In this episode, Jamey discusses the importance of knowing how to recruit diverse talent and highlights strategies that organizations typically consider, such as forming partnerships with HBCUs, HSIs, and other underrepresented groups.

Jamey also talks about the critical need to understand and improve the internal environment to support diverse employees. Addressing internal policies and practices is key to retaining and supporting diverse talent long-term, rather than just focusing on recruitment alone. Learn why starting with internal evaluation is essential for sustainable diversity and inclusion in your workplace.

If you're interested in the resources that Michelle discussed, visit: https://www.equity-at-work.com/

Key Topics Discussed:

• Significance of recruiting diverse talent
• Common strategies considered by organizations
• Importance of assessing internal organizational culture
• Challenges of quota systems
• Retaining diverse talent
• Building supportive and inclusive environments before recruitment
• The impact of existing employees' experiences
• Long-term strategic planning for DEI initiatives

I'm Jamie Applegate, Senior Director of DEI at Equity at Work and this is your DEI Minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in fifteen minutes or less. Join us every other week as we break through the noise and help you do DEI right. Let's get to it. Today, we're gonna talk about recruiting diverse talent. So many clients we work with and a ton of organizations have a organizational priority to focus on recruiting diverse talent, bringing more diverse talent into the organization. It's often something when we're talking with clients and we do a discovery meeting, we often hear that it's top priority either to implement some sort of strategy to recruit diverse talent or they want to improve the current efforts that they have in place. And in these conversations, typically, organizations suggest some combination of the following strategies.

So this is typically where their mind is before we've had a conversation, and this is what they bring to us. So sometimes they want to talk about establishing recruiting partnerships with historically black colleges and universities or HBCUs. You may have heard of Hispanic serving institutions or HSIs, tribal colleges and universities or TCUs. And then occasionally we'll hear about women's only institutions. So that's one of the things that they'll talk about wanting. Another one is that sometimes they'll talk about wanting to become a sponsor for or develop a presence within industry associations that represent specific groups. So, for example, if you're in the engineering field, you might join the sort of black engineers association or the Hispanic engineers association. And so you wanna get your name out there, maybe sponsor an event or to establish a presence as a way to build reputation and hopefully attract some new talent to come to your organization.

And then another one that we summons here is we should just hire more diverse talent. That might feel like it's a little bit on the nose or, like, a little bit blunt, but we do hear that we should just we just hire more people of color or we should hire more, more black talent or more Hispanic talent or more female talent, especially in fields where those groups are maybe not as well represented. But we we do sometimes hear about quota systems, and we really strongly do not recommend a quota system. They are impractical, and they are harmful. They are built on prejudices and stereotypes against certain groups, and they perpetuate myths that people from some backgrounds might only be considered qualified if the standards are lowered or if they are not competing against candidates from other backgrounds. So we do hear sometimes folks mention quotas. We hear it less and less, which is great. Quotas are not gonna be successful.

They're not gonna set anyone up for success, and they perpetuate a lot of the really negative stereotypes that people have about certain people and also about DEI in general. But when we do hear about things like establishing recruiting partnerships with HBCUs or HSIs or we hear about wanting to establish a presence at a specific industry association, we always say that's great. Those are great strategies. You should absolutely do those, but not to start off with. You should really take a moment to pause and try to understand why you wanna do that. Why are you trying to recruit diverse talent? So is there diverse talent currently at the organization across hierarchical levels, at different departments, and in different physical locations if you have multiple offices? And then if so, great. What is their experience? And if there's not, what might be driving that? And then is diverse talent leaving the organization? So when you're looking at, you know, exit data or termination data, both voluntary and involuntary, is diverse talent leaving the organization? And, also, are they leaving the organization at rates higher than would be expected? And especially looking at, are we seeing diverse talent leave at certain points of the career? So are they staying for one year? Are they staying for two year? Are they off boarding at, like, five years? Is are they trying sort of hitting a a ceiling at a certain sort of hierarchical level and then exiting or not seeing advancement, and so then they leave to a competitor. What are we seeing in terms of what's happening with the first town internally initially? So this allows us to understand what is actually happening and what policies, processes, practices, and behaviors might be driving the issue.

And so then we can address that issue. We want to address what is the root issue and what is the root cause of that issue and attack that first. So whether diverse talent is not currently present at the organization or if diverse talent is leaving the organization at rates higher than you would expect, we wanna start by addressing anything that might be driving that. And then after we've done that, we can focus on recruiting new employees to join the organization. So as we mentioned earlier, building partnerships with HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, and women's only institutions and sponsoring and participating in diverse industry associations are powerful and impactful strategies. We are wholeheartedly in support of doing that. That can help organizations recruit diverse talent, but the problem is what kind of environment are you bringing the diverse talent into? Are you bringing the diverse talent into a company that is prepared to support them, or are you bringing them into a climate where they are not gonna feel welcome and they're gonna look for the exit maybe after six months, maybe after a year. Maybe they'll try to hold on a little longer so that it won't look like they only stayed for a short time on a resume, but they're looking for the exits.

So that's kind of a recipe for disaster is inviting people into a place where they're not gonna feel engaged and supported and valued. So when we start with that root issue, we ultimately end up with better recruiting of diverse talent because the organization is ready to bring those folks in and support them and help them be successful. We should have a plan for how to support every single employee and allow every single employee to show up as who they are and help them find success in the workplace. But, also, it means better retention of diverse talent. It means that the folks who are still here have are seeing that things are changing and are getting better and are more likely to stay. And then they see more people who maybe look like them or have some identity that is similar to theirs, and that makes them even more likely to stay. So when we bring people in after we see people leaving at a higher rate, that's just a recipe for a disaster. We don't wanna do that.

We don't wanna just sort of replenish this idea of replenishing something that we we're missing or something that we're losing because those folks are just going to leave too, and you're just gonna create a cycle of hiring and exiting and hiring and exiting as opposed to creating a workplace where people really want to, engage and stay for a long time, hopefully, for the rest of their careers. So to wrap it up, what we really wanna focus on is, yes, you should absolutely think that hiring diverse talent and having a strategy for recruiting diverse talent, that is important. It's important to have a workplace that is representative of the communities and the places where you have a presence. It is important for your organization to look like this country. It's important and it's valuable to get different and diverse perspectives, and there are great ways to do that. You can build partnerships with different academic institutions. You can build partnerships with different industry associations. Those are really, really wonderful.

But first, you just wanna pause and ask what kind of environment are we inviting that talent into? Are we prepared to support them, Or are there some some tasks that we need to take care of first? Are there some issues that we need to address first to make sure that when we do hire new folks, they come in and are really excited by the culture, feel supported by their team and their peers, and are really ready to go. So, yes, absolutely, you should recruit diverse talent, but maybe don't make it the very first thing you do, and maybe do it a little farther down the line so that you're really setting yourself up for success. Thanks so much. That's a wrap. I'm Jamie Applegate, and that's your DEI Minute for today. Thank you for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review. If you ever have questions, please visit our website or send us an email.

You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Links to everything can be found in the episode notes. This episode was edited and produced by POTROW with podcast art by me, Jamie Upkin.