As we make strides toward openly discussing race in the workplace, we must also remember that until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was still legal to include “blacks need not apply” in job ads. Once outlawed, explicit discrimination in hiring morphed into implicit barriers, taking on the form of coded language that disadvantaged candidates of color, such as a minimum number of years of work experience or very specific skills that black and other marginalized candidates would be less likely to have based on past discriminatory practices.
Reimagine Recruiting and Hiring
Rooting out such language in postings by interrogating the relevancy of certain requirements is a justice-centered approach. Screening job descriptions using software that detects gendered or biased wording can also help. Demonstrating your commitment to justice might lead you to include requirements such as:
- Exhibits a flexible communication style and the ability to work with diverse communities
- Demonstrates an understanding of institutional racism and bias
- Has experience working on diverse teams and considers how work impacts multiple communities
- Approaches conflict with respect to the diverse perspectives of stakeholders and works with them to resolve differences
Now imagine seeing these criteria from the point of view of a jobseeker from a historically excluded group. Would you be more inclined to apply for a position if the points listed above were part of the job description? Would you place more trust in an organization that lifted up these values?
Rethinking Other HR Practices
Recruiting and hiring aren’t the only HR functions that benefit from a justice lens. Here are a few other examples that can be reimagined by centering those most harmed by racism:
Tuition reimbursement. Policies that require employees to pay for courses and be reimbursed after successful completion may prove difficult for those from historically marginalized backgrounds. If the company pays in advance, employees of color may be more able to take advantage of this benefit. For example, in 2021, the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, which has been in place since 2014, modified its tuition reimbursement policy to cover 100% of fees upfront and now has more than 20,000 employees in the program, with more than 20% identifying as first-generation college students. Retail giants such as Walmart and Target also tout debt-free degrees that don’t require out-of-pocket costs, making this benefit accessible to any employee who needs it.
Performance reviews. This is another area HR leaders can reframe around justice. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that black employees face more scrutiny in the workplace compared with other workers, which can lead to poorer performance reviews, less pay, and even termination. As the study authors put it, employers are more likely to let go of black employees than their white counterparts for making similar errors. In other words, black workers are less likely to get a second chance when they make a mistake. Additional research has shown that those with certain intersecting identities, such as black and Latin women, receive less actionable feedback. This can be a barrier to promotions and higher pay because employees don’t receive the specific examples and advice that lead to learning and growth that are more commonly afforded to white and Asian men.
In light of such discrepancies, some companies like Adobe, Deloitte, and General Electric have moved away from annual performance reviews in favor of more frequent check-ins focused on actionable feedback. Other employers looking to revamp their approach to performance reviews might consider making the assessed competencies transparent, requiring managers to include specific evidence and action steps for each rating. Providing ongoing learning and development can also help bridge across varying cultural norms. For instance, understanding the way different cultures perceive direct eye contact or delivering constructive feedback in a manner that takes the recipient’s cultural communication style into account can help make performance reviews more effective and just.
Retirement benefits. Disparities in retirement savings also require a justice lens. As it stands, white retirees have seven times the retirement savings of black Americans and five times that of Latin Americans, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. In addition, white 401(k) plan participants invest an average of 23% more per month toward their retirement savings versus black plan participants, who are also twice as likely to borrow from their retirement accounts, as they often start at a disadvantage because of a lack of inherited wealth. To offset this, Ariel Investments, which launched in 1983 as the first black-owned mutual fund firm in the United States, has taken the step to pay 100% of employees’ health insurance premiums to free up their funds for other allocations. Providing access to financial planners attuned to racial savings disparities can also help, along with practices such as automatic enrollment, providing matching incentives, and offering lifetime annuities or lifetime income.
Transparency around these efforts and why they’ve been put into place can go a long way toward building trust—and are sure to draw a diverse pool of candidates when advertised as part of your justice-centered recruiting and hiring campaigns.
* Adapted from Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change(Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023)
Gabrielle Gayagoy Gonzalez (pronouns – she, her, and hers) is a co-author of Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change.