THE INTERVIEW
First, where do you go to identify talent?
Many companies go to the alma maters of
their power structure, who may not be that
diverse. Second is looking at your hiring and
interview process. Maybe you’ve expanded
your talent pool and have diverse candidates
applying for jobs, but the individuals doing the
interviews do not have an inclusive mindset
and therefore continue picking people who
they feel most comfortable with. Third is the
onboarding experience. The first six months
to a year is really important in terms of the
experiences employees have at every level.
Last is upward mobility—looking at the data
of who gets promoted, who gets opportunities
for the best jobs, and who gets turned when a
company constricts.
Technology isn’t biased—the data will show
you what happened across the employee life
cycle. You can see decisions, predict decisions,
and use machines to remove the bias so you
can start to change the patterns.
What are the ‘gotchas’ of technology
solutions aimed at helping companies
with diversity and inclusion?
The promise is there, but right now, there
are a lot of point solutions. There are AI tools
that scan job descriptions for bias, ones that
remove names or anything self-identifying,
ones with facial recognition to analyze the
interviewer’s reaction to a candidate. There
are virtual reality solutions where an avatar is
programmed to the interviewer’s bias so that
they can focus on the answers.
But no company today has put it all together
at scale. Many companies can work with
smaller data sets, but when hiring at volumes
like Dell or other large companies, you need
a system that supports the entire continuum
from identification through upward mobility.
You can’t just pick one part of the story—you
need to impact the entire life cycle of the
employee’s experience, or you won’t get the
tangible results you’re looking for.
What advice do you have for business
leaders to become diversity and inclusion
champions?
First is to establish a foundation. I think of
diversity and inclusion as a language.
If you ask 10 people to define diversity and
inclusion, you’ll get several different answers.
So every company needs to have some foundational
education that opens peoples’ minds
and gives them common definitions so that
when programs follow, they have the context
as to why they are important, especially when
paired with the knowledge of the business
imperative.
Second, once companies understand what
an inclusive company looks like, they need
to set goals for how to get there, measure
progress, and hold people accountable. You
know what happens if you’re a salesperson
and you don’t meet your numbers. The same
needs to happen with diversity and inclusion—if
you’re not being inclusive, you’re
hurting the company and should be held accountable.
And that accountability needs to
be led from the top down. Grassroots efforts
can only go so far. ■
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