Diversity and Pride

Back in May an interesting diversity in the workplace story broke and quickly slipped beneath the waves but it's relevant to pride week and so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it now.

The story was about Rick Welts, the CEO of the Phoenix Suns, a professional basketball team playing in the NBA who "came out" as gay in an interview with the New York Times.

It's an interesting story for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that, as is well known, and as I have personally experienced, team sports at a high competitive or professional level are environments have historically been quite hostile to LGBT persons both individually and collectively. Mr. Welts was quoted in the story saying that "This is one of the last industries where the subject is off limits. Nobody’s comfortable in engaging in a conversation.", and I think that's pretty true. So from simply the aspect of breaking down a barrier it's a pretty significant moment.

But I think there's a more significant aspect to this story then the sports angle and that's the executive angle.

One of the discussions I often have with employers around diversity is on the importance of mentoring programs and there's a good reason for this. You can give your current employees diversity training, you can make sure you are looking at including different groups in your sourcing strategy but if your diverse employees, whatever their affinity group, don't feel that there are roles and a place for them in your company you're simply not getting all that you could be from your diversity strategy.

Now the ideal is of course close mentorships or internships but both of those can require a major investment of time that you simply might not have. That's okay. Even providing example role models for candidates can be helpful. Having diverse individuals at every level of your organization sends a clear message to candidates and employees alike, "there is a place here for you". We're not talking about tokenism here, having two diverse VPs but no diverse people in middle management fools nobody, but when your organizational structure is inclusive all the way through it can inspire and motivate your diverse candidates and employees.

Now having said all that, how does LGBT fit into it? I had an interesting discussion a few months ago with Brent Chamberlain, Executive Director of Pride At Work Canada who made me more aware of how strong some of the stereotypes surrounding LGBT and work can be. For example, there are many young gay men who actually feel that careers as hairdressers, in fashion or as graphic designers are all the opportunities that are open to them. And while any of those careers can be fine it's sad if you think that on the basis of your sexuality you're restricted to them. So in this line one of the programs that Pride at Work talks about is, just like it is for other diversity affinity groups, mentoring. Letting affinity group members know that every opportunity is open to them is an important step.

So back to the story, I think that more than the sports part of it (which I think could be valuable as well), there is the part of being a CEO that I suspect may have more of an impact. The fact Mr. Welts is a CEO of a sports team is no doubt why the story was even covered but the fact he is a CEO may provide inspiration, hope and widening of potential opportunities for young LGBT people no matter what industry they are in.

Or so I would hope.

It's hard to say, or measure, the impact of stories like this on groups as a whole. Is it as impactful as someone working in the same organization as the diverse, or in this case LGBT, candidate? Almost certainly not. But I think it can have some positive impact and that's a start and in this case a good reminder of how far we have come and how far there is in fact to go when we all celebrate the pride events of this week.

Busy of late but a few updates

John and I haven't been doing as much blogging as of late, mainly because this has been a very busy spring (and early summer) for both of us. I know John has a new post he's been working on coming later this week but I thought I would share a few of the updates, features and changes we've been working on the last while since really the TalentOyster from January is already quite different from the TalentOyster of today.

Improved Usability

Over the past few months we've rolled out a number of usability updates for our job-seekers and especially our employers. Better paging of previously posted jobs, a simpler step-by-step wizard for resume searching are just a couple of the improvements we made for our employer users. Based on feedback these features are now easier to navigate and use by normal users than previously.

New Employers

We've added a number of really great, enterprise level employers from across Canada in the last few months including Trillium Health Center, the CBC, Georgian College and most recently Accenture.

TalentOyster Network

Along with the existing EpochJobs.ca (Chinese) white-label site, March saw the launch of our Spanish white label Correo Jobs. We are currently finishing development on two other white labels, one which will launch later this week, and another two are starting development soon. All in all, by the start of the fall we expect the TalentOyster white-label to make up at least 5 different sites and that's not including the sites and organizations who are using OCEAN, the TalentOyster API we launched in March. The TalentOyster Network is already Canada's largest, in real traffic terms, employment focused, network of diverse online diverse properties in Canada and we see continued growth on the horizon.

Addressing a diverse audience – clear communication is key

My colleagues and I often get asked if we have any quick and easy tips for getting more views and higher conversion rates for job posts delivered to a diverse candidate base. To a certain degree there isn't a magic answer that will increase candidate flow just like turning on a tap.

Real success, we know only happens as part of a long term, organic, process. Increasing the SEO visibility of your profile and your opportunities, developing an awareness of your employment brand and getting industry related recognition about your organization (especially in amongst target groups) are all keys to the performance of your posts. Successful sourcing strategies are a bit of a numbers game and the more traffic you have, the more qualified applicants you will also have, regardless of conversion rate.

Having said all that though there are some commonalities to success that improve your posts SEO and improve conversions to posts no matter how many views you are getting. The key here for diverse audiences is, funnily enough, the same as it is for non-diverse audiences. Communicate clearly.

Far too often I see job titles that contain nothing but acronyms and short forms. There is a time and place for SMS style language but the title of a job post isn't one of them. A point made worse when company culture specific acronyms or terminology is used. And these sorts of things don't show up only in the titles of job posts but in the job description detail as well.

For a traditional “mainstream” candidate audience using company specific terms and/or SMS shorthand can be at the least off-putting but imagine how discouraging it can be for diverse groups who are more likely to be able to interpret the language and meaning of such posts.

At the end of the day the job posts are advertisements, just like the B2C or B2B advertisements your organization already uses. The concept of employment branding is real, better candidates will be attracted by a better employment brand. For all the employment branding activity you may do nothing will have as much impact as the “front-line” advertising you do, it’s your first point of contact with the target audience and first impressions are lasting ones. That's why clearly written job posts are so very important.

A job title and description that are well, as in clearly, written are easy to understand and will attract more candidates. They are also a better reflection on your organization as an employment brand and that's the kind of value that will pay off when candidates are more invested in you as a potential employer, giving your opportunities a longer, better look and more likely to share your opportunities with their own network.