Developing a diverse workforce starts in the recruitment, interview and hiring process, but the work does not stop there. Nor does the responsibility for its success lie only with the recruiters, interviewers and hiring managers. The likelihood of success with efforts to increase workplace diversity is most likely pre-determined by the organization’s culture, including the values, systems, and common practices of an organization.

Organizational cultural competence is key in achieving workplace diversity. In this three-part blog series, I will define three stages of organizational cultural competence development, from cultural destructiveness to cultural pre-competence to cultural competence. As you read about these stages, ask yourself: Where does my organization stand in its overall cultural competence? How does it exist at the organizational or system level, rather than the individual interviewer or manager level?

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Stage One: Cultural Destructiveness

• At this stage, cultural diversity is either deliberately ignored or destroyed. This could take place at any point in the recruitment and hiring process. For example, in the recruitment process:
  • A resume with a “foreign-sounding” name is thrown out by a recruiter or hiring manager, because the assumption is that the applicant does not speak English well.
• Hiring practices are unstructured and discriminatory. For example:
  • Qualified diverse applicants are systematically eliminated by recruiters and hiring managers.
  • Hiring managers intentionally recommend and hire employees who they know and who are similar to them.
  • Interview question are not necessarily based on the job description nor tied into the performance evaluation for the position.
• Members of the organization are either monocultural or highly assimilated “tokens.” For example:
  • An employee of a diverse background is hired, perhaps for Affirmative Action / Equal Employment Opportunity (AA/EEO) compliance, and then not provided any guidance, constructive feedback or opportunities to gain new knowledge, skills or promotions.
• Leaders of the organization believe there is only one right way to do things. For example:
  • When a diverse employee is hired, he or she is expected to dress, talk, behave, and accomplish their goals in the same manner as all other employees.

Diverse Perspectives of Organizational Cultural Destructiveness

Jennie, a Human Resources Director and American Indian, described her struggle trying to motivate the nonprofit organization for which she worked to have more fair and inclusive recruitment, interview and hiring practices.

“Start with internal referrals. It is hard, though, if the company is not very diverse. Why aren’t there more [people of color]? Because their hiring practices are very old fashioned. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle with hiring procedures and applicant tracking. They just hire whomever they wish—their friends and relatives, and they don’t tell anyone when someone is leaving either. So other cultures really don’t get an opportunity.”

 Rodney, a Computer Department Manager and African American, talked about frustrations he felt when he experienced organizational cultural destructiveness during a job interview.

 “The people not being direct. For example, right after a diversity suit where [company name] got sued for not practicing good hiring practices… certain things that the interviewer said when I posed certain questions to him, and how quick the interview was. He showed me the area, and there really wasn’t any detailed description of the job I would be doing. I asked about these things, and he beat around the bush and talked about, ‘Well you’ll be doing this, but sometimes you will be doing that. As I read through the interviewer, they just wanted a black face there. Later it was proven because a colleague of mine that went through my graduate program took the job, and he went through hell there and has left now. They just wanted to say to the legal world that they were practicing fair hiring practices.”

Becoming culturally competent and integrating diversity and inclusion into the organization will affect hiring, employee retention, customer relations, and future diversity recruitment efforts. Look for Stages Two and Three in my next two blogs.

More examples of cultural competency development related to hiring practices can be found in the book Integrating Diversity into Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring and in the on-line training courses on the same topic. A step-by-step process to help your organization develop a strategic diversity and inclusion action plan is outlined in the book Diversity Assessment and Action Plan Workbook.

 

Copyright © 2022 Lila Kelly Associates, LLC. Not to be reprinted without written permission from Lila Kelly. Management Consulting and Integrating Diversity into Recruiting, Interviewing, Hiring and Retention – Since 1992. This article includes excerpts from Lila Kelly’s online training courses and books at DiversityIntegration.com. To stay up to date on all the latest from Lila Kelly Associates, LLC & DiversityIntegration.com, subscribe to our newsletter.