The recent development in American politics is painful to watch.
As an immigrant Founder I feel threatened. Do I belong here? What if the French are next?
As a proud European, I feel scared. We already know the consequences of nationalism, and how hard we worked to overcome our murderous instincts.
But as a Recruiter, I feel energized because the best place to fight against discrimination is in the hiring process.
So instead of feeling scared or threatened, let us just think about how we can make our hiring process more diverse and more inclusive: invest in diversity sourcing, create an affirmative action program, build job specific interview scorecards, Educate managers. There is a LOT we can do together as recruiters.
I sent the note below to our team today asking everyone to specifically plan for more systematic diversity and inclusion in everything we do here at SmartRecruiters.
I hope this inspires as many recruiters as possible to move the hiring needle towards a better, more diverse, and more inclusive place.
Dear Smartians,
It has been painful this week to witness the current administration break the core values that made the US what it is: an amazing inclusive and diverse country. The consequences of these decisions are far reaching, even in our own organization. As an example, one of our Director of Product is prevented from presenting his new product at Hiring Success 17 because… he was born in Iran. More dramatically, it brings to the surface the stinky smell of discrimination: Us vs Them.
As the CEO of SmartRecruiters, it goes without saying that I am extremely committed to fight for diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our business. Our 170 Smartians today span 23 nationalities, and I hope every possible religion, race, gender, or sexual preference. Diversity is and will continue to be our strength.
But beyond our own team, I think as a business, we have a historical responsibility here. Think about it: last year, we participated in 300,000 jobs and 6 Million candidates… That is a lot of lives touched. The truth is that we can influence our customers to build a more diverse and inclusive hiring process. Through specific features (diversity sourcing, better reports, candidate experience, matching bias), best practices (scorecards, diversity questions, processes), and better awareness (blogging, white papers, and more).
As you think through for 2017 planning and priorities, in each team, ask yourselves what are we going to do to improve diversity and inclusion in hiring?
Time for action.
Thank you
Jerome
