Memorandum

To: Leadership in Hiring Committee

From: Paige Palmer
Date: 14 February, 2018
Subject: Diversity Hiring Practices Recommendation Report

The purpose of this memo is to give the results and recommendations from the investigation I
conducted into improving iNova’s diversity and hiring techniques, as instructed by Boss’s
January 30th email.

Summary
To pursue diversity at iNova I wanted to create a clearer definition of diversity and why it
matters. I evaluated common ways that tech companies are currently trying to diversify their
workforce, and searched for why these techniques are not effective, as diversity numbers have
barely budged in the past ten years. For research, I not only read and analyzed the many articles
provided to me in Boss’s email, but found other external articles and sources discussing
diversity, how tech companies treat women and minorities, and why the current systems aren’t
helping.

Finally, based on my research, I have several recommendations that the Leadership and Hiring
Team should strongly consider as they look to bring in new talent. These include:
• Implementing text-augmenting software Textio to make job postings more open-ended
and appealing to range of more diverse applicants
• Using the application Blendoor to review resumes and select interview applicants, while
also analyzing diversity data as we hire
• Instituting a mentorship onboarding policy to help new employees find their place in the
company and increase diversity in future management

Discussion
Diversity and inclusion are buzzwords that have floated around the tech world and the internet in
increasing numbers over the past several years, and yet even the largest tech companies have
failed to incorporate these values. In the past year, tech giants like Facebook, Apple, and
Microsoft only hired 1% more women, with the total percentage of women employed no higher
than 32% at any of the three companies (Informationisbeautiful.net, 2016). Their figures for
nonwhite hiring aren’t much better, with companies even losing minority representation.

Defining Diversity: Why it Matters

As Anna Holmes points out, diversity is a word used commonly in many situations to
describe stock portfolios or the environment, but when it comes to human beings “the
notion of diversity feels more fraught, positioning one group (white, male Americans) as the
default, and everyone else as the Other” (2015). This is not a great starting point, and as the
word usage has increased and action has decreased, the word has become watered-down
corporate and PR jargon.

The first step in changing that meaning is understanding why it’s important in the first place. The
Harvard Business Review reports that women, people of color, and LBGTQ people are anywhere
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from 20% to 25% less likely to earn management’s support for their ideas, which “costs their
companies crucial market opportunities, because inherently diverse contributors understand the
unmet needs in under-leveraged markets” (2016). One of the most important elements of
business is knowing your customers, and that cannot be achieved if a company isn’t reflective of
the overall population.

Additionally, diversity is proven to produce better results than homogenous groups of people.
People feel more comfortable around those who are like them, but are less willing to discuss new
ideas or take on new perspectives, and tend to assume that everyone agrees (Liljenquist and
Neale, 2010).

Diversity, then, is more than just checking off a box to fulfill a requirement. It can create
discomfort, but discomfort can also signal growth, and lead to a better workplace for everyone.

Where Companies Go Wrong and How to Avoid Common Mistakes

Some typical methods used to fix these problems are mandatory diversity training, testing hires
for job performance, and grievance systems so that employees can report any discomfort or bias
they feel they are experiencing. According to Dobbin and Kalev from the Harvard Business
Review, “this approach also flies in the face of nearly everything we know about how to
motivate people to make changes…You won’t get managers on board by blaming and shaming
them with rules and reeducation” (2016).

Of course, getting new hires in the door is the first important step, and even when trying to be
proactive, it is difficult for hiring staff to get past the unconscious biases they aren’t even aware
they carry. According to Shana Lebowitz of Business Insider, people naturally gravitate towards
people they see as similar to them, base decisions based on stereotypes about someone’s
competence, and are wary of anyone who they perceive as a threat to their status in an
organization (2015). These are innate human traits that can’t simply be washed away with a
seminar on balanced hiring. Luckily, there are numerous, effective technologies and apps now
available for companies that will help to reduce these biases in resume evaluation, interviewing,
and in job postings that could assist iNova in hiring based on merit alone.

It’s astonishing the number of factors that are considered when hiring that we are not aware of.
Apps like Blendoor allow recruiters to look at purely the professional experience of a potential
employee, and make decisions for interviews based on these qualifications.

Additionally, just the way a job ad is written or how a company describes itself on its website
can be disconcerting to minorities in the tech industry, and discourage them from applying.
According to Sean Captain, over-professional, cliché, or cheesy language can be extremely off-
putting to women and minorities (2015). Language that is more focused on growth and learning
is more attractive.

Integrating new employees into iNova needs to go further than just reading the manual. Instead,
Projectinclude.org, a nonprofit started by leading women in tech fields, suggests we need to
focus on setting goals for our new recruits, or set up a buddy or mentor system. According to the
research done by the Harvard Business Review, having managers volunteer to mentor new
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recruits led to as much as a 24% increase in representation of different racial and gender groups
in management roles. “Mentors help give their charges the breaks they need to develop and
advance,” says the report, “The mentors then come to believe that their protégés merit these
opportunities—whether they’re white men, women, or minorities” (2016). This gets management
involved on a level that is proactive and engaging, and since women and minorities don’t tend to
seek out mentors, and white men can feel awkward reaching out, this creates a system where
everyone gets an equal chance to see where their career can develop.

Recommendation
iNova’s current numbers could certainly use a change, with only 24% of the workplace female
and even less representing minorities. My recommendations to change as the company grows
include using text-augmenting app Textio to improve job postings, Blendoor to create blind
resume review, and a mentorship program to onboard new employees.

Textio
I recommend starting at the beginning in evaluating our hiring practices by starting with our first
impression. Textio is an augmented writing platform that corrects language that may be
ineffective or disheartening to applicants, much like a spell or grammar check works. It requires
little to no training to learn and works in real time, with Textio reporting increases of up to 25%
more women and minorities being interviewed, and tech companies like Twitter already
beginning to implement the app.

Blendoor
Blendoor is another app that can provide a better way to look at the resumes we receive and track
diversity data. Blendoor not only uses its own database of diverse, qualified individuals to match
with companies looking to prioritize diversity, but also can be used to change data from our
existing candidate pools so that they are presented without names, photos, or any other
information that could create unconscious bias. Additionally, the app runs its own analytics
based not only on race, but on gender and LGBTQ factors as well, to create detailed data to keep
us accountable.

Mentorship Program
I believe that setting up a mentoring program between managers or higher-ups in similar
positions as the new recruits we’re bringing in would be the best way to immediately help new
hires build relationships in the workforce and promote an environment of inclusion, where hires
of whatever gender or race can clearly see what kind of opportunities exist in their future.
Mentors will help the recruits through the first several months in the workplace environment, and
can also sponsor their skills when it comes to new projects that will further their careers.
Making sure each employee has someone they feel is looking out for their interests promotes
collaboration and understanding, and would be a company policy that lives up to its inclusionary
tactics.
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Reference List

Captain, S. (2015). Analyzing the subtle bias in tech companies’ recruiting emails.
Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3054237/analyzing-the-subtle-bias-in-tech-
companies-recruiting-emails

Dobbin F., and Kalev, A. (2016). Why diversity programs fail. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail

Holmes, A. (2015). Has diversity lost its meaning? The New York Times Magazine.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/has-diversity-lost-its-
meaning.html?_r=0

Information is Beautiful. (2016). [Graph illustration Diversity in Tech 2016]. Employee

breakdown of key technology companies. Retrieved from
https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/

Lebowitz, S. (2015). 3 unconscious biases that affect whether you get hired. Business
Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/unconscious-biases-in-hiring-decisions-
2015-7

Medina, S. (2014). Why you should do more than just talk about workplace diversity.
Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3032103/why-its-time-to-get-proactive-about-
building-diversity-and-inclusion-into