Damn etc. By being very clear about the selection filters we apply, it suppresses the unconscious bias that otherwise can occur in recruitment.

Build work practices that attract a diverse range of applicants, keep bias out of the recruitment processes, select on behavioural competencies,  present a diverse shortlist and then absolutely hire the best person without any thought to age, race or gender.

What’s still to do?

So while we have a processes and approach pretty well sorted in regards to diversity, there are still some skews in our workforce that we would like to see changed over time.

Most significantly, there just aren’t enough girl-geeks - the development team is the one area where our gender ratio is still out of whack, and it reflects an industry issue that needs some serious work. It would be great for STEM to be seen as providing amazing career and lifestyle options for more young women.

Also, there is also a shortage of Pacifica and Maori coming through in tech roles, which is a real shame given the opportunities that the growing tech sector offers.

And whilst the SaaS software business is generally perceived as a young person’s game, I’d like to see more longer-life experiences brought into the business over time. Age-ism may yet be the next big diversity issue that early stage tech businesses need to face up to given that people are both working and living longer. There’s just no replacement for wisdom, as long as it is matched with the ability to be curious, to learn, to adapt and to apply that wisdom within a constantly changing business context.

And of course we need to keep focused on the end goal of a diverse workplace - and that’s diversity of thought. It’s all very well to have a gender and racially diverse organisation, but is there sufficient diversity of thoughts, views and opinions to drive us forward? At the moment, given the rigour of some of the debates at Figured, I think so, but it’s something we will need to continue to watch.

As Mae Chen points out, super diversity is now at critical mass in NZ, and we will need to be continually vigilant - refining our recruiting approach to take advantage of the significant opportunities that the rising level of diversity offers Figured. That will be a constant “work in progress” for us but we know we will be a better company for it.