DE&I Conversations ~ Building Out Your Internal DE&I Team

DE&I Conversations ~ Building Out Your Internal DE&I Team

An ongoing series occurring each month where we discuss topics related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This session will focus on building out your internal RECRUITING team with an eye on inclusion. 

Things to remember about hiring inclusively AS hiring managers, not when talking TO hiring managers. 

Listen in on what our panelists have to say.

This event is part of the “Let’s Talk Recruiting” series where a panel of recruiting practitioners get together online and have a conversation on a variety of topics related to corporate recruiting.


Click to Play the Recording


Our Panelists…

Name & LinkedIn Profile Group Title Company

We asked our attendees, “Does your company already have a DE&I team or are you looking to build one?”

Here are their answers:


Chat Messages from the Session…

10:02:11 >> Guiti Nabavi : could you share info on any apprentice program

10:06:51 >> Christina Shareef : Tip #1:  Always Be Recruiting

10:07:26 >> Christina Shareef : Tip #2:  Don’t hire until you have a diverse slate

10:08:30 >> Steven Green : Carm – any standards for what PWC considers a diverse slate of candidates for the open role?

10:08:58 >> Steven Green : – ABC – –

10:08:59 >> John Bates : Since we typically don’t have diversity information on candidates during the screening process – how do you guarantee a diverse slate of candidates during the screening/interview process? 

10:11:11 >> Lara Gartner   to   All panelists : Tara – what are some of those other sources

10:11:17 >> Melisa Medrano : entelo

10:11:18 >> Sean Rehder : @John…not a guarantee not real time, but on a quarterly basis we would look at diversity metrics at the top of the hiring funnel for future reqs.

10:11:20 >> Melisa Medrano : is a great resource

10:11:51 >> John Bates : Thanks for that clarification!

10:12:33 >> Tara Amaral : Happy to connect offline about Apprentice programs

10:13:55 >> John Capozzi : On Ramps to Careers-a non-profit that focuses on getting more women and underserved youth in the IT industry. We placed 200 DC students (College and High School) in virtual IT internships in 2020. As an example: Accenture is hosting 60 IT (virtual) interns this summer.

*Can a free IT intern assist your company this summer?  feel free to reach out to me:

John Capozzi

202 641-7366

[email protected]

onrampstocareers.org

10:15:03 >> Vincent Taguiped   to   All panelists : based on Yvette’s comment, can someone provide me with that site   NESB? spelling.

10:15:19 >> Melisa Medrano : NSBE

10:15:57 >> Carmelina Lalley : national society of black engineers

10:17:34 >> Jasmyn Franklin : @John: In my experience, free internships do not support minority candidates as they have expenses and many schools have steered candidates away from accepting non-paid working. Does Ramps to Careers pay for their work? How is the intern paid?

10:18:36 >> Jenny Shedd   to   All panelists : Agree, we don’t request EEOC info. at application process.

10:19:02 >> John Bates   to   All panelists : Thanks all!  Very helpful. 

10:19:27 >> Vira Garcia   to   All panelists : Is Entelo cost effective for smaller organizations?

10:19:37 >> Melisa Medrano : yes!

10:19:39 >> Melisa Medrano : we are small

10:20:31 >> Kim Balogh   to   All panelists : A new software we are beginning to engage with is Seekout.  This platform allows you to define your search when trying to build a diverse pipeline.

10:21:12 >> Tara Amaral : I am working with a start up called ESSTEEM which is for underrepresented tech talent.  I have also spoken with Seekout

10:21:20 >> Sean Rehder : Thursday’s round table, Tool Time, is highlighting SeekOut

10:24:43 >> Sean Rehder : Is anyone pulling people from the business units to be part of the DE&I team?

10:25:04 >> Melisa Medrano : Yes, we are trying to have ‘diversity champions’ to interview candidates as well

10:25:43 >> Ken Baker   to   All panelists : Tara brought up a key point earlier on defining Diversity. As an African American/Native American Engineer Scientist leading a Global TA Team is unique profile. That takes Diversity beyond race, gender, etc.

10:25:46 >> Jenny Shedd   to   All panelists : There is no shortage of candidates who can learn and come up to speed. Just our limitations on thinking about aptitude and training.

10:27:58 >> Malia Jorgensen   to   All panelists : I have a question about tip #2. – how does waiting for a diverse slate to hire affect your time to hire? Is this a metric you report on?

10:28:57 >> Amanda Radice : It very well could, but if you start doing the proactive work the time to hire shouldn’t be affective (assuming you’ve built diverse talent pipelines needed for the future projected skills)

10:29:14 >> Amanda Radice : It’s a longer-term investment that may have a short-term impact on a time-to-hire metric

10:29:45 >> Carmelina Lalley : The time to accept is longer but we cap it to 30 days so its not unreasonable

10:29:59 >> Jenny Shedd   to   All panelists : Thank you all!!

10:30:07 >> Kim Balogh   to   All panelists : Thank you everyone

10:34:05 >> Sean Rehder : Was at Genentech for 8 years with their sourcing team.  They go all in on diversity there.

10:35:38 >> Sean Rehder : Do you feel your DE&I team is “connected” to the other teams you might find in HR like recruiting, LOD, and HR Business Partners?

10:36:11 >> Mike Mattson : I have a question about building our DEI team, so it may be better for a later conversation 🙂 One thing we’re seeing is we have a ton of energy and excitement around different initiatives, but are having trouble converting that energy into action. Do you have any recommendations on how you can recruit engaged employees to work on DEI projects?

10:37:51 >> Guiti Nabavi   to   All panelists : I will be putting to get her a strategy and looking for advisor consultants. any recommendations?

10:38:03 >> Guiti Nabavi : I will be putting to get her a strategy and looking for advisor consultants. any recommendations?

10:39:02 >> Guiti Nabavi : Any DIB strategy consultant recommendations? and Apprenticeship program too

10:39:08 >> Sean Rehder : @Mike…maybe ERG (Employee Resource Group) that focuses on their diversity group. Help them organized but let them lead with the hope it will come together in the “big picture” of diversity at your company.  hard to do if you are a small company just because of lower employee population.

10:39:24 >> Christina Shareef : I can help with your DIB strategy.  Let’s connect after the session.

10:39:53 >> Guiti Nabavi : I already sent LI invite Christina 🙂

10:41:22 >> Sean Rehder : Has anyone seen an internal ERG connect with ERG’s at other companies?

10:41:41 >> Melisa Medrano : At Gilead we hosted a couple of co-ERG events with other companies in the bay area

10:41:51 >> Melisa Medrano : i’d love to connect with other small company ERGs

10:41:59 >> Christina Shareef : We do, Sean 🙂

10:41:59 >> Melisa Medrano : or large:)

10:42:33 >> Amanda Radice : That is a great idea. I’ve been a part of some multi-company ERG meet ups and it has been such a great experience. We’re all working towards the same goals of diversity and belonging and any partnership we can have with one another only helps us advance

10:43:06 >> Melisa Medrano : Totally

10:44:28 >> John Bates : How can we make sure we are signed up for the next sessions? 

10:44:36 >> Guiti Nabavi : an umbrella org that can connect ERGs is for example Womwn Who Code who gets invited thru ERGs to their mtgs …

10:45:37 >> Sean Rehder : @John Bates…landing page for DE&I event next month… https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JvQ3uHzgQVS1anbNv3BkDg

10:47:10 >> Jasmyn Franklin   to   All panelists : @sean: we support a portfolio of companies and do not have a DEI team so the diversity initiatives need to be a shared vision. If you wanna talk about how we bring some onboard that vision, I am happy to connect!

10:47:29 >> Jasmyn Franklin : @sean: we support a portfolio of companies and do not have a DEI team so the diversity initiatives need to be a shared vision. If you wanna talk about how we bring some onboard that vision, I am happy to connect!

10:49:18 >> Lara Gartner   to   All panelists : These networking / learning groups are fantastic for learning about and meeting people to build a recruiting pipeline

Some of the attendees…

Name & LinkedIn Profile Group Title Company

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