The Problem With “We Just Want to Hire the Best Person for the Job”
I work in HR Technology so I spend A LOT of my time reading articles about how best to hire people. As the hiring conversation has finally shifted over to investing in diversity recruiting and hiring diversely, there is one thing that consistently pops up in the conversation:
“We just want to hire the best person for the job. I don’t care what their demographic is.”
Let’s unpack that.
For most hiring managers, when they say “the best person for the job” they mean the one who has the most on-the-job experience. Or the one who went to school and got a degree in the particular area of expertise that the role requires. Or the one who knows someone who can vouch that they’re the right culture fit for the job. But there’s one major issue within all of those: accessibility.
Not everyone has the same access to work experience, education, or networking. In fact, marginalized people have significantly less access to those requirements. We’ve been saying, “We just want to hire the best person for the job” for decades now and it has resulted in the lack of diversity crisis we’re facing today…so clearly there’s something wrong.
If the world of work and education has been unwelcoming to diverse people for decades, why in the world are we judging candidates based on attaining some level of status in those worlds?
By using these arbitrary requirements, we are placing more obstacles in front of people that we are claiming to want to see successful. We need to adjust how we view hiring in order to implement the changes that our world needs. If we really want to support diverse workforces we need to hire every single position with a respect for diversity in mind.
Now you’re asking yourself, “Sure, that’s great, but how can I hire with diversity in mind while also hiring someone who is qualified for the position?” Great question! Here’s how.
Define the barriers and audit your requirements
If I see one more job posting requiring 3+ years of experience for an entry-level position, I will scream. Stop putting completely unnecessary hurdles in place!
Ask yourself: Why are these requirements in place?
Is the job requiring a special certification because it is legally required to do the work? Then, by all means, keep it in!
Is the job requiring a special certification simply because the last guy who did the job well had that certification? Throw it out!
By hiring based on what requirements past employees have met you are immediately withholding the job from people who have had fewer opportunities. How absolutely necessary are these requirements for the position to be done? Where in your requirements may someone who has had less access to traditional experience be stuck? Is there any way that you can change the requirements to make diverse candidates feel more welcome to apply?
Hire based on what the person can do, not just on what they have done
Is the job focused on what the candidate will be doing in the position? Of course, it is! This is exactly why we should be hiring based on what we believe a candidate can do rather than just what they have done. Now I’m under no false impression that we’re going to transition to not sharing work experience or anything like that, but we weigh so much on people’s past experience when we should be focusing on what their future could look like.
It can be scary to hire someone who doesn’t have the exact experience you’re looking for, but honestly, we’ve been doing it for decades. How many people have gotten a job because their parents knew someone? How many people have gotten a job simply because they went to the same college as the CEO? Those reasons for hiring have nothing to do with experience.
We need to look at candidates as complex and multi-faceted people. They may not have the exact experience you imagined, but maybe they have comparable skills that will transfer no problem. As soon as you open your criteria to what people can do rather than just what they have done, you will undoubtedly open the position to the right person.
Remember that you’re hiring a person
No, really. Remember that you are hiring a person who has lived a life prior to getting this job. You should absolutely care about what demographic someone is and you should absolutely care about the experiences they have had in their life that are different than yours.
Remember that the best teams are the ones that have a plethora of experiences represented and if you stock up your team just with those who have ivy league degrees and experience at Fortune 500 companies, you’re going to get some pretty homogenous ideas and conversations.
If the person you think is right for the role isn’t perfectly qualified right now, how can you help them get the education and development they need to be a fit? People deserve opportunities. If you’re in a place where you get to hire people, then you are a gatekeeper to that opportunity. You could be the breakthrough that that candidate has been hoping for.
My dear friend Jackye Clayton said it wonderfully in her recent LinkedIn post:
“Diversity Recruiting is more than branding and statements. It is about understanding the barriers to getting hired, and later barriers to being nurtured, mentored and promoted.”
So let’s reframe the sentiment of the “best person for the role” and let’s start hiring the right person for the role. Maybe the right person doesn’t have a college degree, but they have an incredible amount of new ideas. Maybe the right person is also a primary caregiver in their family and needs to have a flexible schedule, but it works perfectly because they’re able to work when other folks have to take off. Maybe the right person doesn’t have any experience working in the field, but the position is entry-level and their passion is undeniable.
Building a diverse workforce is not something that you do once, check off the list, and move onto the next task. It is a long-past-due overhaul of the way that hiring is done. It’s just up to you whether you’re ready to be on the right side of the change.
