It was one of those what am I doing here moments. I’d walked on to stage at a Fortune conference — to my right was Julia Hartz of Eventbrite, the talented founder and CEO of the popular ticketing company; to her left was Shannon Schiltz, the savvy partner running talent at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world’s most revered venture capital firms. And then there was me. What’s wrong with this picture?
No, this isn’t false humility. Like my co-panelists, I’ve built strong organizations, including at Fortune 50 companies (Cisco) and successful startups (RPX, a venture-backed company we took public three years after launch). I have a trove of valuable career experience and valuable insights to share, but none of the companies I’ve worked for has been a high-profile unicorn like Eventbrite or a darling Andreessen-funded company in the Silicon Valley spotlight.
While our panel went off without a hitch, and each gave valuable pearls of wisdom, that “wait a minute” moment of panic got me thinking: it’s not just an individual self-esteem crisis — companies encounter it too. It’s hard enough vying with the Facebooks, AirBnBs, and Snaps of the world for customer attention and investor dollars. Competing with these Goliaths for diverse human capital can seem like an unfair fight. There’s a reason they call it the “war” for talent.
It’s hard enough vying with the Facebooks, AirBnBs, and Snaps of the world for customer attention and investor dollars. Competing with these Goliaths for diverse human capital can seem like an unfair fight. There’s a reason they call it the “war” for talent.
So how do you recruit and hire (and retain) high performing employees when you’re not one of those sexy companies in a hot space? And how do you do so in a way that is both diverse and inclusive when even the big stars are struggling despite hundreds of millions spent on diversity and inclusion efforts?
Obviously, there is no simple answer or magic formula. As an executive responsible for building organizations in both large corporations to seedling startups, I did many things wrong, but I also managed to unearth many things that turned out to be right — some from my own trial and error, and some with the help of others opening my eyes. Whether I built the organization from the ground up or there was a homogenous team in place when I joined, each scenario has its set of challenges.
In this multi-part series, I’ll start by laying out context that’s crucial to understanding why it’s so easy (even natural) for companies to be homogenous and then share six steps anyone can implement to change hiring patterns. You’ll see me refer most often to women throughout the series as it’s the most studied demographic and therefore has the most data, however, my recommendations can apply to all types of diversity.
I’ll update with links below as these postings are published.
The Buddy Syndrome: Why Companies Look the Same (and Why Changing That is So Hard)
Step #1: Diversity (and Change) Requires Top Down and Bottoms Up
Step #2 Condition Your Employees to Embrace “Different” in Hiring
Step #3 Interview Even if the Résumé Doesn’t Check All the Typical Boxes
Step #4 Don’t Expect “Perfect” — Be Willing to Coach the Candidate
Step #5 Always Be Recruiting, Even if You Don’t Have a Specific Position
Step #6 Don’t Turn Them Off With the Job Listing
Winning the War for Diverse Talent: Pay It Forward
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Mallun Yen is a public company officer, technology executive, board member, founder, and investor who has built organizations in Fortune 50 companies to seedling start-ups. She has no formal training in psychology, social science, or evolution. Everything she learned she learned on the job. Follow her on Twitter @mallun and LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/mallun.
