This has given me the opportunity to launch a number of organizations at the intersection of advocacy and technology. I became so enthralled in the work that I shifted my focus to technology that would help employers scale all of their diversity hiring efforts, which is what led me to co-found Mathison (Mathison.io). Witnessing how hard but necessary the work is at this moment, when it is top-of-mind for so many leaders, I felt compelled to work with Susanna to translate the insights from our collective work into a digestible resource for leaders who want to make progress in diversity hiring.
In this very moment, each of us as leaders has the capacity to create extraordinary change. Just as an inclusive boss did for me years ago, we have the opportunity to empower people who feel underrepresented by giving them a seat at the table. We have a chance to instill a sense of belonging by celebrating people for who they really are. If we can catalyze this change within our organizations, it will propel the change we want to see in society.
From Susan
Who I am starts long before I was even an idea — it starts with my parents and my grandparents. It starts with the country they all left behind over 25 years ago to pursue a better life. Although I grew up in a culturally diverse suburb of New Jersey, American norms were instilled upon me. I quickly learned that you eat PB&J sandwiches for lunch, that straight hair is prettier than curly hair, and that you spend Sundays at church. Like most first-generation immigrants, all I wanted was to find a way to fit in—to connect with my peers and have a sense of belonging. That's why I did everything I could to hide my Indian roots and lean heavily into my family's Christian background. That piece of my identity helped me feel like there truly was a place for me here.
Unfortunately, but not unusually for women of color, I didn't have mentors to tell me what I needed to do to get into a good college or write a resume that would land me an interview or how to handle my finances. I didn't have parents or relatives who understood how to navigate white America as a brown woman, struggling to balance two cultures. I didn't see anyone who looked like me in the TV shows that I watched, so my everyday struggles were never addressed or validated. Navigating my personal and professional life without any guidance was difficult, to say the least. That was, until college.
In college, I found friends, professors, and mentors who were people of color. I took a class called “Experiences for Individuals with Disabilities” that helped me see life through the eyes of my professor, a Latino man with paraplegia. I learned more about how managing multiple identities paved the way for even greater challenges and how important it was to understand intersectionality because of the way it shapes our experiences. The opportunity to see, hear, and live with people from all walks of life showed me just how crucial it is for everyone to be exposed to diversity. Being part of that diversity was comforting for me, but more important, it created an inclusive environment where everyone could share themselves without fear. I learned a lot about the experiences of other people of color, women, individuals with disabilities, immigrants attending university on student visas, and others. All of these people had to overcome so many obstacles to achieve their professional goals. Seeing this left me worried for other women like me who weren't as lucky to stumble upon the kind of people and support I'd encountered.
I'm grateful for where I am today. But one question has remained. What can I do to help others avoid the alienation and uncertainty that I felt growing up? How can I help those trying to navigate their professional lives? To me, the answer was a career in HR. I decided that I needed to have a seat at that table where I could influence organizational leaders. I needed to be part of the decisions that affected all employees.
Today, I'm in the unique position of knowing how it feels to be an outsider, but also what it takes to feel included. The research on the value of diversity and inclusion speaks for itself. If we want to stay ahead of the curve and fruitfully grow our organizations, we need diverse underrepresented talent. It can feel like a daunting task, but organizational leaders have the opportunity to champion initiatives that will make a difference. I hope this book will inspire you to take on the challenge without feeling overwhelmed by it.
What We Are Striving For
For this work to make a difference, we need to determine what success looks like. We should be striving to do more than posturing to change the look of our organizations. Our goal should be fundamentally shifting culture, reimagining the equity of our systems, and being intentional about the way we make people feel. How we gauge success directly ties to the way we think about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging:
Diversity: We are striving for a workforce that equally represents society at all levels.
We are seeking to build diverse representation throughout our organizations. This encompasses how we source from all communities, how we acknowledge that diversity is more than what you can see, how we ensure that people advance in our hiring process to get the job, and how we support and promote people when they become our coworkers. Diversity that is limited to junior positions or particular departments is not true diversity at all.
Equity: We want to eliminate barriers and ensure opportunities for everyone.
Creating equity within our organizations means ensuring impartiality and fairness for all communities we hope to hire and advance. This means addressing historical inequity and oppression that has existed in our systems to date. It means developing structure and consistency across the hiring process, building policies that ensure accessibility for all groups, and taking ongoing steps to intentionally address bias in decision-making.
Inclusion: We are striving for everyone to feel invited, understood, and heard.
Instilling inclusion means consciously taking steps to ensure that people of all communities feel invited to participate in and engage with your organization. It means making sure that people feel understood, and that their voices are heard. This experience starts in the hiring process but continues long after employees are integrated into your organization.
Belonging: We want everyone to feel valued and embraced.
This is what we are ultimately striving for in our diversity efforts—that people are celebrated for who they are and feel like they can bring their full selves to work. Belonging gets to the heart of people feeling psychological safety and emotional connection to their work. Belonging inspires a sense of empowerment and commitment. There is no stronger litmus test for the impact of your work than helping people feel like they belong.
HOW TO MOBILIZE CHANGE USING THIS BOOK
Wherever you find yourself in this work, remember that you are striving for progress and not perfection—and that every step is progress. Too often, we make the mistake of waiting to act until the path is clear and the goal easily attainable. Or we wait for problems to reveal themselves rather than actively rooting out problems. We need to be less afraid of taking the wrong actions and more afraid of inaction.
It's important to note that every team and organization is different, and there is not a single, universal way to successfully approach this work. Rather than provide proscriptive recommendations, we aim to help you assess where your team and organization are today and then serve up options for the ways you can advance this work. Each chapter of this book explores in detail a different part of the hiring process where you have the opportunity to make change.
The book begins with uncovering your diversity needs and setting your goals in Chapter 2. In Chapter
