team in the goal-setting process, ensure your tactics for achieving those goals are equally empowering and actually work for your team.
Aligning your diversity goals to the right tactics is key for your impact and the morale of your team. Adam Ward, partner at recruiting firm Growth by Design Talent (GBD) and a former head of recruiting at Pinterest, says organizations should be wary of the damage that failed diversity tactics can cause within the workforce. “It can create stress, slow down your diversity efforts, and deflate employee morale if they feel their efforts have failed,” he says.
Here are three things to consider when approaching your tactics and strategies for translating your diversity goals to reality:
1 Start internally before going external.The classic mistake that many employers make is to assume they can only increase diversity through external recruiting efforts without first looking to their own internal teams. This is especially problematic as diversity tends to decrease as you look to more senior roles in most organizations. Your most immediate opportunity with any role you're hiring for is to first see if there are people already in your organization from underrepresented groups that you can promote.Many employers miss the step of communicating open roles they are trying to fill to their existing team. Take steps to proactively communicate all new opportunities internally to allow people to raise their hands and apply, just as you would external candidates. Be sure your process accounts for internal candidates from underrepresented groups in the same way you do external candidates. For example, if you set a rule mandating specific diversity representation in the hiring process, be sure you are equally accounting for your internal candidate slate as well.
2 Develop a role-specific diversity strategy and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.In 2003, frustrated and embarrassed by the lack of non-white representation among the league's coaches, the NFL created the Rooney Rule. Named for former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the rule stipulates that teams must interview at least one non-white candidate for every available coach position. In 2020, the rule was amended to require that teams interview “minorities and/or female applicants” for all executive positions. Since its inception, the Rooney Rule has been adopted by a wide range of organizations looking to diversify.While the rule has proven effective for many groups, its widespread adoption has also laid bare its shortcomings. “In leadership hiring, the Rooney Rule might be a great approach,” says Ward, “but it might not be as effective if you are hiring 20 accountants for finance.” The Rooney Rule was designed for one specific role in a specific industry. That doesn't mean other groups can't adopt it. It just means they have to do so thoughtfully and take the time to make changes that suit their particular role and situation.The truth is, there is no silver bullet when it comes to diversity hiring tactics. To best succeed, try to develop a game plan tailored to each kind of role in your organization. This strategy should account for who you can advance internally and what your options are for external hiring. Try to resist the urge to force a universal diversity hiring tactic on all of your roles.By the way, it's worth noting that, despite all its popularity, the Rooney Rule has proven largely ineffective in the NFL. As of 2021, there were still only three Black head coaches—the same number as there were when the rule was passed.
3 Experiment, learn, iterate, and build a playbook for your tactics.One thing that every leader deeply engaged in diversity hiring tactics will tell you is that this work is hard and it's never perfect out of the gate. Diversity hiring requires shifting systems, changing many people's perspectives, and also addressing historic inequities that have existed in society since the beginning of time. It requires constant iteration and experimentation. Some strategies will fail; some tactics will prove to be misguided. What is important is the fact that you are trying and constantly learning.If one strategy doesn't work, try something else. If your team members get demoralized, remind them what's at stake. Think of every step that doesn't go according to plan as another key learning to file away. We recommend developing an internal playbook for diversity hiring at your organization to capture at every step which tactics work or don't work with each role you are hiring for. This will enable your team to collectively build institutional knowledge and every insight you glean will be shared by everyone.
Make Your Progress and Results Transparent
It can be frightening to throw back the curtain on your diversity efforts. But transparency is an essential part of building trust and galvanizing others around your goals. If you want to transform diversity from an activity into a movement in your organization, it comes down to building transparency around your efforts.
1 Be brave and start building awareness, even if it feels early.It can be hard to imagine an upside to letting the world know that your DEI numbers are less than desired. But there's ample evidence to show it's the right thing to do. In 2013, despite having low representation numbers, Pinterest shared its first public diversity report as a way of holding itself accountable, and it immediately drove the company to take meaningful action. Seven years later, the public accountability and recruiting efforts had paid off. In its 2020 annual report, Pinterest stated that it had exceeded all three of its external hiring goals, increasing hiring rates of full-time women engineers to 27 percent, underrepresented minority engineers to 9 percent, and underrepresented employees across the company to 14 percent.
2 Get started on a reporting routine, even if it's informal.While many organizations have made a point of publishing full diversity reports, we know this requires capacity and resources that not every organization has. You can opt for alternative, light-lift, and low-cost ways to share your efforts. Many organizations use their own blogs. In 2020, Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit education organization, published a letter on its website to share updates on its DEI commitments as well as actionable changes it had planned for the new school year. The blogging platform Medium used its own site to share its diversity report in a brief article—something any organization could emulate at practically no cost.
3 Consider accessibility and what your community will understand.When deciding how to release your diversity progress, remember that less is more. Not many people will care to wade through a dense 50-page report in search of your relevant numbers. In its 2019 report, eBay published a colorful 20-page slide deck that distilled information using engaging visuals and descriptive captions. That same year, Target went an even simpler route with a four-page report consisting of graphics showing its diversity data and how the company measured against comparable companies in the industry.
4 Make this a conversation with your team and community.Your diversity reporting shouldn't feel like you're unveiling results to your team and broader community in a one-way direction. Rather, this is your opportunity to build a shared conversation around your goals and progress to date so it’s clear to everyone how you will take next steps together. Streaming service Netflix made its diversity reporting a team effort. In the spirit of its own platform, it released a mini-documentary featuring members of its inclusion team, CEO Ted Sarandos, and testimonials from employees. Like Netflix, you can use diversity reporting as a chance to engage your team and empower them to play a role in telling your story. This will be much more profound and personal.
FIRST STEP TOWARD IMPACT
The most powerful way you can start your diversity goal-setting efforts is to initiate a conversation with your team. Of any step in this process, this is the one that will require the broadest range of orchestrated inputs from across your organization. The more representative the perspective you have feeding into your work, the clearer and more focused your results will be.
Rather than do this alone or make guesses as to where the need exists, schedule some time with your team to ask them:
Where do you see the greatest need to increase representation in your organization?
Where do you believe, tactically, you have the greatest opportunity to first implement this work?
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