practices in the field of human resources.
The reason for this is simple. Building diverse workforces and inclusive workplaces is not a new function of human resources. Instead, it is simply a rethinking of the precepts built into some of HR's oldest functions. Indeed, a more recent trend across Fortune 500 and other high-performing companies is to see the head of HR or head of people role also incorporate the title “Head of Diversity.”
This can make the solution seem easier than it is. Like many experienced heads of DEI, I am often asked to “rebuild” HR. A common analogy in this situation is “changing the wheels while the car is still in motion,” but it's actually even scarier than that. As every executive and founder knows, human resources is a critical operation to the health of a business and not to be messed with capriciously. (Sensitivity to this risk may be another reason HR organizations and practices have remained unchanged for so long.) A wholesale rethinking of HR is not just a significant investment for your business; it's also scary.
The good news is it's doable, and the map has already been made. In more than 20 years designing, building, and overseeing human resources operations, my advice for all leaders is to see how attention to data and a passion for process can yield powerful, scalable results. As entrepreneur Ben Horowitz has written, a great head of HR “must be a masterful process designer.” Process design is the key to success. While many business functions require constant innovation, HR in this era simply requires this one significant yet transformational change in process: hiring and supporting diverse teams, implemented via time-tested methods of thoughtful, operationally sound, measurable, and scalable process.
What follows in this book is exactly that. Arthur and Susanna, with their team at Mathison, have trudged the start-up trenches familiar to many of us to build the insights and tools we need as the next generation of founders, executives, and HR professionals to grow diversity in our organizations.
In DEI, many of the challenges we warn founders and executives about have names like “unconscious” bias, meaning some part of the problem we are setting out to solve may require software that eliminates our human fallibility. Other challenges, however—the ones founders face in an era of increased awareness like hiring diverse teams—are just good old-fashioned HR implemented in a new way. What follows in these pages are practical recommendations for founders, executives, and HR professionals and the broader team to implement exactly those systems for their organizations.
As a passionate believer in the power of good HR policy and operations to help companies succeed, it is clear to me that one day, what we call diversity and inclusion won't need a name. We'll just call it HR. I believe this because I believe human resources, people operations, or any name we choose to call it will retain the same core function: helping businesses and employees build a healthy, safe, and mutually thriving relationship. I believe this because 200 years of U.S. history show us that when workers are thriving—no matter what their model of unionization, autonomy, or equity—the standard of employee-employer relationship changes our broader culture, too.
Which is to say, if you'd like to see the future of the United States, to quote a trite phrase of middle management everywhere: You'll need to talk to HR. If you are interested in building the future of our workforce, however, I'd like to personally invite you into the pages that follow. I am certain it's a brighter future, and I'm continually inspired by everyone who aims to make it that way. I can't wait to see you there.
Judith Williams
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, SAP
PREFACE
One of the greatest joys of my career has been to bear witness to the accelerating evolution of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as a maturing industry. It began years ago, with mere whispers about diversity circulating within the corporate vocabulary, mainly focusing on gathering data about representation, and how workforce demographics might be retooled to more accurately reflect the diversity of the talent pool and the marketplace. Then the conversation shifted toward inclusion, or how existing talent—particularly those who are underrepresented and who hold marginalized identities—feel on a day-to-day basis, and what level of trust they hold toward the organization. Next, equity and belonging entered the conversation, raising the critical but as-yet-unasked questions of systemic support and psychological safety as they relate to identity and expression. And still our field continues to expand and broaden, with explorations of what justice might look like, on the heels of a year like 2020, where the call for change crested, and the hard questions became our North Star.
Let me begin by saying that the time for all of these things—diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging, and yes, justice—is now. The call for accountability and empathy at work has always existed, but it is undoubtedly louder than ever before. I believe each and every one of us can think of a recent event, movement, personal anecdote, or news story that throws into stark relief the need for systemic change. But I also believe many of us have been confused about how we can better support that change.
As a diversity and inclusion consultant with over fifteen years’ experience in the field, I have witnessed the vast majority of leaders delegate their responsibility around DEI work. They've outsourced the accountability, and the labor, to people of color, women, and other marginalized groups within their organizations, who they believe can (and should) carry the water because of how they identify, even though there is often less structural power among these identities—and sometimes the smallest numbers—to throw behind efforts. This is particularly dangerous at our current moment in time, because leaders are facing a mounting call to step up or fall behind, and stepping up means challenging this thinking. When those with power and influence shirk accountability or delegate responsibility, or remain inactive, or silent, organizations risk destroying hard-won trust that fuels collaboration, teamwork, innovation, and most important, retention. And leaders cease to grow and evolve; what many don't realize in opting out is that they are also endangering their own futures; the sidestepping around this topic, because of discomfort, lack of competency, or defensiveness can ultimately result in irrelevance.
I say this not to scare or castigate anyone, but rather to set the stage for and demonstrate the pressing need for this book, Hiring for Diversity: The Guide to Building an Inclusive and Equitable Organization. With a steady pulse on this rapidly changing landscape, Arthur Woods and Susanna Tharakan have crafted a singular guide to creating inclusive hiring practices that not only meet but exceed the heightened standards of the modern era. If you're reading this book, then your eyes are open to the far-reaching and pervasive nature of DEI challenges, and awareness is always the first step. All that we have been shown in recent years at work and in the world has awakened a vast new cohort of people to the critical issues that many of us in underestimated and underrepresented communities have been laboring against for decades. Some of us may be showing up to “class” late, but what matters is that we're here now, in the room, and rolling up our sleeves.
That awareness and participation is key, because when we surface our biases and arrive at a deeper understanding of the damage they can inflict, we then have choices. We can remain inactive, silent, or apathetic, or we can move forward and embrace the role we each can play in creating cultures of belonging where everyone is empowered to thrive.
As budding agents of change and innovative risk takers choose the latter option (as I hope you do), I see them undergo a metamorphosis of sorts, a liberating journey characterized by radical honesty, joyful storytelling, and generative collaboration. But the process—like so many things worth doing—is also tempered by significant discomfort, challenge, and obstacles. The future will require a greater focus on equity and intersectionality, which can entail loaded conversations with sobering acknowledgments of power imbalances. As you travel this demanding yet gratifying road, I urge you to lean into that discomfort. I like to say that leadership is not truly leadership unless it's uncomfortable. It's a signal that growth is occurring. If you aren't pushing yourself to
