I was hired in a predominantly white agency to help change the culture to be more diverse and inclusive. What would you want to see if you were interviewing at an agency that looked very homogeneous..

I currently work at an agency that is extremely white. So white to the point where they’ve stripped the definition of diversity to no longer be about race but instead sexual orientation and gender, (as an excuse to not hire black folks while still being able to say they’re “diverse” due to their phoney redefining of the term).

So the first thing I did was to ENSURE that race is the principle identifier when it comes to measuring diversity, I would even be careful of the use of the term “POC” as in it doesn’t properly serve to help clarify race (I.e Hispanic/Latino are not races yet people associate those labels as “POC”, you can be a white hispanic). Remember: when your not specific and mince words/definitions white ppl use that as an excuse to “play dumb” and not do anything. If you don’t the agency will prioritize hiring white women, white gays, and even white veterans, etc over black folks all while giving themselves a pat on the back for being “diverse”. Trust me I’ve seen it lol.

The second thing I did was make sure we have a TANGIBLE way of MEASURING DIVERSITY. In short; breaking down the work force by race, that way we can easily identify which racial group needs to be the focus on our D/I initiative. When you propose something like this white ppl will often get nervous because they know that part of practicing white supremacy in the work place is to ensure that whites not only make up the majority of the workforce but also occupy the executive/higher level positions in the agency. So if you have tangible numbers in front of you and can zero in on areas of improvement in terms of who we need to hire next (both executive and non execs) it will compromise the racial power dynamic and as a result they’ll get nervous.

In addition to that another thing I did was to also propose we not only measure the amount of non-whites (black folks) we interview but also keeping track of THE NUMBER OF JOB OFFERS we give to prospective candidates. Often times white ppl who are challenged with increasing diversity will interview a couple of negros just to say they did but end up offering that role to someone else “who is more qualified”. The NFL’s Rooney Rule is notorious for this as in it only requires teams to interview a black candidate but not give them the job or even a competitive/fair offer (that’s why measuring offers are equally important). So I would suggest you develop a way to include “offers” as a measure of diversity.

And last but not least always remember that BLACK TALENT EXISTS! You’ll often hear white ppl say things like “I wish we could hire more black ppl but the talent poll isn’t there”. That’s completely false. Now it’s true you may have to go out of your way to find blacks who can fill said role but make no mistake, a lot of these white folks that hold positions in various agencies aren’t “talented” at all, don’t have much if any agency experience, and don’t necessarily have the portfolio to back them but yet they get hired anyway (even over black candidates that are actually more qualified, that’s just the reality of the workplace in all industries). The objective is simply to get their foot in the door so that they can ultimately develop a professional reputation/clout. So if your looking for a black AD and can’t find one try searching for black folks that are graphic designers, music video directors, fashion designers, etc. The same for a CW: find someone who is a blogger, songwriter, script writer, etc. The system of white supremacy has deprived many black artist of properly developing a conventional portfolio but that doesn’t mean you can’t think outside the box and find a brother/sister out there who can do amazing work.

Sorry for the long rant but I hope you find this helpful. Best of luck ✊🏿

Probably a few black people in high level positions rather than in the mailroom, on the cleaning staff or working the front desk.

...but was trying to change that. I know it starts with looking towards more feeders for diverse talent like universities and professional organizations, but even I felt a little uncomfortable walking into my agency when I was interviewing, so how do I get talented candidates who also happen to bring another perspective by being a POC or with a non majority background to believe in joining our agency?

Art Director 1 for the win. Loved your response.

SVP- Also here are some super important things to keep in mind in your role (this goes beyond the interview experience..I’d actually look at the interview experience as a lag indicator vs a lead indicator of the challenges you can help address...while very very very important to address it’s like giving someone a bandaid for a broke leg)..my 4 cents:

1) ensure you have unfiltered access and a role in the full recruiting process. There is often a wall (sometimes thin/sometimes thick) between DEI/D&I leads and folks on the front line in recruiting. You can’t do your job well if you aren’t empowered to truly insert yourself in their process (meaning having them provide you with regular reports and updates on their pipeline & offers, their recruiting strategies, their accepts and regrets, the interview process etc...beyond giving you visibility into their work you need to confirm your recommendations will be implemented and you are empowered to call out processes that aren’t working + change them)

2) have full access to all hris reporting including any exit surveys and info on promotions, hires, layoffs, performance improvement plans & coaching engagements. If you are an SVP in D&I you should be treated as an extension of the core hr team so this shouldn’t be an issue. There is a real story in all of these data points. And typically the glaring data works best to get ish done. I’d ask them for access from at least 3 years ago today. If they say no...put up a fight but get that info. If they don’t want you to have it they aren’t positioning you to do your job well.

3) have access to any readouts from your agency’s performance management systems or process. Dive into the data. There is a story here too

4) finally, review your agencies on boarding process and any touch points talent will have within the first 3-6 months in role. People know if they will stay or go in this time period. Important to ensure folks who are diverse and from marginalized populations who work or will come to work at your agency have the right connections and touchpoints early and in this phase...it’s still considered “on boarding” 6 months in and we drop to ball so often in this phase.

Again, the interview process is super important but the other side of the work (creating and inclusive culture overall and ensuring all the wooing in the interview translates when folks get in the role) is the hardest work and you have to be relentless.

Hiring people will not solve the problem if the culture won’t support them. This is especially true when people are loners in their offices or team settings. Very few companies in any industry have been able to sustain pipelines or get to a place of critical masses of diversity at all levels because of this. If you can’t get buy in and resources to address the skills needed for multicultural team building and management, then your work will be in vain, unfortunately.

As far as hiring goes, you have to ensure that your candidate slate has several POC in it, or the chance of someone getting through is lower. People need to be clear about what the priorities are, everyone should be judged on answering the same questions, and it’s good to think about what experiences and backgrounds would be redundant or contribute to groupthink. Also good to reserve face to face for the finalists and to have a diverse group of people weigh in. This is also an opportunity for you to add criteria for hiring people who will be better at fostering diversity on their own teams — provide criteria to add for all managers and leaders and one rule of thumb is that if a person says I don’t see race, gender, ability, whatever, and all I care about is performance or the idea, that person is not the person you want to hire. That is the person who will not contribute to changing the culture.

Also, do some homework on these issues — if you just poke around Harvard Business Review to get started you will find lots of evidence based tips and get a better understanding.

Honestly, if I met you and you were the DEI person trying to lure me, I would ask you about your P&L duties. If you had none or no oversight to a P&L, I would smile and secretly scratch you off the list. There can be an agency full of Black people who are all miserable, so the optics are whatever. I would want to know that you have the power to make change when I bring issues to you, and you that aren't some visual pawn to make me put my guards down.