My Side of the Story

I have had the pleasure of working in career transition for over 10 years. Whether it was recruiting for a staffing agency, mentoring disenfranchised youth through learning a trade, working with individuals with barriers caused by the criminal justice system, or advocating for and placing individuals with disabilities; I’d like to say I have a pretty good idea of what strategic hiring looks like. I am also always learning new strategies, challenging my own assumptions, and thinking of ways that organizations can walk the DEI walk. 

Differences in age, ability, culture, race, background, and socioeconomic status are all important when considering how you are writing your job description and deciding on requirements for a role. Ask yourself, does the role require rigid requirements that will discourage an individual who will bring diversity to your organization from applying? To go a little further, what keywords are you using to search for or flag qualified candidates? For instance, Diversity Equity and Inclusion are hot ticket keywords right now, but who is more likely to use this in their resume?  I had an “aha moment” when I was working through the “about me section” of my LinkedIn profile. (This is always a struggle for me.)

My consultant said “Angela, you’re a DEI professional. SAY THAT! It’s a keyword!!” As a bi-racial woman, it is not something I see as a skill, because it’s just my life. It’s my lived experience, not something that I have accomplished or learned about recently so why would I have thought to showcase it on my profile? I know keyword searches are easy, but they need to be used carefully, or you may weed out qualified and diverse candidates. Take resumes with a grain of salt, and read between the lines. 

Key Questions You Should Be Asking When Creating Job Descriptions

Is there a way you can restructure roles to allow folks that may have physical or mental limitations to come on board? Everyone has strengths and abilities. Everyone. With the right accommodations and/or thought put into “carving” a position you can bring on reliable, talented, and diverse individuals that may not fit into traditional roles as readily. I am a firm believer that everyone who wants to work should be able to work, but employers sometimes do a good job in excluding people with limitations in the way they write their job descriptions.  

What are your background check requirements? (If you don’t have one, bravo!). How far back does your criminal check go? What are you looking for, specifically? I’ve worked with companies and organizations that have turned down a great candidate because of a charge from 10 years ago. This is unfair and really doing organizations a disservice by weeding out highly qualified people. Furthermore, what are the chances that a person who did the same thing, but had a way to pay for a good lawyer and get the charge dropped works for/with you right now? The only difference between a person with a criminal history, and one without may be that the one without just didn’t get caught, or had a financial advantage.  Keep in mind that some populations are disproportionally affected by the criminal justice system. If you want to be more equitable in your hiring practices, this is a quick and easy way to do so. 

Credit checks – Just no. I don’t think this is a common occurrence now, but just in case! STOP. 

Education is a big one. I recently worked on hiring a role and had to go back to my coworker twice to make sure, “Wait, there isn’t an education requirement for a Deputy Director role?” AMAZING. A very qualified candidate was offered the role, and I don’t know her education level. I didn’t even look! Sure, education is important, but is it necessary for the role you are hiring for? Lived experience and work history is education in itself, and this should be weighed at least equally to formal education, if not more.

In closing, I want to remind you that I am still holding hour-long FREE Coaching sessions through January. The link to schedule time is below!