Play to win.  When it comes to diversity, winners take all.  Organizations that manage diversity well will reap many benefits:  increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and creativity.  Their messaging and brands will resonate with best practices.  Typically, where diversity hiring is well-practiced, a wide cross-section of employees feel acknowledged, valued, and empowered to participate in the organization’s governance and growth.    In terms of the search world, diversity relates directly to each organization’s internal dynamics.  All too often, though, organizations front-load their diversity expectations, demanding that one search/position reverse years of random hiring, limited outreach, and inconsistent promotion practices. 
     
Have you ever been in the position where one search seems to carry the weight of an organization’s diversity initiatives?  I have.   It feels risky, and it is. One-Search Diversity is like playing lotto with the odds stacked against success.   When one search becomes the embodiment of an organization’s diversity commitment, it usually means that many healthy elements are missing from that organization’s culture.  Often, planning – if any – tends to be short-term and based on the whims of a few.   The culture may also be personality-driven, focused on a particular group of cliques, or simply oblivious to the benefits of widening the circle and increasing participation from various competent players.  OSD itself can be toxic, forcing decision-makers to pit capable people against each other, exposing gaps in the organization’s hierarchy, and burdening gifted candidates with the weight of meeting criteria that should rightfully be spread across the entire organization, not concentrated in one role, one candidate, one leader.    

To reverse or avoid OSD, set things up to engage a broad grouping of candidates for each search.  The most important diversity principle is breadth.  Ensure that you have conversations with a wide pool, drawn for various regions, colleges, economic groups, ethnic affiliations, religions, and lifestyles.  Alongside aggressive search strategies, train your existing personnel for success. Promote fairly and systematically.   Review hiring practices regularly to ensure that your intake matches your needs.  Keep networking consistently to recruit emerging talent from various backgrounds, genders, religious beliefs, political views, and lifestyles.  Focus on the long-term impact of making smart choices about hiring exceptional people.         

Things to consider doing to make diversity a reality:   

• Develop a long-term diversity plan; this includes succession planning and building long-term relationships with talented professionals
• Be thoughtful about roles, titles and cross-training
• Reinforce diversity; make it a mandate at every level of the organization
• Support customized, consistent training
• Promote regularly, from within based upon merit and output
• Audit, review and upgrade your diversity initiatives periodically

Diversity requires discipline and strategic action.  It will not materialize overnight, without thought and effort.  Leaving diversity to one search result will leave you vulnerable to internal and external factors.   Each search comes with its own challenges.  Certain career paths have excluded identifiable groups because of historical barriers.  Although we are past that in our thinking, it will take a while for hiring to reflect the depth and breadth of talent available across many groups.  In this country, in 2021, it is quite likely that you will be challenged to meet the diversity mandate in every search.  Nevertheless, continue to source widely, apply hiring criteria equitably, give opportunities to those who are willing to learn additional skills, and show the potential for advancement with appropriate coaching and support.  Look carefully at non-traditional learning institutions, careers, and sectors for talent.  Rely on trusted gatekeepers to keep you informed.  Build relationships with all kinds of colleges, vocational and training facilities.  Talent is scattered in many places.  By widening the funnel, you will broaden and deepen your talent reserves, resulting in more interesting, thought-provoking, talented pools.  Over time, these measures will transform your organization. Opportunity shifts people, cultures and organizations.  Although it may not be a quick fix, it will be a sure fix.  Transform your organization by making diversity an active commitment rather than the result of any single search. By hiring diversely at the entry-level, training talented employees for leadership, and promoting from within, you will set in motion the equitable practices needed to nourish a diverse workforce.  This will benefit the organization with a rich range of perspectives, talents, training, and energy.  Your ability to meet the mission will only increase as will the confidence, commitment, and contribution of your leaders and staff. Step beyond OSD and embrace the workplace of the future.  It will reward every minute spent developing more balanced, equitable hiring practices.

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Need help creating a long-term diversity plan? Karen Alphonse is the Senior Search Solutions Leader at ExecSearches.com. Learn more about our a la carte talent acquisition services for nonprofit, education, public health, and government organizations.

Last updated on May 11th, 2021 at 03:44 pm