Recruiting for Diversity
Helping to find diverse technology talent and supporting diverse groups of people to work better together
Having a diverse staff is a source of great strength for any organisation. Diversity enhances creativity. It brings us new perspectives leading to better decision-making and problem solving. It helps organisations to change the way they think, and to better reflect the needs and interests of a wider range of supporters, attracting a bigger potential audience.
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However diversity can also be difficult. People with different mindsets and backgrounds will often disagree and if not managed well this tension can become a destructive rather than empowering force.
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The tech industry in particular has an issue with a lack of diversity, with significantly less gender diversity and lower numbers of staff from BIPOC backgrounds as compared to other areas. Despite efforts there is plenty of room for improvement in both hiring practices and building inclusive work environments.
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Having successfully developed a diverse and effective technology team at Greenpeace I am able to provide insight on the best practices in finding and hiring diverse talent, and in helping these teams to coalesce into highly performing groups that maximise their different talents and perspectives.
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This could include:
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Support with creating job descriptions and job advertisements that attract diverse candidates
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Support with the recruitment process, e.g. finding the right places to advertise roles, defining interview and candidate selection methodology, leveraging existing internal networks, etc.
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Support to develop understanding between diverse teams, e.g. personality profiling and discussion, creating team charters, etc.
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Creating individual “user guides” and team “trading cards”