Compensation Over Celebration
Hire, Retain, and Promote BIPOC Women: 10 Considerations
Celebrating women of color’s achievements doesn’t dismantle systemic racism in the workplace. We’ll take the praise, but you need to be an active part of the solution, too. Here are some tips to get your started:
Check your environment. Do you have a diverse workforce? (Remember, different types of white people do not make up a truly diverse workforce). Do you have executives, managers, and leaders of color? Have you ever? Examine how your current leadership team came to be and ask the tough questions that don’t always have straightforward or easy answers. Do you offer paid internships? Do you have leadership tracks? If so, what are the demographics of these programs? Are your BIPOC and women employees making the same salary as the cis-white men in the same or similar positions? If not, fix it!
Create an environment that is welcoming to Black and Brown women. Train your staff to be anti-racist and remove problematic people as their racist behaviors are called out. If you have staff who talk over, ignore, and/or berate BIPOC staff, do something about it! Is your business one that welcomes difference and could foster the career growth of a woman of color? What does longevity look like for a woman of color versus other employees on your team? Do you believe there is a “pipeline problem?” Could you offer a scholarship for BIPOC students to attend code school, grad school, or a couple semesters of college?
Write a job description that will attract Black and Brown women. Watch your language and requirements. If the research shows that white men will apply for a job where they match just 20% of the requirements and women of color will apply only when they reach 70% of requirements, then change your requirements to get the applicants you say you want.
Interview a diverse candidate pool, but never more than four rounds of unpaid interviews. Don’t interview women of color if you don’t plan to hire them. We don’t come to interviews so you can say you’ve interviewed a diverse candidate pool. We come to the interview to get the job. Pay for coding/writing challenges or any other type of test you plan to put an applicant through. And know why you’re asking the applicant to perform these challenges and what the desired outcome of these challenges actually is. Do you ask all applicants to perform a challenge (coding, writing, interpersonal) or just the BIPOC/women applicants? Do you grade the challenges of cis-white men by the same metrics you apply toward women of color? If you find yourself saying, “Does this person fit in?” or “There is something off, but we just can’t put our finger on it,” then your bias is showing. What you can’t put your finger on is your underlying and insidious hidden racism that you yourself can’t even face.
Hire Black and Brown women and provide constructive feedback to candidates you don’t hire. If a BIPOC candidate makes it through four or more rounds of interviews, ask yourself why you’re not hiring them. Does it have to do with preconceived notions of an entire demographic of people? Is it because they’re not a “culture fit?” Might be time to rethink the metrics you’ve used in the past. If you don’t hire a candidate, provide constructive feedback that they can work with and take into their next interview. Do not demoralize these applicants with the way you word your rejections.
Train and support the Black and Brown women on your teams. Do your BIPOC hires have the tools they need to succeed? What is your training budget? Is that budget spread evenly and equitably between the members or teams? If you ask your BIPOC team members to learn a new skill or technology, do you support them by paying for the books and training they need to succeed at the same rate you provide for your white employees? When your BIPOC employees show an opportunity for growth, do you support this through mentorship and training? Or do you punish them for mistakes and ultimately demote or fire them? If it’s the latter, stop doing that and start being an inspiring team leader and mentor.
Listen to Black and Brown women. Do your BIPOC employees raise concerns about treatment from other team members? Do your managers support their white and BIPOC employees equitably? Have your BIPOC employees brought concerns to managers or HR that were dismissed or excused? Employees in positions of power need to be questioned when other employees call out problematic behavior.
Promote Black and Brown women. How much of the hard work BIPOC women put in is being seen? Do you promote your BIPOC employees at the same rate as white employees? What do the metrics look like for promotions and how do you hold yourself accountable? Do the BIPOC employees on your team have the same rate of mentorship and sponsorship? Do they have the same opportunities to take on complex problems? Do you see their accomplishments or are they overshadowed by their white counterparts? Remember that in typical work environments, deliverables from women of color are typically held to a higher standard. Create a feedback routine that forces you to examine your responses versus letting your unconscious bias do the work for you.
Mentor Black and Brown women or get out of the way! If you are the problem, do something about it. It is never too late to start unlearning assumptions you previously held. It is never too late to step off the stage and open the floor to a BIPOC team member. It is never too late to let go of your need for power and dominance (aka white supremacy). Do you share your success? Do you uplift the folks around you that don’t look like you? If you are a blocker, stop and question why. If you “just can’t put your finger on” why a BIPOC employee or applicant “isn’t ready” for that new job or promotion, ask yourself if that’s really the case or if it’s your bias holding you back.
Connect with folks that are already doing the work. A lot of this work is already being done; you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Remember that there is never a time when you can feel okay and stop worrying about the diversity problem in the industry. Equity needs to be a central focus of your day-to-day work. Do the work to source, hire, pay, retain, promote, and invest in women of color. Your celebration without compensation is neither desired nor required.
Time to check in. How did this list make you feel? Remember: they’re called growing pains for a reason. The discomfort you may feel is a sign that your privilege and power are shifting to create space for needed change.
Thank you for being part of the solution. Celebrate us, hire us, and get us into positions of power. You’ll be glad you did.
So, what now? You may need to do the work, but you don’t have to do it alone. Make a plan to expand your horizons with a mentor. PDXWIT has two mentorship programs that could help. This work is complicated, messy, and nonlinear, but we can help guide you in the right direction. If you are involved with hiring at your company, consider partnering with PDXWIT through sponsorship. We can help you reach your goals through tangible actions. If you’d like a speaker or a workshop, contact hello@pdxwit.org to set up something customized.
This article was written by Dawn Mott, PDXWIT Operations Manager. After attending code school and working as a software developer, Dawn transitioned into the soul-healing — and occasionally soul-crushing — work of supporting folks in the tech field she left behind, a field known for being wrought with systemic racism and prejudice. When not working, she spends many hours with her dog, Mustard, hiking the PNW mountains and running along the surf on the coast. Connect with Dawn on LinkedIn or https://twitter.com/dawnrparty.
A similar version of this listicle, also written by Dawn Mott, was originally published in the International Activist Collection by Stories to Change the World.