Getting Started:
Want to immediately improve your chances of hiring equitably?
Consider some of these steps to get you started.
Think back to your last time applying for a new job. What was the experience like for you? How did the initial interview make you feel? Did you have to wait long to hear something back? How many rounds of interviews did you experience? Over how many weeks or months was the process? What was your mindset; were you nervous? Confident? Excited? Filled with dread?
You as an employer have the power to make the hiring process a positive experience for yourself and for job seekers. You also have the power to shift the process from one that is inherently inequitable to one that embraces fair treatment every step of the way. We’re pleased to offer you (in our new blog) our first series of posts, over the course of the next 14 weeks, filled with concrete ideas, recommendations and practices to help you hire equitably, effectively, and respectfully.
We hope that reading and engaging with our blog and the content inside will encourage you to think differently about your hiring and employment process. While our recommendations are aimed toward employers, it will take all of us--employers, job seekers, employees, lay leaders, and other community members--to meaningfully change how we hire. So, regardless of your current role and relationship to hiring, we hope you will read and wrestle with these concepts.
We hope you will be inspired to take action, and are supported in doing so. Our series Hiring on Purpose includes clear recommendations and reflective questions that may inspire you to question current practice, disrupt the systems in which you live, work, and strive, even if incrementally, toward change. Read on here for the next number of weeks to consider how we might hire better, and hire with and on purpose.
Think again about the last time you applied for a new position. What emotions do these memories bring up? What went well? What made you feel appreciated, validated, or supported? What made you feel frustrated, discouraged, or angry? Let’s note where we feel discomfort--or appreciation--and use the power in our awareness to shift hiring and employment processes in our workplaces from ones that are often profoundly misguided toward ones that are more equitable and truly strive toward fair and dignified treatment for all. We invite you to join us in this work. Get ready for more...and keep your browser pointed right here. We'll see you next week.
If you’d like to write a piece for Gender Equity @ Work, introduce yourself to us by sharing your idea, and the beginnings of your thinking and writing, with us by completing this form. We invite you to share a pitch that includes a paragraph summarizing your idea, and a short bio. Tell us why you are the person who should write this particular piece, and links to your previous publications (if applicable). You should expect a response within approximately 10 days.