If You’re Trying to Diversify Your Team, First Get Your House in Order

Ask yourself these questions to start to build an inclusive work environment

8 min readJul 8, 2020

Over the past few weeks, many companies have reached out to ask if the HR consultancy where I work, Gray Scalable, can help them recruit a more diverse group of candidates. My response is, “Yes, but first: what are your current inclusion practices?”

Running an inclusive and equitable recruiting process is an essential part of diversifying your team, but it overlooks a too-common scenario: people from underrepresented backgrounds join companies only to leave after a short period of time because they feel like outsiders, are openly discriminated against, are treated poorly and overlooked for promotions and raises, or they burn out on trying to make change happen with little support. Often it’s a combination of all of these. Too many company leaders focus on asking their recruiting teams to present a more diverse candidate roster without holding themselves accountable for creating an environment where a diverse group of people would want to work.

There’s a well-known management idea that a bad system will conquer any individual good person’s efforts. Translated to this context, hiring a diverse group of new team members and immediately asking them to conform to your homogenous culture isn’t going to change your company — it’s going to break those new hires. So what I hope leaders are now thinking to ask is:

How do I approach creating a more inclusive workplace?

Good question. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of where to start.

HIRING PROCESS

Remember it’s your job to reduce the common hiring challenges that underrepresented groups face, rather than expect candidates to get better at navigating them.

Do you have a consistent, structured interview process?
Do you prepare each candidate for what the entire interview process will look like and give them info on the people they’re meeting? Do you provide info on what internal teams do and how they work together so candidates have that context?
Do you have a diverse interview panel?
Do you have firm job competencies upon which decisions are made? Have you done away with the elusive “culture fit” and replaced it with specific questions?
Have you trained your interviewers in legal do’s and don’ts, as well as best practices for inclusive interviewing?

ONBOARDING

How you treat your employees on Day One sets the tone for the rest of their time working with you.

If you have an orientation program, do you have a diverse group of employees participating?
Do you have varied ways to welcome someone to the team? Do you have accommodations for people who might not want to drink? Or can’t stay late? Or don’t like intro’ing themselves to a crowd?
Do you talk about team traditions in a way that’s clear you’re looking to expand your culture with each new hire rather than have every new hire fall in line with what exists?
Do you do a formal walkthrough of your values & principles? Do you make it clear from the start what behaviors you want to lift up and what behaviors have no place in your org?
Do you have a buddy system to help any new hire kickstart their personal network?

BENEFITS

Benefits are often a tipping point for why someone joins one company over another. Make sure your benefits support and consider the unique needs of all employees.

Are you aware of the holidays cultures other than your own celebrate? Do you give time off for them, or create flexibility so anyone who wants to can do so? Do you consider that some of your existing company holidays may be difficult or hurtful to some employees? Do you revisit your holiday list regularly to decide if it makes sense to expand or alter it?
Are you thinking of all caregivers when you provide paid time off? Do you offer equity in your primary/secondary caregiver time off policies? Do you have emergency caregiver leave so no one is choosing between vacation time and caring for a loved one?
Do you have flexibility to work from home for those that need it?
Do your health & wellness benefits consider the specific needs of all members of the LGBTQIA+ community? Do they consider the specific needs of employees of color? Of women? Of those with disabilities?
Do you offer financial education to ensure the future wellbeing of your team? Do you have tuition reimbursement or education budgets? 401k info sessions? Speakers who are experts in financial planning?
How do you treat your hourly or part-time employees compared to your full-time ones? How can you make your offerings equitable to anyone who puts in time to help your company succeed?

VALUES

Make sure you’re open about what you stand (and don’t stand) for.

Do your values speak to how staff should treat each other? Is being an inclusive teammate and leader an explicit expectation of everyone, especially managers or those in a position of power? How do you hold them accountable?
Do your values include a point of view on the issues facing underrepresented groups? Do you specifically speak to race, gender, disability status, for example?
If someone asked you what tactical actions you take to live up to each of your values, would you have an answer?

HANDBOOK

Creating a values-first handbook is important to making sure employees feel protected and considered.

What does your handbook say about you as a company? Does it take a purely risk-mitigation approach? Does it speak to your values and acknowledge there are people on the other side of your policies?
Is your handbook supported by a robust code of conduct that makes it clear what’s acceptable behavior at your company? Does your team have firm standards for how it would handle a complaint so it doesn’t shift based on who the potential offender is?
Do you have a clear problem resolution & harassment and discrimination process? Would an employee under duress know what would happen if they reported something to HR?
Do you have stated and serious consequences for those who don’t live up to your values, even if they have not broken the law? And do you follow through on them, no matter the role or seniority of the person?

COMPENSATION

Put your money where your values are.

Have you done a pay equity analysis or compensation study using race, gender, and other identifiers as filters? If you found any trends, did you dig into why and then make corrections? Have you put practices and parameters into place to ensure you avoid having the same issues in the future?
Have you created firm compensation and negotiation philosophies? Have you made consistent salary bands for roles/levels that you follow internally as well as with new offers?
Are your salaries tied to a firm set of criteria or are they allowed to shift based on the role, who the hiring manager is, and/or what the person asks for? How do you reduce bias in your decision-making? Who is reviewing decisions?
Do you have an explicit commitment to a fair raise process? Is the process documented and shared with all staff?
Do you track raises over time to keep an eye on equity and take appropriate actions as needed?

REVIEWS, PROMOTIONS, & RECOGNITION

Your culture is who you promote and recognize.

Do you have an explicit, documented commitment to a fair reviews and promotions process?
Have you documented your reviews and promotions process? Have you shared it internally with all staff?
Is your reviews and promotions process rooted in demonstrated work and skills rather than the recommendation of, or good relationship with, a manager?
Do you identify and record “invisible” labor or participation in initiatives that make your company a better place to work? Do you call out and reward that work the same way you do other types of contributions?
Are opportunities to take on new things, do stretch projects, present in front of leadership, etc. distributed equally?

WEBSITE

The image you put out to the world speaks volumes to what you care about internally.

What does your website look like? If a diverse group of people looked at it, would they see themselves on the jobs page? In stock images? In your marketing/advertising?
Have you used a tool or asked a diverse group of people to review the messaging and language used on your website?

EVENTS

Your events should reflect and include not just who works with you, but who you want to work with in the future.

As a company, do you host events that are varied in topic and have a diverse set of speakers?
When you host company events, who are they for? Whose interests do they reflect? Is there something for everyone?
Do you ensure there are a variety of non-alcoholic options at all your events?
Are social events outside of work truly optional? Do you make sure to separate social events from any important announcements so that no one misses something because they don’t enjoy group events or aren’t able to make gatherings outside of work hours?

TRAININGS

Help your team identify their own issues and stay up to date on best practices.

Do you keep your staff regularly trained in key topics like microaggressions and allyship?
Do you make sure your managers and HR team undergo extra training so they can fully support all employees and proactively respond to issues?
Do you do workshops or trainings on what being inclusive means and how it extends to working within your org or leading a team? Do you hold people accountable for following best practices?

EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE

Always acknowledge the lived experience of your employees.

Have you distributed an inclusion survey and used it to make plans? Have you openly shared the results of the survey with your team? Have you spoken to your underrepresented employees to understand their experience and where you need to target your efforts?
Do you amplify voices? Do you proactively try to hear from a variety of voices, even if they are shy or in the minority?
Do you make sure to not plan major company events or business needs around the holidays of cultures other than your own, just as you likely do for Christmas?
Do you think about what it’s like to navigate your physical space? Do you have gender-inclusive bathrooms? Accessible spaces? An easy, discreet way for people to request accommodations?
Do you call out and combat microaggressions? Do you call out and combat tokenism? Do you encourage others to do the same, especially of managers and leadership?
Do you acknowledge current events? Do you empathize and vocally give space and support to people who are hurting or distracted or living with uncertainty, even if you are personally ok?

This is not an exhaustive list and each point could be its own post. I encourage all leaders to do a self-audit and make an action plan from there.