If you want a more diverse candidate pool and workforce, you’re going to have to meet diverse job-seekers where they’re at — on job boards that serve specific underrepresented groups.
At HUNGRY, a food catering marketplace, 52% of the company’s 320 employees are women and 38% come from minority/non-White backgrounds. Of the team’s management, over 45% are not White — 111% more minority managers than in the average U.S. business.
Rosa Diaz de Leon, the company’s national director of team and culture, credits three specific job boards that HUNGRY uses to recruit for open positions — and she says the company is always evaluating new ones. Check out:
- Gaingels LGBTQIA+/Allies job board.
- The Mom Project, a talent marketplace and career resource that aims to support women in all industries who are balancing their careers and family life.
- Inhersight, which promotes gender-diverse workplaces by helping women find female-friendly companies.
During an exclusive conversation with Senior Executive Media, Diaz de Leon dove deeper into the company’s three top D&I priorities:
- Investing in technology that makes diversity-related data easy to share across the company. That includes tracking the number of diverse employees and diverse members of company leadership.
- Updating the company handbook to reflect the needs of HUNGRY’s diverse staff.
- Finding ways to build diversity and inclusion into company education initiatives. “We are incorporating D&I speakers to drive company trainings…and just have an honest conversation about important issues, such as unconscious bias and microaggressions,” Diaz de Leon says.
Read on for edited excerpts from our conversation.
We’re…in the process of reviewing our entire recruiting process just to make it more inclusive
Rosa de Leon, National Director of Team and Culture at HUNGRY.
Senior Executive Media: You mentioned that technology is a part of your focus areas. Tell us about some of the platforms that you’re using, and what they’re measuring.
Rosa Diaz de Leon: We are investing in a new ATS [applicant tracking system], HRIS [human resource information system], payroll and LMS [learning management] system. We still haven’t defined that yet. We are in the research process right now.
With the current system that we have, we are currently measuring some D&I initiatives:
- Number one, we’re measuring dollars allocated to D&I initiatives. So how much are we spending on it…as an organization?
- The number of company D&I training courses, events and participation.
- And the percentage of diverse employees in leadership positions.
Senior Executive DEI Think Tank is a criteria-based membership community for chief diversity officers and senior-level DEI leaders at large organizations to share difference-making tactics, trade valuable resources, and seek the counsel of experienced peers in a private, confidential setting.
Do you qualify?Senior Executive Media: You mention HUNGRY’s handbook is changing. How exactly?
Rosa Diaz de Leon: Our latest employee handbook doesn’t reflect our most current diverse team and the number of employees that we have now that we are in 10 markets.
The entire HUNGRY employee handbook is being updated. HUNGRY policies on equality, anti-discrimination and human rights at work are key components of our inclusive workplace, acting as a point of reference for all and setting out the standard of behaviour that everyone at HUNGRY should expect. A few examples are parental leave inclusive of gender, domestic violence leave, mental health leave, bereavement/emergency leave to include committed relationships regardless of marital status, etc.
At HUNGRY, we are reviewing all formal company policies such as anti-harassment, anti-discrimination and our HUNGRY Code of Conduct amongst others.
Senior Executive Media: How do you find candidates from diverse backgrounds when you’re hiring new people?
Rosa Diaz de Leon: So we’re constantly looking out for diverse job boards.
We’re also in the process of reviewing our entire recruiting process just to make it more inclusive — like reviewing the language of our job descriptions, and making sure that we are not falling into…unconscious bias when it comes to a specific job description.
We support the flexibility of remote interviews. So we’re able to move our candidates really fast through the hiring process, because they don’t have to commute or perhaps find childcare, which is a struggle during this time.
Senior Executive Media: You mention job description language. Can you explain what that means?
Rosa Diaz de Leon: We are reviewing the language, looking for those specific keywords that may discourage underrepresented groups to apply. We are reviewing multiple aspects of our job descriptions. [Changes include:]
- Gender neutral words.
- Disclosing salary.
- Adding benefits and perks.
- Looking for comparable experience versus a specific degree.
- Adding words like “reasonable accommodation” and “flexible hours” to attract parents and people with disabilities.
- Avoiding jargon or complicated lingo that may exclude candidates who speak English as a second language. I remember when I first started my career. I was very intimidated by “confusing job titles.”
- Avoiding age discrimination by removing words like “junior,” “senior” or “seasoned.”
We are focusing on highlighting the word “flexibility” a whole lot… During COVID, specifically, it affected women in the workforce. So focusing on that flexibility part, we’re able to attract more women that can come work with us. And also, if they are mothers, they can do both. [Editor’s note: Remote opportunities at HUNGRY vary by role, with some employees completely remote and others working in a hybrid capacity. The company is reevaluating its return-to-office policy.]
