How to Ensure DEI Hiring is More Than Checking a Box

Many colleges and universities have increased their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in hiring. Hiring committees participate in a one-hour training session with the expectation that they will walk away as experts in the areas of inclusive hiring practices.

Institutions sometimes add a neutral party to the hiring committee with the goal of assisting the committee with a DEI focus. This individual or “search advocate” receives training to perform this role in addition to their primary full-time appointment.

Efforts to train and include search advocates on hiring committees are well-intentioned and can often help bring more focus to inclusive hiring practices. However, these efforts can also overlook the complexities of hiring in general and the need to weave inclusive hiring practices into all elements of the search process. So how do you incorporate DEI practices, in a meaningful way, to yield the results you are seeking?

Weaving DEI into the Search
Bringing a DEI focus to recruiting does not mean posting your jobs to a magical location that will result in deeply diverse applicant pools. There is also no single training that will transform your hiring practices or turn your hiring committees into experts on inclusive search practices over the course of a 60-minute session, or even a full-day seminar.

There is no single box you can check to effectively focus on DEI work in your hiring process. You can, however, achieve success by incorporating a variety of strategies throughout the hiring process and by creating a robust support structure for hiring committees. By involving recruiting experts who are trained in DEI throughout the hiring process, we have been able to weave DEI considerations into the fabric of our searches and not just as add-ons.

Well-trained recruiters understand the principles of inclusive search practices, the nuances of hiring-related employment laws, specific regulatory and institutional hiring requirements, and the need to focus on the applicant experience. Institutions should blend all of these elements into an inclusive approach to fill positions at each stage of the hiring process, including:

• Creating inclusive job postings with qualifications that remove unnecessary barriers
• Developing a robust outreach plan, including posting locations and direct outreach efforts
• Ensuring applicant evaluation throughout the process mitigates bias and is focused on objective criteria
• Designing and developing inclusive interview formats and developing behavior-based and job-related interview questions
• Providing clear and timely communication to applicants throughout the hiring process
• Giving guidance to hiring managers related to making an offer and onboarding

Assessing Diversity in Applicant Pools
We discussed earlier that there are no magical posting locations to ensure you have diverse applicant pools. A broad approach to posting your position in a variety of locations, along with robust outreach efforts by your recruiters and the campus community, can help bring visibility to your job posting.

Visibility alone, however, will not necessarily lead to diverse applicant pools. It is key to ensure that your job posting itself is written intentionally with inclusive language and reasonable qualifications that do not create unnecessary barriers for applicants. Highlighting your campus commitment to DEI in an authentic and genuine manner can be an important way to bring interest to your position.

In addition to considering your outreach efforts and the language of your job posting, it is important to consider how you define and measure your DEI efforts. If you are a federal contractor, you should have robust applicant data to assess whether the diversity of your applicant pools reflects the diversity in your available labor market. Looking at this data can add context and is a great way to measure where you are in your DEI search efforts.

Other considerations include the demographics of your local geographical area and elements such as cost of living, the housing market, and the presence of community and cultural events. You should be aware of how applicants view your geographic area and whether it is a desirable location or if there are barriers keeping applicants from moving to the area.

Invest in Diversity Resources
Many people in higher education are feeling the effects of funding shortages, staffing shortages, and increased workloads. It can be tempting to add DEI initiatives to already full workloads and avoid making specific investments in the resources needed to lead the organization successfully in these efforts. Retention is a topic for another article, but it is important to mention that the most successful hiring programs lose value if new employees do not stay very long.

You may lose gains made through DEI efforts in the hiring process if you do not also promote employees, work to retain them, and provide them with tools to help them succeed in their careers. Ensuring that this work is properly resourced with trained experts can be the difference between a well-intentioned program and a highly successful program. Investing in the resources needed to lead your campus in inclusive searches shows a commitment by the institution to DEI work, which itself can make the institution more attractive to potential applicants.

What’s Next?
Being intentional and thoughtful about incorporating DEI efforts into your hiring process is the key to creating an impactful program. A few questions to consider:

• If you already have a program, how can you measure success?
• If you are looking to create a program, what data can you share with leadership to support your proposal?

• What is the institutional commitment to supporting these efforts?

While you may define some key action steps–know that this is an area that needs constant engagement and revision. And while this work is ever-changing, it is possible to achieve inclusive hiring practices with a variety of strategies and robust support structures for hiring committees.