Diversity without belonging doesn’t work
I often hear a cop-out about diversity being a chicken-and-egg problem. If you think about diversity, without working on belonging, you won’t get far.
One of the beautiful things about diverse teams is that people who have different life experiences are going to offer different perspectives. That brings a richness of ideas and expertise that leads to better strategy and better outcomes. If this is your goal, and not just checking the box, you need to think bigger.
Life experience isn’t only informed by a person’s gender or ethnicity. People are complex. A young single veteran in a wheelchair from a poor family without a degree is going to have a pretty different perspective than an affluent older mom with a MA who is also caring for an aging parent. Even if they have the same ethnicity and gender. Both bring valuable perspectives. Both may relate with some future diverse candidates and employees deeply, and not relate with others at all. The magic is when you can create a Venn diagram where everyone overlaps with other people across many different factors which support genuine human connection. Belonging.
A personal example was when I was heavily recruited into a startup by their VC because they wanted female executive presence. I went into the headquarters in San Francisco. Every person that worked there had graduated from one of the two top-tier universities in the area the founders attended. Everyone grew up in Southern California and came from upper-middle-class backgrounds. They were all in their early to mid-twenties and most joined right out of university. A lot of the staff were roommates living in crowded shared housing while they were starting their careers. I was proudly told an example of the culture was that they had found a deal on airfare to an exotic location last year. They dropped a link in Slack and the entire company of about 150 people bought tickets and worked from there for a month.
I knew going in that I’d be the only woman on the leadership team. Having a different socioeconomic and educational background was also going to make me different. Different is okay. But as someone in my late 30s at the time, with two kids, and a house to take care of, I knew I wouldn’t belong. I could picture myself sitting alone in an abandoned office while they were all out working from a beach 12 hours ahead of me. No thanks!
When I told the HR leader I was going to pass because I had concerns about DEIB, she was baffled. After all, there were a few other women in the company, and at least 1/3 of the staff were people of color. So she thought they had diversity nailed.
If you are a job seeker, I’m not saying that you should not be willing to be ‘the first’ of a category. After all, employers need to start somewhere if they want things to change. What is key, however, is for employers to think about employees and candidates in a broader way. They may be the first for one demographic, but if they are the ONLY one across MANY categories, chances are they will keep walking.
Here are some points of diversity beyond gender and race that may help you identify community networking/ recruiting opportunities you’ve overlooked, where you can find more complex and amazing candidates.
Career transitioners
Rural community members
Working mothers, single parents, foster parents, expectant parents
Caregivers for aging adults
Families with special needs children
Formerly incarcerated
1st generation to attend college
People with disabilities including emotional, physical, or neurodivergence
LGBTQ community members
Veterans
Spouses of active military
Those without degrees
Older professionals
Those returning to work after a caregiver gap
Non-native language speakers
Immigrants & transplants
Former foster kids
Employee referrals can create a more homogeneous talent pool as people refer candidates like themself. Be more prescriptive. Tell them that diversity is an important value and ask them to share the job with communities that they are a part of like those highlighted above. When women and BIPoC candidates can quickly uncover meaningful commonalities with your existing workforce, companies are more likely to start expanding that Venn Diagram to include a vibrant and diverse workforce where everyone can find a sense of belonging.
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