Why I'm going all in to help underrepresented talent land jobs

This year I decided to go ‘all in’ on helping companies attract underrepresented talent. I’ve ‘put my money where my mouth is’ and quit a job that paid me over $150k/year, with all the benefits in the world, and the prospect of another promotion, to start a movement (Mentorli). A movement that rallies and empowers employee allies to help their company attract more women and underrepresented minorities. 

Here’s why my head and heart are both all in. 

First, my heart. 

I was born and raised in South Africa at the end of the apartheid era. Nicknamed the rainbow nation, SA has 11 official languages and is a melting pot for so many different tribes, races, cultures, and people. My generation were the test dummies - the first to integrate and go to school together. As you can imagine, there were (and are) a lot of growing pains in an extremely complex situation. However, looking back, the biggest lesson I took away from my school experience was that, with an equal opportunity and the right work ethic, anyone could succeed, regardless of their background. 

Believe it or not, this was contrary to what a sizable portion of my friends and family believed (and told me) growing up. I thought to myself that given our past, “it's got to be a South African thing.” Unfortunately, I’ve found that these beliefs, stereotypes, biases, or whatever you want to call them either consciously or unconsciously can be found wherever you go - even in the most progressive Bay Area. In fact, pitching the idea of creating equal opportunity to investors - and people close to me - has often been met with surprising push back. 

But I know better. When I was looking for a full time job out of college, I didn’t have connections like my peers because I didn’t grow up in the states. After reaching out to an obscene number of people on LinkedIn to get my foot in the door at a great company, finally someone replied. He agreed to mentor me and for over three months, helped me understand the business and what I needed to do to prepare for the interview. Then, he referred me and helped the hiring committee understand that my non-traditional background - serving a religious mission for two years - was perfect for sales. Something that would’ve been standard issue for any well connected American senior in college was given to me - an equal opportunity that set me on a course far above what I ever could have dreamed about without it. 

I’m grateful so my heart says I need to help others that don’t start with an equal shot. 

Then, my head. 

Last year, something kept coming up in my LinkedIn client calls - companies were struggling to attract “diverse talent.” One company with hundreds of employees (and a leader in their space) didn’t even have a single female employee (manager or above) they could feature on their branded LinkedIn page. I thought to myself, what woman would want to work here knowing the chances were slim to none of getting into leadership?!

I wanted to learn if this was a real problem for other companies so I started to dig. 

Here’s what I learned: 

1. After years of trying, tech companies still struggle to attract underrepresented talent. Despite the wave of ‘Chief Diversity Officer’ hires and trending hashtags, tech companies still haven’t moved the needle in any significant way. We all knew this, but it’s mainly because people attract people like themselves and tech companies started out largely homogeneous. Today, only 5% of execs at fortune 500 companies are racially diverse and ~25% of the tech workforce are women (compared to 46% that participate in the US workforce). 
2. Most people don’t know why diversity is important for business. There will always be some folks that support hiring candidates from different backgrounds and others that don’t - what I find astounding is that most people, on either side of the equation, don’t know why hiring a racial-and-gender-diverse team is important from a business perspective. Some think it’s to be politically correct, look a certain way, or not get sued. Others look at it as a charitable act, to achieve equality, or get “diversity of thought.” In different scenarios, any of these could be true, but this is not why it’s important for businesses. 
3. Here’s why creating a representative workforce is compelling for a business: For companies, creating a representative workforce is important because it opens up the entire network of qualified talent for future hiring. When a team looks and sounds the same, they create an exclusive environment and unintentionally close the doors to qualified future recruits that look and sound differently. Outsiders accept jobs at a lower rate and don’t stick around as long because they don’t feel a sense of community. In the most competitive talent market in 50 years, orgs need every qualified person they can find and can’t afford to exclude any qualified candidate.
4. There are some other compelling business reasons to create a representative workforce.

• There’s a linear relationship between earnings and racial diversity (+.8% for every 10% increase in sr. level diversity) 
• Minorities will be the majority in the US as soon as 2041 so if your company isn’t representative, you’ll have significant talent challenges in the future
• Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their industry means 
• As humans, It's just the right thing to do.

If your business is hiring, diversity needs to be at the forefront of every discussion. Period. 

My head and heart are both all in and I have never been more optimistic about the future for underrepresented talent. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What are your thoughts? Why do you think hiring for diversity is important or not important? How do you think companies could move the needle on hiring underrepresented candidates? 

#Diversity #Mentoring #Referrals #Hiring #Recruiting #Tech