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In episode 105 of The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, JoDee and Susan discuss diversity recruiting with Jerome Ternynck, Founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters, Vern Howard, CEO of Hallo, and Andrew Darby from AXIS Capital.

As study after study proves that diverse teams are more productive and profitable, many companies are seeing the business case for recruiting diverse candidates. What we as HR professionals and business leaders need to do now is help businesses figure out how to do it. By being intentional about diverse recruiting, we can help people from diverse backgrounds and help our companies at the same time.

Jerome Ternynck, Founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters, joins the show to share his 10 principles of diversity recruiting. Jerome advocates for having a diverse hiring team and making sure that hiring team has gone through training. Having objectives is important, so to the extent permitted by law, state your representation goals. Then, make sure your hiring process is inclusive and provides reasonable accommodation. Make your job descriptions neutral and focused more on “must achieves” instead of “must haves.” Invest in sourcing and marketing in places that underrepresented groups will see your job ads. Eliminate bias from your screening process. Structured interviews are important, because interviewing is often where bias creeps in. Make sure your onboarding process is inclusive, and make sure your internal hiring is fair.

Vern Howard, CEO of Hallo, calls in to share the story behind the diversity recruiting platform. Vern graduated from a lesser-known school and noticed that he and other students who didn’t go to well-known schools lacked access to information on how to get a job at a company and lacked access to a network to act on that information. Diversity and inclusion has often been viewed from a transactional lens, and Vern encourages focusing on building relationships in underrepresented communities instead of trying to check a box. Many times, recruiters may look at students from lesser-known schools and not know how to qualify them; Hallo helps organizations understand where students and their majors rank.

Andrew Darby, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at AXIS Capital, joins our hosts next. Andrew encourages looking for a diverse slate of candidates rather than just “a diverse candidate,” because when there is more than one candidate from an underrepresented group, it’s more likely that one of those candidates will get the job. He also recommends making sure that your diversity efforts extend to the rest of your culture and that they’re visible to candidates. Assume positive intent and make sure that your hiring team is aware of your diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and commitments. Like Vern, Andrew believes it’s important to network with key universities and groups. Above all, think about what you would want to hear from an organization, and be bold.

In this episode, we have a “co-host question” instead of a listener question – Susan wants to know why many people seem to have a negative reaction to HR. In the news, JoDee and Susan discuss the results of a study on the 10 best cities in the world for working remotely.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• SmartRecruiters
• “The 10 Principles of Diversity Hiring”
• Jerome on LinkedIn
• Hiring Success: How Visionary CEOs Compete for the Best Talent by Jerome Ternynck
• Hallo
• Vern on LinkedIn
• AXIS Capital
• “Their Bosses Asked Them to Lead Diversity Reviews. Guess Why.”
• SHRM’s Summer 2020 edition of “HR Magazine”
• “The Best and the Worst Cities for Remote Working”

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