{"id":1871,"date":"2017-09-14T14:37:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T18:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovators.org\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2018-10-05T05:53:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T09:53:08","slug":"time-make-diversity-hiring-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovators.org\/stage\/blog\/diversity-a-hiring-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Time to Make Diversity a Hiring Priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

The facts are clear: diverse teams are more innovative and better problem-solvers. So why do we keep hiring people who are like ourselves?<\/p>\n

When hiring, the topic of diversity might get pushed to the backburner. It\u2019s the kind of buzzword that makes you think, \u201cI would like to hire for diversity\u201d but you have no way to benchmark or measure the effectiveness of your efforts. The truth is, it\u2019s just a lot easier to hire people that are like ourselves. We feel more comfortable hiring people that share our experience, beliefs, and worldview. But trusting your own gut when it comes to hiring is actually a form of bias\u2014one that you\u2019re probably not even aware of.<\/p>\n

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Diversity goes beyond just employment brand for your company. Hiring for diversity is not about meeting a quota; it\u2019s about building the best possible team. The research shows <\/a>that diverse teams are more facts-focused and innovation-driven. Breaking up homogeneity in the workplace can break up unquestioned and conformist ways of thinking that can be a major stagnator of company growth and innovation. Diversity is also a major contributor to the bottom line\u2014a poll of nearly 1000 executives <\/a>found that 63% of the sample found that having women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) roles made their company more profitable. Yet, amongst\u00a0these executives, 30% do not require that female candidates make up part of their recruitment pool (even though, statistically, women candidates will not be hired<\/a> if the finalist pool consists primarily of white men).<\/p>\n

\"\"It\u2019s also time to expand our idea of what the idea of \u201cdiversity\u201d encompasses. Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture isn\u2019t just about scanning resumes for names of women and people of colour, but it\u2019s about hiring representatives of all intersections of identities, who are different from ourselves visibly or non-visibly. Neurodiverse people, such as individuals on the autism spectrum, don\u2019t often fit into our initial definition of \u201cdiversity\u201d or \u201cinclusion\u201d because their differences from ourselves are not always immediately visible. But neurodiverse individuals often struggle to fit the desired profile sought by employers. Traditional hard and soft skills that employers screen in interviews\u2014such as communication skills, networking skills, and being a team player\u2014systematically reject neurodiverse people.<\/p>\n

However, many of neurodiverse people have higher-than-average abilities. Research shows <\/a>that neurodiverse people can impart special skills in pattern recognition, memory, or mathematics, providing a valuable asset to your team. Regina Dugan, head of Facebook\u2019s new hardware unit, has called cognitive diversity \u201cthe most powerful tool\u201d<\/a> because \u201cwhen we are working on very difficult problems, it\u2019s essential that we have different voices in the room.\u201d Better problem-solving happens when a team feels inspired by how different they are, not when they are comfortable because everyone is the same.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cDiversity\u201d is a hot topic these days, and your organization may even state that they have a commitment to inclusion. However, unless you make intentional steps to remove barriers and biases ingrained in the tried and (not so) true method of resume screening and informal interviews, your team is going to automatically fall back on homogeneity and low diversity rates. And that means missing out on untapped talent and innovation opportunities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to make diversity a hiring priority. This means embracing new recruitment and hiring practices, because the old way of doing things relies on biases that, no matter what your intentions are, systematically result in teams of like-minded people that are comfortable but incapacitated to growth and innovation. So how do we break up these conventional hiring processes that get organizations stuck in cyclical ruts of the same-old, same-old?<\/p>\n

Job Descriptions<\/h2>\n

When you go to write that job posting, keep these things in mind:<\/p>\n

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