Diversity and Inclusion Should Start at the Individual Level, Not The Company Level
Time after time, especially after cultural reckonings, companies make grand statements and commitments to improving or enacting policies that attract candidates from underrepresented groups or regions.
Yet the results are invariably the same. The same company will eventually release figures that show little or no change to the makeup of their workforce, leaving employees and the general public frustrated at the lack of progress. The cycle of futility continues.
But I believe it shouldn't just be up to companies to drive equitable change. Re-framing the conversation and placing the onus on individuals forces candidates to reevaluate the job-seeking process.
Instead of relying on some faceless organization, they learn to reach out to people in their network, developing the skills to backchannel, and hear about opportunities before they hit the job boards. On the flip side, someone in a position to help can take more responsibility and play an active role in helping people get in the door.
To borrow from professor Clay Routledge, real impact happens in the shadows, away from the limelight of LinkedIn Company Pages, press releases, and public pledges. Opportunities manifest when individuals assume responsibility for helping their friends, classmates, or acquaintances get in the door. It should come as no surprise that almost 80% of people got their job through a referral.
We tend to overlook the interpersonal aspect because it’s not sexy. If anything, driving equitable change is time-consuming, tedious, and sometimes frustrating. Last week I sat down to take a nap only to be reminded by my phone that I had a 3 PM with an MBA student who had reached out to ask about breaking into tech.
It was 2:50. I thought I should email and reschedule. The only thing keeping me from my power nap was a call I scheduled two weeks prior that I no longer wanted to do.
But at that moment, I thought back to all the kind people who went out of their way to help me get in the door or advance my career. I thought back at Stephen Key, who replied to my cold email in 2011 and agreed to meet with me.
I thought about Di-Ann, one of my first managers at Waze, who could have fired me when I struggled to keep up with the demands of my first full-time job but instead chose to coach and support me. I paid her back by closing more than six-figures in revenue for the nascent Waze Ads platform in 2012.
I was reminded of Flavia, who became my manager after a reorg in 2016. She threw her arm around my shoulder and listened to me as I talked through a family member’s suicide attempt. That kindness wasn’t in her job description.
In this student’s email, and in countless other interactions I’ve been privy to, I saw my own pleas reflected back at me from the other side. To cancel on this kid would mean to turn my back on the help I had benefited from.
Facebook proclamations are sexy. Statements are sexy. Taking time out of your day to write a referral email or to review a cover letter or tidy up a friend’s resume isn’t. It’s not grand, and it’s not glamorous. But real change looks like small, tedious actions done over a sustained period.
We have to understand the fundamental disconnects between the vision companies espouse and the actual day-to-day interactions of sourcing, recruiting, and hiring. Managers and recruiter's primary objective is to mitigate risk and find the person who best fits the role. No one was ever reprimanded for hiring someone who fits the job description. So off the get-go, there's a misalignment.
The second disconnect is that understanding diversity at the individual level takes time. To really get a sense of how a prospect's background complements the existing workforce in a new way takes hours. And unfortunately, most companies/ recruiters don't have the time to get to know someone's story. It's not a recruiter's fault; they have to review thousands of resumes and manage relationships with hundreds of candidates while dealing with competing firms fighting over the same talent.
Recently, I had one recruiter at a fintech company go out of her way to help me understand the context, challenges, org chart, and everything in between before I even had my first phone screen...with another recruiter. That’s selflessness. I’m also reminded of a manager at Google who went out of his way to fight for two talented contractors who had no experience in transportation but saw potential. With his coaching and patience, both contractors became full-time Googlers within a year.
Unfortunately, these examples tend to be the exceptions to an otherwise mechanical recruiting process.
Driving change and empowering people should come from us, not just from D&I programs at large companies. That said, there are still steps they can take to help uncover new talent:
Kill the college requirement. It’s already a thing as major companies realize skills and experience are much more predictive of future success than college degrees.
Recalibrate “years required.” This is where I see exceptional, diverse candidates fall through the cracks. I understand experience is essential, and there is a big difference between zero and five years of experience. However, the difference between six and nine years isn’t as extreme. Maybe more flexibility will bring in new types of candidates. As a friend once said, “I don’t have eight years experience. But I have escaped poverty. I’m guessing I can sell enterprise software.”
Be open to lateral moves. This is admittingly a selfish ask since it’s where I get stuck. “Eric, you have great experience, but we need someone with partnership’s background in <insert new industry>. If anything, lateral moves are sparks for innovation, as David Epstein details time and time again in Range.
Invest in new recruiting pipelines. Al Davis and the Raiders built scouting networks at Historically Black Colleges, drafting two Hall of Fame lineman in the process. Not only was Al looking to give opportunities to an overlooked group, offensive linemen weren’t supposed to be black, but no other team was looking to these schools. Al had no competition for top talent. I’m surprised that few companies “raid” the junior college ranks for entry-level talent.
Diversity and Inclusion shouldn’t just fall on one department. It should be everyone’s responsibility, not because we have a quota to fill or because it makes our companies look good. But instead, we do it because we’re good people and because there’s an 80% chance we got our job through someone else. Reform and change are coming down from the top. But if efforts don’t bubble from the trenches, from ourselves, then we will never have long-lasting change. If we want to go there, it has to start from the bottom.