Enhancing ITS culture through diversity recruiting

ITS has been evolving recruiting and retention practices in support of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and Belonging initiatives over the last several years. Diversity in the workplace is important not only in the culture of our institution but in the material difference diverse perspectives have in problem-solving. Diverse teams are time-proven to be more creative, look at challenges through many different lenses, and collaborate in ways that deliver more innovative results. Therefore, advancing our practices in attracting and retaining a diverse workforce has been an area of emphasis under our Workplace of Choice strategy.

As early as 2018, the Climate, Culture, and Inclusion (CCI) task force helped to identify several changes that could be helpful, and they began to evolve our practices. Through CCI’s advice to the SLT, we implemented the following:

• Every finalist pool must have at least one underrepresented minority in the pool. This gives more “at bat” opportunities for traditionally underrepresented populations to become part of the team.
• Each senior leadership position is now vetted with representatives from the CCI task force to underscore the importance of diversity to our organization and meet baseline expectations.
• Hiring managers are now coached to reduce detailed minimum qualifications to simplify postings and encourage candidates who may otherwise have felt disqualified.
• We began our college-based recruiting effort, establishing a pathway for early-career individuals and further expanding our commitment to creating a diverse workforce.
• We are evaluating and adjusting traditional interview techniques to reduce bias.
• We continue to promote job opportunities internally (to IT staff and partners), to assure fairness of opportunity and support individual development.

In Fall 2020, ITS Senior Recruiter Diane Fusco, in collaboration with HR Staffing and Career Development, the Climate, Culture, and Inclusion (CCI) task force, and fellow Workplace Survey initiative leaders, began working on an important Workplace Survey initiative—Implementing Inclusive Recruiting Practices. The goal was to research, create toolkits, and develop best practices to support hiring managers with a diverse recruitment strategy by developing a set of DEI resources.

The following tools and approaches were identified to enhance ITS’s recruitment process:

• Job Descriptions that contain inclusive language: A series of steps that support hiring managers in identifying and avoiding bias (i.e., gender, sex, education level, etc.).
• Tools to Prevent Bias in Job Descriptions: A gender-decoder tool to identify (and remove) any gendered language.
• Advertising and Diversity Job Boards: A list of free and paid advertising opportunities on diversity sites and job boards.
• Diversity Talking Points During the Position Intake Meeting: An outline of how the recruiter will create awareness for the hiring manager to write an unbiased job description, design a diversity hiring recruitment strategy, and more.
• Position Intake Meeting: An outline of how the recruiter will prepare the hiring manager to interview a candidate, create a diverse interview panel, and more.
• DEI Interview Questions: Guidance on how to include DEI questions in your interview, such as “What is your approach to understanding perspectives from colleagues of different backgrounds?”.
• Website Resources: A list of websites that support hiring managers with writing inclusive job descriptions, understanding the hiring process at Yale, and more.

While we have more work to do, we are beginning to see results each year. Among the 28 new hires in FY21, underrepresented minorities accounted for 36%; women have accounted for 36%; and early-career individuals (Early Career Development Program and college recruits) have accounted for 54%. We are making good progress, and as we continue to mature these programs, we will need to evolve our definition of diversity and measures that help us to monitor progress.

New DEI recruitment resources, including a DEI Hiring Manager Resources document, are posted on the IT at Yale Teams site and will be implemented for new hires starting, in June 2021. Additionally, as incoming managers attend ITS’s New Employee Orientation (NEO), they will be given information about IT’s commitment to DEI initiatives, including this set of resources.

For questions about these resources, contact Diane Fusco (diane.fusco@yale.edu).