5 Ways to Build Diversity and Inclusion Into Your Hiring Process
Changing the face of the sports industry requires focus throughout the hiring process. Here are 4 ways that you can build an organization that builds diverse and inclusive practices into your recruiting.
Let’s start with a story …
Rachel Balkovec is finally making her way up in the New York Yankees system as manager of the Class A Minor League Tampa Tarpons. It’s been a long road to this point but she’s made history in the process as the first woman to manage any MLB-affiliated team.
Her resume is beyond impressive; Balkovec has worked for the Johnson City Cardinals in the St. Louis Cardinals system, with the Houston Astros’ strength and conditioning team, and even overseas in the Netherlands at Vrije University and with the Australian Baseball League.
Balkovec has even learned to speak Spanish to better communicate with her Latino players. But one thing she should not have had to do was go by the unisex name of “Rae Balkovec.”
Why did she do that? She’s been open about how she felt it gave her a better chance to land jobs, even as her resume began to stack up.
So is there a diversity and inclusion issue with hiring practices within sports organizations?
Before you answer that, here’s The Breakdown of how you can make your organization a welcoming place for people from all walks of life.
1/ Present a brand that welcomes diverse talent
- Stop and ask yourself that question. Is it old school or traditional, or more new age and outside-of-the-box? Whatever is more accurate for you, that does not mean you cannot have an inclusive brand or staff in-house.
- Get an idea of what your staff thinks the brand is too. Having them take an anonymous survey about your organization’s overall culture will give you ideas of where to build from.
- You are more likely to draw in diverse candidates if you are upholding a brand of being diverse and inclusive. If you do have diverse staff members in your organization, it will go a long way to highlight them for their skills and achievements, but also make sure they feel comfortable being a part of your team.
- Don’t just talk about it, be about it. It’s one thing to say you have a diverse or inclusive brand. But if there’s feedback from the outside sharing how that’s not the case, one must look inwardly as to how they can improve upon this.
Branding is such a vital piece of how sports organizations draw in fans and employees. From there marketing is key, so how do you go about marketing your diversity and inclusion efforts?
2/ Market your positions to diverse talent
- An easy way to get involved is with social media initiatives that highlight inclusivity. That could be through stories of Black employees during Black History Month, celebrating the women in your organization during Women’s History Month, or highlighting your LGBTQ+ staff during Pride Month.
- Although inward efforts are vital, getting involved in your respective communities is just as important. Connecting with local organizations on diversity and inclusion projects can provide the type of communal support that helps cement the intent of these efforts.
- Use your resources as well. If the partners you work with are incorporating inclusive practices into their business models, it never hurts to ask them how they may have implemented them into their ecosystems.
- Speaking of partnerships, who are you working with? There have been sports partners who are upfront with their diversity and inclusion efforts, while others are falling short. It’s easier to be inclusive in your own culture if you work with organizations that strive to be too, like HBCUs, non-profits, and ones specifically connected to the diversity and inclusive arena.
Marketing is big for sports organizations on many fronts, but especially when it comes to highlighting and curating brands. But the next thing to consider would be if your marketing is strong enough to draw in job candidates. If not, how can you enhance the job search process for diverse applicants?
3/ Structure your interviews to minimize bias
- Word choices in job descriptions need to be inviting to traditionally underrepresented groups, like women or people of color. For example, here at TeamWork Online, our organization used TextTender software to analyze what was being presented in these job descriptions.
- One suggestion would be to broaden your job requirements for candidates. A background in sports, or certain technical skills, can help applicants stand out. But who’s to say a working professional or college graduate — who does not have that sports experience — can’t help contribute to your organization in some fashion? Don’t limit your talent pool!
- The use of video interviews allows candidates to speak their stories and show their personalities vs. trying to interpret a resume. That’s an important development, but especially in 2022, when we had almost two years of lost opportunities in sports.
- As zany as this may sound, some organizations are using AI as a part of their hiring process. That way, the human element of bias is disregarded. Just look at it as a step forward in business analytics!
- Discrimination comes in many forms. Does an applicant appear too young or is getting their career started late? Are you prioritizing former athletes or people who grew up around professional sports? These could be implicit biases in your process. Not being a former athlete has not held back Super Bowl champion Howie Roseman from having success!
These practices could help bring in the right applicant pool for your organization. So once you start reviewing resumes, what should you consider before the interview process?
4/ Review Experience First, Names Second
- One suggestion is to look at an applicant’s body of work on their resume first, then go back to their names. In a 2021 study held by the University of California Berkeley and the University of Chicago surveying 83,000 job applicants — 41,500 Black and White candidates each, with comparable resumes — the Black applicants with more “diverse names” were called back 10% less than their White counterparts.
- Develop a criteria checklist to work with. Maybe it’s five points, maybe it’s 10, but regardless, your top candidates should have quantifiable criteria that boost them (ie: years of experience, working at other professional sports organizations, technical skills, etc.).
- What questions are you asking? Of course, there are the ones that come directly from reviewing a resume, but what about the personal questions? Ensure that those personal questions are ones that you would be comfortable with answering in a job interview.
- Build a structured interview guide with questions, so you can directly compare candidates by their answers. If you do veer from the guide, make sure questions are not too far out of the realm of work. An applicant’s favorite hobbies, musical artists, or video-streaming platforms, may help you understand who the person is, but do not necessarily show if they can effectively fulfill their job.
If the hiring process is amended in your organization, there’s no telling how far you can go with a wider world of candidates. But before you bring in those diverse candidates, how can you make sure extra eyes are reviewing those resumes?
5/ Create Diverse Hiring Teams
- Look at your hiring team just like you’d look at the players in a starting lineup. Everyone has a role, so there should be a mix of everyone throughout your organization, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or even education level.
- If organizations are doing group interviews or panel interviews, make sure the executives involved in the interviewing are a diverse group that represents and reflects their workplace. Then discuss all hiring decisions and any potential biases that come up before offers are sent out.
- Also with group/panel interviews, please ensure that your hiring team is willing to expand on why they may view a particular candidate over another. Taking an applicant’s personal traits into account is important (ie: temperament, leadership qualities, overall social skills), but it should only be in combination with a person’s skills and experience as a professional.
You should also consider …
- Creation of Employee Resource Groups to create and foster internal relationships and create communities within communities.
- Adding in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for employees.
- Some organizations are instituting the use of gender-neutral pronouns to not assume how anyone identifies.
- Adding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies into employee handbooks to further strengthen the organization’s commitment.
- Organizations need to look at their Senior-Level positions and adjust — representation matters. Women, and other traditionally underrepresented groups, will feel more welcomed into an organization if they see someone who looks like they do or whose story is similar to their own.
- The position of VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and other similar roles is newer to the sports business. It didn’t exist 5 years ago.
Conclusion:
The push for better Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards has been one of the most positive workplace developments in recent years. But especially for sports organizations, as 2021 was a banner year that saw organizations taking more stances, working with unique partners, and bringing on more diverse staff members.
But there’s so much more room to grow. Some leagues still have a 60–40 split when it comes to their male staff vs. female staff. Certain leagues have less than a third of their front office positions being held by people of color, and that number drops even lower when considering the management roles in those departments.
So how are you trying to improve the sports world’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts? There’s no one way to go about it, so don’t be afraid to try new practices to improve your culture. This is an ongoing process and it will need strong advocates to ensure that this growth does not become stagnant. We must continue to move forward so everyone feels welcomed!
We hope that our employers feel this can help improve their workplaces for the long haul. Now for all you applicants out there, how do you go about job-search processes as a diverse candidate? What are some practices to consider when applying for a sports job as someone from a unique background?
