Welcome to my weekly Q&A roundup. (Scroll down to find the Q&A.)
If this is your first time here, welcome. I spend a fair amount of time speaking at events and conferences. At the end of my presentations, I leave space for audience members to ask questions—tough questions, brave questions, you name it. The level of candor and curiosity always inspires me, and I want to share that sentiment with you. So each week, I pick one question that I believe others would find most instructive and publish my response to it here.
The purpose of this weekly tradition is transparency and inclusivity.
Transparency: a behind-the-scenes look at my day-to-day.
Inclusivity: bringing others along in the journey.
Be Brave™
How To Craft An Inclusive Company Career Page
Question:
We are redoing the company career webpage to centralize our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging. It’s part of our plan to increase applications from underrepresented candidates. What should we include on the revamped career page to attract women and people of color to apply?
Answer:
The decision to refocus your career page on DEI is smart. If you want access to the best and brightest pool of candidates, you need to show that your company values diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
→ Otherwise, you’ll miss out on the one-third of workers who explicitly say they would not apply to work for a company that doesn’t have a diverse* workforce.
→ You’ll also risk losing the 3 out of 4 workers who say diversity is an important factor when evaluating companies to work for.
It shouldn’t surprise us that people want to work for diverse and inclusive companies. So here’s the #1 element you should include on your career page to show your commitment to diversity and inclusion:
> >> Your DEI data. <<<
Your Career Page Needs DEI Data
Don’t have DEI data? I recommend you start collecting it. Workers are smart. They’ve seen their fair share of diversity theater and can recognize performative DEI right away.
To move past performative diversity, companies need to stop SAYING they care about underrepresented employee groups and start SHOWING they care. It’s about measuring what matters.
Do you pay fair and equitable wages? Then make your pay scale transparent for job seekers and employees.
Do underrepresented employees have a clear path to leadership? Then publish rates of promotion and internal hiring broken down by gender, race, and ethnicity.
Are you improving diverse representation among company leadership? Then publish senior representation data and show how it’s been improving YOY.
Do you value caregivers equitably? Then show the success rate of returnship programs that are offered to caregivers who have taken time off to care for loved ones.
A few final pointers:
→ Gen Z, our rising labor force, is the most racially & ethnically diverse generation ever.
→ Gen Z is also on its way to becoming the most educated generation in history.
Now is a great time to legitimize commitments to DEI. And we legitimize with data. Now is the time to demonstrate to the current and future workforce that our companies are truly as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as they claim they are.
*Note: In this case, “diversity” can be used as a proxy for inclusion and belonging. Without inclusion and belonging, you won’t retain your diverse workforce. Thus, you won’t have a diverse workforce.
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© 2021 Pipeline Equity™, Inc.