How to create anti-racist hiring practices
You may not be in a position to hire yet, or you may be part of a large company in the middle of a hiring round. Whatever your situation, here are some things you can consider in creating anti-racist hiring practices.
1. Inclusive Job Descriptions
In job descriptions, there’s a lot that can be done to ensure it’s possible to hire from diverse talent pools and to attract the right talent. You could:
Cut down on unnecessary jargon Make it clear that you consider experiences both in and out of the work environment Include a genuine and honest equality or diversity statement Advertise in a broad range of networks (see some suggested platforms below)
Overcoming economic barriers to jobs
There can be economic barriers to applying for jobs. To address this you could:
Avoid advertising on websites that require paid access Clearly state the pay grade Offer remote interviews for applicants Support BAME migrants to apply by stating if the company can be a visa sponsor
Bear in mind that there’s more to hiring than just the job description! Once a potential candidate clicks around your website, they must be able to see that there is a clear and authentic focus on inclusivity and diversity.
2. Combat affinity bias
Affinity bias is the tendency to gravitate towards similar people, and this may be based on background, appearance or beliefs. It could also mean that people are less likely to be accepting of people who are different.
It’s important to combat this when hiring and looking for new technologists responsible for creating products and services. This can be done with some of the following:
Use hiring platforms that enable you to assess the content of a CV before seeing the name, qualifications, location etc. Some examples of this are Workable, which enables users to perform blind CV reviews, or coding test platforms such as Qualified.io, which enables code to be reviewed without seeing individuals’ names.
During the interview, have diverse panels. This may mean changing your interview process in order to utilise a wider range of people in or out of your existing hiring team and working with talent partners.
Diverse Sourcing
You may not know where to look when you want to build diverse teams of technologists, so here are some suggested platforms to start with.
You can consider how they might support you in your own context – for example, maybe you run a Cyber Security business, or you need to ensure there is a cybersecurity team available for your current product.
In this instance, you could look at Seidea, who focus on increasing the number of people from a Black background in the Cyber Security industry and have a job board.
Find hidden talent
It is also important to identify skills, existing talents and leadership.
As an example, Coding Black Females run the #VisibleInTech campaign on social media identifying Black women in the tech industry.
Another example is TLA Black Women in Tech, who are creating a book of Black women in tech called Voices in the Shadow due to be released later in October 2021.
Building diverse teams
Anti-racist hiring practices are a good first step towards building diverse teams – but it’s important that anti-racism and inclusion don’t stop there.
If you’d like to learn more about anti-racist hiring practices in technology, check out the full online course, from UAL, below.
Further Resources:
- Terrence Shin, 2020. Real-life Examples of Discriminating Artificial Intelligence Towards Data Science.
- Mikaela Kiner, 2020. Five proven ways to attract and hire more diverse talent Tech Crunch.
- Katie Pether, 2020. Learning how to be anti-racist in our recruitment, DfE Digital and Technology.
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