Building diverse teams (because they are smarter)
Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2022 12:07:49 +0000
Strategics and tactics to guide your transformation
You’re an entrepreneur or hiring manager looking to grow your team. You know that diverse teams perform higher than their homogeneous counterparts and that an inclusive culture makes for an environment where employees can thrive. Simply put, diverse teams are smarter, and you have stats to back it up too. As Harvard Business Review summarized it, a 2015 McKinsey report “found that companies in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean.” Here are some strategies and tactics that will guide you in building diverse teams.
Where do you currently stand?
Start off by doing an internal evaluation of your current team (if you have one in place). Some statistics to look for include how many of your team members identify as BIPOC, women, immigrant, or LGBTQ+; your overall employee retention/turnover rate and for specific community groups; and/or overall mobility in your company and for specific community groups. Note any diversity gaps such as traditional underrepresentation in your industry.
Planning and execution
Once you know where you stand, you can set new targets and make a plan to attain them. What is your target headcount and in what departments and/or roles? What community groups have you identified as underrepresented in your team and what are the revised targets? What are your timelines for these new strategic talent acquisition targets?
Once you have determined your targets, it is time for execution. You must be intentional in your pursuit of hiring diverse talent. Seek communities that represent groups such as women in STEM, immigrants in tech or Black professional groups. For instance, many organizations such as Latam Startups, Scale Without Borders, or QueerTech can connect you with diverse and high-quality talent and build strong relationships with them.
Evaluating and interviewing candidates
Connecting with diverse talent is merely the first step. Bias (both subconscious and intentional) can manifest in the screening process. This might be due to outdated interview techniques, unconscious bias, or questions/screening processes that do not set up certain groups for success. For instance, including requirements or interview questions such as “do you have Canadian experience” are not only irrelevant to most jobs but automatically discriminate against newcomers with high-potential tech talent.
Also, keep your requirements flexible. If you know that the role you are hiring for does not necessarily require a computer science master’s degree, spare applicants this additional requirement. Get meticulous about the ‘must haves’ and distinguish them from the ‘nice to haves’. This will create a more nuanced approach to your recruitment process and shatter barriers that systemically impact underrepresented communities, while unlocking a whole new tech talent pool for your company.
To give a specific example, research suggests that women are less likely to apply to a job unless they meet 100 per cent of the requirements whereas their male counterparts are likely to apply to job openings where they meet as low as 60 per cent. This means that applicants from different groups approach job applications differently. For a successfully diversified talent acquisition approach, you must consider this by creating a nuanced job application and interviewing process.
Summary
Evaluate where you currently stand and what your team composition looks like. Identify the gaps and how they came to be. Then, set both new milestones and a strategy to build a more diverse and heterogeneous team. Execute your plan with a special emphasis on finding new communities to unlock new talent, engaging them and establishing long-term relationships with them. Ensure you’re also revamping your entire hiring process from evaluation to onboarding in a way where diversity and inclusion are mainstreamed. These are only some of the steps in the ongoing journey to build diverse teams and creating inclusive workplaces for success.
Nouhaila Chelkhaoui is the Founder & CEO Scale Without Borders, a one-stop shop for newcomers in tech, and employers’ go-to partner to hire immigrant tech talent. Want to know more about hiring immigrant tech talent? Join the network here.
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