DEI?

Dismantling Exclusionary Ideologies in Recruiting

and Hiring

Tiffany Richards

Program Director of LGBTQ+ Affairs

University of Florida

they/she

Patricia Jordan

Interim-Director of Multicultural and Diversity Affairs

University of Florida

she/her

dsd

What is professionalism?

Roots of business culture and white

supremacy

Dress

code/work

attire

Hairstyle/

personal

hygiene

Time-

liness

Shared

values

Acceptable

behavior at

work

workstyle

White Supremacy Culture

•a centering of Whiteness and associated traits

•prioritizes Western and White professionalism standards related to dress code, speech, work style and habits, and timeliness

•a series of characteristics that institutionalize whiteness and Westerness as both normal and superior to other ethnic, racial and regional identities and customs

• the belief that traditional standards and values are unbiased and objective

Gray, A. (2019) The Bias of 'Professionalism' Standards. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_bias_of_professionalism_standards

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture

• Perfectionism

• Sense of urgency

• Defensiveness

• Quantity over quality

• Worship of the written word

• Paternalism

• Either/or thinking

• Power Hoarding

• Fear of open conflict

• Individualism

• Progress is bigger, more

• Objectivity

• Right to comfort

The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, from Jones,

K. & Okun T. (2001) Dismantling Racism: A Workbook

for Social Change Groups. Retrieved

from: https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-

supremacy-culture-characteristics.html

How does this show up in recruiting?

Worship of written word : "We've always done it this way", only one right way to do something, job posts that prioritize writing and documentation skills regardless of connection to work, using the same format or approach in postings regardless of position, resume or cover letter formats to weed out

Quantity over quality: emphasis on certain metrics over others, valuing one type of experience over another (if it can't be measured, it has no value) in descriptions, only having requirements that prioritize results over process

Perfectionism: no room for mistakes, job posts that aren't clear which requirements are preferred vs required, posts that describe an ideal candidate to the exclusion of most, obsession with excellence, deficit thinking

DiscussionGroup activity: Each group will receive an example of a job posting. Please

review as a group to determine at least 3 ways that this job posting could be more inclusive and 3 ways that this posting does well in being inclusive in

inviting a diverse population to apply?

Job Posting 1: Odd number groupsJob Posting 2: Even number groups

Things to consider

Create a culture change that is sustainable

Recruiting❑ Posting

❑Language

❑Mission/vision

❑ Imagery❑ Website

❑ Statements

❑ Socia media

“Dismantling white supremacy is not in the

performance of allyship but in the humble

approach to building lifelong equity,

partnership, accountability, and trust with

individuals from targeted communities,

starting with the people in your workplace. If

this doesn’t happen and toxic workplace

cultures stay the same, the people of color

working in these environments, by virtue of who

they are and how they show up, are going to

constantly and inadvertently become

agitators against a system that will not make

room for them.”

Taiwo, C. (n.d.). White supremacy in the workplace. The Twin

Cities Daily Planet. Retrieved from

https://www.pollenmidwest.org/stories/confronting-white-

supremacy-in-the-workplace/

Onboarding

❑ Company culture

❑ Care/Morale

⮚ Addressing local and national unrest that may impact employees

⮚ Consider holidays that are not only Christian/American

❑ Onboarding process helps to minimize assumptions of what the employee knows and meets the employee where they are at

Reference: https://gethppy.com/company-culture/infographic-why-company-culture-matters

Things to consider for LGBTQ+ employees

Do you have the culture, resources and policies to support a diverse and inclusive staff?

❑ gender-neutral bathrooms❑ gender-inclusive/non-gendered dress code❑ flexible naming conventions (i.e. emails not automatically assigned based on legal name, etc.)❑ affinity work groups❑ spaces on badges/name tags for pronouns❑ a culture that values difference

References/Additional Readings

• https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/15/what-it-means-to-be-an-anti-racist-company.html

• https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/06/23/the-job-interview-question-this-anti-racist-company-asks-applicants.html

• https://www.pollenmidwest.org/stories/confronting-white-supremacy-in-the-workplace/

• https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_bias_of_professionalism_standards• https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-

characteristics.html• https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-

100-qualified• https://hbr.org/2017/06/7-practical-ways-to-reduce-bias-in-your-hiring-

process?referral=03759&cm_vc=rr_item_page.bottom• https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/discrimination-job-market-

united-states• https://www.lgbtmap.org/file/mapping-trans-equality.pdf• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-

samples/toolkits/pages/employingtransgenderworkers.aspx• https://daily.jstor.org/how-natural-black-hair-at-work-became-a-civil-

rights-issue/• https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/laughed-out-interviews-

trans-workers-discuss-job-discrimination-n1063041

Thank you

Contact information:

Tiffany Richards

trichards@ufsa.ufl.edu

Patricia Jordan

pjordan@ufsa.ufl.edu

Questions