Ensuring Equal Employment Opportunity is More Than a Footnote

Many companies want to employ a culturally diverse workforce but don’t know how to do it. Finding and recruiting talent from underrepresented groups begins with a well-planned, intentional hiring strategy. However, often a disconnect exists between wanting to employ a culturally diverse workforce and actually hiring one. Let’s get into what makes equal employment opportunity a reality instead of just a company line.

It’s really critical that leadership is 100% committed to Equal Employment Opportunity. It starts with setting the right tone at the top and then evaluating processes to ensure that happens; training around biases and diverse interview panels, etc.

That Leads to Infrastructure

Unfortunately, EEO statements tend to be written with compliance in mind instead of looking at it as a culture statement. There needs to be infrastructure in place to support this statement from inclusive policies to checks and balances. 

For a company leader that may be frustrated with a lack of diversity, challenge the “we just hire the best candidate” notion especially if your workforce is clearly lacking in diversity. Look at the detail of the framework of the hiring process — who is in the interview, who reviews the resumes, do you have a history of primarily hiring family/referrals of current staff, where do you post your jobs, where do you attend job fairs, what colleges do you target?

Acknowledging Unconscious Bias

Organizations must manage unconscious bias in their hiring practices. One way to mitigate unconscious bias in talent decisions is by providing targeted intervention to talent management decision-makers. Intervention helps decision-makers recognize bias, and that is the first step in eliminating it. Companies should monitor hiring data to learn if interventions are successful. 

With new technologies readily available to combat inequities, companies can quickly ensure they practice what they preach. Workplace analytics can confirm liabilities and highlight triumphs in their EEO strategy, enabling companies to elevate an all-inclusive workplace.

You must have racially-literate and culturally competent leaders to ensure that there is equal employment opportunity. It will be human beings who make the impactful decisions about hiring, promoting, and sponsoring others in the workplace. Ensuring that decision-makers have not only a common language, but bias awareness and a shared commitment to equality is what will make the real difference.

Use Diverse Hiring Platforms

Companies need to go beyond their usual tactics and consider actively recruiting and building a presence in diverse spaces. At Wavely, our woman-led, people-focused, diverse team is constantly exploring new ways of thinking and operating to engage human talent with opportunities to shine. Our diversity will help create an exceptional team for your company because we celebrate the value of unique perspectives.

Leaders have to stop paying lip service to diversity and start actually caring about it. Once they decide it’s a priority, change will happen. HR can help by driving education and awareness, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the leadership team’s expectations and modeling the right behaviors.