Hello everyone, my name is Emily Rangel and I am a student at California State University Monterey Bay CSUMB. I am currently going into my senior year and work as an intern at NPC through my field training program in Collaborative Human and Health Services.
This week I am blogging about an article on diversifying nonprofit organizations, “5 Hiring Pitfalls To Avoid—If You Want Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Leadership”.
Nonprofit Quarterly offers some great tips on diversifying in the workplace. To start, the article states to “address the elephant in the room.” If the current staffing is not diversified, they suggest bringing up that they recognize the lack of diversity but, they are looking to hire to improve diversity in the workplace. This way, the person interviewing feels less nervous. This strategy of addressing the elephant in the room would be more comfortable for me in an interview surrounded by people who look nothing like me.
Additionally, the next point is not casting the net wide enough – by this, the article means thinking beyond gender and race, considering that different age ranges could help diversify. Adding on age/experience should not rule out a candidate. As someone in her twenties, one of my worries, once I begin to find jobs in my field, is that I will be overlooked due to my age; or the lack of experience. Although I am interning, when I look at jobs in my field, I see a minimum requirement of 3 years of experience. I wonder how anyone coming out of college is supposed to have 3 years of experience when all the jobs require experience.
The third point is to not rely as much on psychological testing – although they do not have a bias on the surface, different viewpoints and cultural upbringings could alter their score on these tests. Furthermore, these tests are not fully unbiased – depending on how one answers, there could be bias in this testing.
The fourth idea is how salary and wage come into play. When hiring a new employee, organizations typically significantly cut wages when hiring to replace one’s position. The new hire is expected to complete the same work as the staff member before them but at a lower cost. Instead, wages should be based on what competitors or others in the industry are making for a more fair wage.
Lastly, the article suggests not have all the power at the top; there has to be distribution. This lessens negative energy and allows for a healthier workplace. A workplace where leadership integrates and values their employee’s ideas leads to a more welcoming workplace. I invite you to read the full article here