For companies struggling to recruit a diverse group of candidates, relying on the same hiring pipelines they’ve always used won’t suddenly yield new results. Especially in cities where underrepresented candidates make up smaller percentages than the rest of the population — like Denver.
“In just looking at race/ethnicity alone, as of 2019, Denver’s population is 55 percent white and about 30 percent Hispanic or Latinx,” Greenhouse’s Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Jamie Adasi said. “Because of this, you’ll often hear recruiters and hiring managers share that it feels impossible to attract a diverse pool of candidates in Denver.”
Citing numbers for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Adasi points out that the diversity problem in the city of Denver is only exacerbated by growing rates of gentrification. So, what can companies do to attract and retain diverse talent in what is perceived to be a homogenous landscape?
“The problem often isn’t with having a diverse-enough pool,” Adasi said, “But rather, our hesitancies in doing the work to meet people where they already are.”
To learn how Greenhouse is building a more diverse and inclusive workplace and helping others follow suit, Built In Colorado sat down with Adasi. She shared challenges that DE&I leaders face, how she approaches these challenges and why building an equitable company has had a positive impact on Greenhouse’s culture and its products.
How has Greenhouse overcome the challenges of hiring diverse candidates in Denver?
Greenhouse has taken the approach of meeting underrepresented talent where they are, whether that’s at an Out In Tech conference or other local, diversity-related events. We are searching for candidates with diverse backgrounds outside of tech since we know that tech workers are disproportionately white and male. We are also marketing and recruiting for roles in diverse areas of the state and are open to working with Coloradans who live in more remote areas and can start in distributed positions.
Another strategy we’re using is encouraging our hiring managers in Denver to serve as an extension of our talent acquisition team. By helping hiring managers join local networking groups for interacting with a diverse group of candidates and encouraging them to get involved with the diverse communities in Denver, we’re opening up our pipeline beyond traditional sourcing platforms like LinkedIn.
We’re also participating in initiatives like Tech for Black Founders (TFBF) — an ecosystem of companies providing resources and technology to empower Black-led businesses. As part of our involvement we’re offering Greenhouse recruiting free of charge to the U.S.-based, early-stage startups led by Black founders for one year. We joined TFBF to not only demonstrate our commitment to and investment in Black/African-American communities, but also to expand our reach with key points of contact within the Black community.
Greenhouse’s Employee Resource Groups
- Blackhouse: a group for empowerment, advocacy and support for employees of African descent
- WomenGrown: a networking and equality group for women at the company
- Rainbowhouse: a safe space created by and for our LGBTQ+ employees
- Shades of Green: an inclusive community for Black, Indigenous and People of Color
What advice would you give to other companies looking to improve DE&I efforts?
Recognize that especially during times of massive uncertainty, underrepresented individuals require a multitude of ways to be communicated with and courted along your hiring process. Are you taking time to be human, real and flexible with your candidates’ needs? For examples, if you’re interviewing a working parent, caregiver or guardian, are you allowing for space and flexibility if someone needs to reschedule at the last minute?
Are you taking time to be human, real and flexible with your candidates’ needs?”
Understand what DE&I means to your organization and why it is critical to your business outcomes. If you aren’t able to articulate the importance of diversity, chances are that underrepresented candidates being interviewed might not trust that your company is actually committed to enhancing DE&I.
When planning your interview panels, make sure to include a diverse group of individuals to accurately represent your company’s culture, including race/ethnicity, age and gender. If you have no underrepresented employees on your interview panels due to the lack of diversity on your teams, you should be ready and willing to discuss with candidates what you plan to do to keep them engaged once they make it to the other side.
On that note, it’s important both new and incumbent hires feel included and set up for success. What does that require from leaders?
Leaders need to understand and express their commitment to DE&I as a continued investment. While it’s tempting to prioritize DE&I work when it’s being highlighted by the news and so many companies are reacting to showcase their DE&I commitments, it’s just as important to continue the work when there isn’t as much of a national spotlight on it. Diversity matters more than ever when the stakes are high, but it will continue to matter more each day moving forward.
By accepting personal responsibility for company-wide DE&I goals and using humility to share learnings around recognizing and addressing biases, leaders become more authentic and their work more impactful. Leaders who are able to express their commitment to DE&I can inspire others to take action and have a sizable impact, especially within communities from underrepresented backgrounds.
At Greenhouse, I have created a training program for our executive team, people managers and DE&I council members in diverse, effective and inclusive leadership skills for agile leaders. I am also working on bringing training to the rest of our staff because DE&I is everyone’s job.
The “PRESS model” Greenhouse uses to reduce bias
- Problem awareness: “Do I understand the problem?”
- Root-cause analysis: “Do I understand where the problem comes from?”
- Empathy: “Do I care enough about the problem and the people it harms?”
- Strategy: “Do I know how to correct the problem?”
- Sacrifice: “Am I willing to do anything about it?”
What else is Greenhouse doing to promote equity in its team?
We’re regularly iterating on structured hiring and sourcing goals, rethinking our performance management metrics, educating our people managers and aspiring managers, and leaning into demonstrating how DE&I strengthens our teams and prepares us to stay adept and succeed in unsettling times.
Internally, we’ve launched a DE&I Council and Ethics Committee made up of representatives across the organization to hold ourselves accountable internally to this important work. Externally, we are also sharing our commitment to our DE&I efforts as an additional way to hold ourselves accountable and to share our progress on our DE&I goals.
We’re working on giving employees similar language to create a more inclusive environment around them as we go into 2021 trainings and goal attainment around our internal DE&I metrics.
What’s been the impact of these efforts on Greenhouse’s culture and product?
We’ve been monitoring our engagement, belonging and inclusion scores via internal surveys and as a result, we’ve seen a 23 percent increase in people expressing that diversity is an important part of the culture at Greenhouse just over the last few quarters.
This has also led to the creation of new DE&I features and functionality within our products. As a company that provides hiring technology, we’re continuously investing in product enhancements and interventions that drive DE&I. Some of these features and processes include in-app nudges, hiding prejudicial data, discussing potential algorithmic bias, reporting on how certain demographics are progressing through a hiring funnel and creating an even more inclusive candidate experience via our candidate name pronunciation feature and pronouns work.
The work we are doing around DE&I is evolving, but our mission has never been more clear.”
We’ve also implemented a diversity sourcing strategy for every job search and set dedicated DE&I KPIs for our talent acquisition team so that we can hold ourselves accountable for adding diversity to our organization.
The work we are doing around DE&I is evolving, but our mission has never been more clear. Infusing diversity, equity and inclusion into the way we work is an important way we fulfill our mission to make every company great at hiring. Helping companies reduce bias within their hiring process is an impactful step that accelerates our DE&I growth both here at Greenhouse and within communities that we’re a part of. Building a culture of belonging — where every person is supported to be their most authentic self — is how we contribute to the kind of world we want to live in.
