DIVERSITY HIRING FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

A practical guide
to more inclusive
recruiting and
hiring

a publication
Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Projectline

Projectline is a future-forward staffing and consulting

company that helps organizations drive growth with
on‑demand talent. We provide tech enterprises and startups
with top-tier marketing and operations resourcing solutions
that meet and anticipate the needs of their business,
from individuals to entire outsourced teams. Projectline
matches clients with the best people in the industry,
leveraging cutting-edge technology and forward-thinking
practices to put them to work fast on your most complex
business problems.

We are the Future of Work.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

TABLE OF CONTENTS

..................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION: A multifaceted challenge
I. ................................................................................................................. 5
INCLUSIVE RECRUITING
Words matter 5
Must-haves vs. nice-to-haves 6
Think outside your network 7
.................................................................................................................9
II. OBJECTIVE EVALUATION
Scrub that resume 9
Break the looking glass 11
......................................................................................................... 12
III. SELECTING FOR DIVERSITY
Numbers don’t lie 12
.........................................................................................................
CONCLUSION: A better workplace for all 14

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

INTRODUCTION

A multifaceted challenge

Today’s leaders find themselves staring down a long list of competing priorities
every single day.

They have projects and teams to manage, quarterly goals to meet,

company missions to uphold, and the not-so-small matter of
budgets to balance. On top of all that, hiring managers need
to source quality talent in a highly competitive labor market.

For many organizations today, diversity and inclusion initiatives

have made it to the top of the priority list. These enterprises
understand the business benefits of diversity hiring for its own
sake—and they look for ways to expand their talent pools. But
introducing diversity and inclusion to an organization is not always
simple. In fact, diversity hiring is a multifaceted challenge that requires
deep effort, and it can be difficult just figuring out where to start.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

exclusive talent attraction: An unintentional bias that proficiency scorecard: Scores candidate interview responses
qualified job candidates can only be recruited from objectively across core responsibilities and requirements;
comfortable, familiar networks; reinforced by exclusive use of helps hiring teams select candidates based on relevant merit,
the same few networks. mitigates implicit bias, and minimizes subjective decisions.

gendered language: Gender-biased terms and phrases in job
descriptions that imply a preference for male candidates and
can discourage otherwise qualified women from applying for
open positions.
implicit bias: Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that affect
our understanding, actions, and decisions; often unintentional,
but can still create and reinforce discriminatory barriers to
opportunity. Also known as “unconscious bias.”
resume scrubbing: A practice intended to overcome implicit
bias by digitally redacting personally identifying information
from resumes that could unconsciously bias a recruiter.
structured interview: Uses questions based on objective,
unbiased requirements defined in the job description, focused
on priority skills and qualifications; provides clarity and
transparency for candidates and interviewers.

Looking Glass Merit: When recruiters, hiring managers, and

interviewers project their own competence onto candidates
that seem familiar in appearance or background, regardless of
that person’s relevant skills or experience.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Help is here

Diversity hiring for business leaders covers several immediate, concrete steps that business leaders
can take to make their hiring processes more inclusive and build a more diverse workforce.
While this may be the start for many organizations, it is important for all organizations to note
that diversity and inclusion do not end with hiring. Real diversity and inclusion require significant
changes in training, assignments, culture, and many other fundamental aspects of a business. The
benefits include better decision making, more innovation, and higher returns. It may not be easy,
but it will be worth it.

Since 2016, Projectline has been researching the science behind diversity recruiting and hiring
to identify which best practices are supported by adequate data—and proven results. We
performed a thorough analysis of our own recruiting, evaluation, and selection processes
for bias, inclusion, and diversity. We’ve used our results to create a unique Diversity Hiring
methodology that we use every day to help minimize bias and recruit more diverse talent for
our clients.

Projectline helps clients

minimize bias and recruit
more diverse talent
for contingent staff,
consultants, or direct
hire needs.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring
This is a complex, sensitive
topic, with differing points
of view and few definitive
sources. It can be hard
to find consensus even
on terminology or labels.
Minimizing unseen biases
and promoting inclusion
requires effort, sensitivity,
and patience—on all
sides. Diversity hiring for
business leaders draws
on more than 15 years
of Projectline experience
and expertise in sourcing
professional business
talent, many interviews
with leading experts, and
research to present a step-
by-step guide for diversity
and inclusion hiring. It
includes best practices
your organization can use
to help reduce bias in your
recruiting and increase
diversity in your talent
pipeline—whether you’re
hiring directly, bringing on
contingent staff through
a partner, working with
a managed team, or
engaging freelancers.
THE BUSINESS VALUE
This guide provides practical information on how to introduce more inclusive
recruiting and hiring at your organization, but you may be asked to defend all
the time, effort, and change involved. So here are a few points you can make if
anybody wants to know why diversity and inclusion are worth the trouble.
For starters, how about better returns? McKinsey has reported that companies
with the highest gender diversity in management were 15% more likely to
generate financial returns above their industry medians, and companies
with the highest ethnic and racial diversity were 35% more likely to have
above‑median returns.1 An analysis by Credit Suisse found that enterprises
with at least one woman on the board earned higher returns on equity and
higher net income growth.2
Study after study suggests that more diverse teams work smarter. They make
fewer errors and are more likely to correct the errors they do make.3 Teams
made up of members with different genders, ethnicities, and cultures are
more objective, more self-examining, and more open to new information.
They are more than half again as likely to make more accurate financial
decisions.4 Diversity helps teams process information more carefully,5 and
companies with diverse leadership teams are more innovative and more likely
to develop new products.6
Diversity and inclusion increase creativity and help employees thrive, which
supports business transformation. Conformity only limits your ability to see
things differently, experiment, create new opportunities, and initiate change.
So if somebody asks you why it’s so important to create career and leadership
opportunities for employees from a wide range of social communities—
including people with disabilities and different ethnicities, genders, cultures,
and socio-economic backgrounds—you can tell them it’s the Future of Work.
“Creating and maintaining a safe and welcoming work
environment is a major component to the success
of any organization. Setting diversity and inclusion
as a top priority will not only establish that type of
environment, but it will also improve your bottom
line by increasing innovation and productivity.”
—Zenovia Harris, WA Chapter President, Pacific Northwest Diversity Council
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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

I. INCLUSIVE RECRUITING
AVERAGE NUMBER OF
GENDER‑BIASED PHRASES
Words matter—draft an inclusive job description IN JOB LISTING BY RESULT8

Most hiring managers put a great deal of care into listing

the required skills in a job description, but inclusion also
requires a similar level of attention to word choice. In a job
Average number of
description, words like “driven” and “challenging” might seem gender-biased
perfectly appropriate, but evidence suggests that some terms phrases in job
and phrases actually discourage otherwise qualified women listings that resulted
in a male hire.
from applying. In 2011, a joint study by researchers at the
University of Waterloo and Duke University revealed that not Feminine phrases

only does gendered language in job descriptions exist, but it 2.8

has a sustained effect on gender inequality in the workplace.7 Masculine phrases

Making simple substitutions in vocabulary—for instance, 4.6

changing “challenges” to “opportunities” or shifting “build” to
“create”—can have a dramatic impact on the ability to attract
high numbers of qualified candidates, without bias.

Average number of
The Projectline Diversity Hiring methodology combines data gender-biased
from scores of research projects with machine learning phrases in job
technology from our partner Textio to take eliminating bias listings that resulted
in a female hire.
to the next level. We use the Textio augmented writing tool to
analyze real-world hiring outcomes from millions of recruiting Feminine phrases

posts and unlock the words and phrases that will engage and 5.2
attract the right talent without bias. Masculine phrases
2.7
Whatever tools and approach you choose, craft your job
descriptions carefully, using language that appeals to all
qualified candidates.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Must-haves vs. nice-to-haves—rank the right skills for the right candidates

Teams that successfully hire diverse talent write job descriptions that highlight only the required
skills and traits that have been identified as absolutely critical to a candidate’s success in the
role. Traits such as cultural fit or professional certifications may seem innocuous and nice to
have, but listed in a job description, they can discourage qualified candidates from responding.
Research has shown that while men will apply for jobs when they meet at least 60% of the
criteria, women tend to apply for jobs only when they feel they meet 100% of the listed criteria.9

Avoid one-on-one “qualification calls” with a hiring manager or only asking about your needs if
you are the hiring manager. Try more democratic discussions about qualifications with a wider
group that reflects the individuals who will interact with the new hire. Ask a broad range of
questions about the role and ask each participant to rank qualifications according to priority and
relevance to the role. Then use a series of exercises to score job skills and narrow them down to
the most important. (See Figure 1.) It takes more time and effort, but you will wind up with more
than just a laundry list of qualifications that could discourage applicants and might not even
contribute to a new hire’s success. Following this process will help you objectively identify and
rank the core qualifications for each role and help drive success for everybody.

FIGURE 1: FIVE SIMPLE STEPS TO INCLUSIVE JOB DESCRIPTIONS

1 Have each member of the hiring team list 10 skills in order of importance.

Review the lists, giving each skill a corresponding point value. A skill ranked
2
first receives 10 points, and a skill ranked 10th receives one.

3 Combine the lists, calculating the total number of points each skill generated.

Identify the top five skills and consider these the ones most critical to the role.
4
The bulk of the job description should focus on these skills.

Debate the remaining skills, until you are left with two or three that will round
5
out the job description.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Think outside your network­—embrace the unfamiliar

Once you’ve developed inclusive job descriptions and

requirements, it is key to evaluate your own recruiting
networks and candidate ecosystem. A more diverse workforce
starts with a more diverse candidate pool. Getting there
often requires new approaches to recruiting and networking,
intentionally targeted at a wider range of candidates.

85%
Studies continue to show that up to 85% of jobs are filled
via networking,10 which includes employee referrals as well
as traditional networking through events and professional
development. So, as you try to increase the diversity of your
workforce, think about the networking events you attend.
We humans are hardwired to have more positive opinions of of jobs are filled
people who share similar physical characteristics, and we are via networking,
inclined to align with communities that include people with which includes
similar backgrounds, professionally and personally. But to employee referrals
find, attract, and recruit more diverse candidates, you need to as well as traditional
look beyond your immediate, familiar networks—they are not networking events.
your only source for qualified candidates.

Networking exclusively where you’re comfortable could

be reinforcing an unintentional bias that you can only
find the candidates you need in those networks. We call it
exclusive talent attraction. Changing where and how you look
for job candidates is an important part of widening your
talent pool and lowering this barrier to diversity. Attend
networking events and job fairs that specifically target diverse
communities, women, and less visible demographics, and
consider events in areas outside your usual range.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring
Fortunately, there are some
immediate steps you can
take to combat exclusive
talent attraction. Digital
networking platforms such
as LinkedIn have advanced
features that make it easy
to explore and reach out
to groups devoted to
minorities, women, and
other demographics.
You can improve your
organization’s visibility in
those communities with a
simple introduction to your
company or even personal
invitations to apply for a role.
Given today’s digital work
world, you might also
recruit remote resources.
Plenty of evidence suggests
that remote workers are as
or more productive than
their office counterparts
in many roles.11 With the
right technology, processes,
and communication
structures, you may hardly
notice the difference.
And going outside your
normal recruiting radius
helps you expand your
talent pool to include
more demographics,
geographies, and cultures.
LinkedIn is a fantastic tool for recruiting, but very
few people use its advanced features to recruit more
diverse candidates.
8
Recruiters and hiring
managers aren’t the only
ones who sort themselves
according to familiar
communities. So do
candidates. The challenge—
or opportunity—is there
for organization leaders
who are willing to actively
network and recruit
within these different
professional groups. Make
sure your staffing and
consulting partners are
doing the same for your
contingent teams.
 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

II. OBJECTIVE EVALUATION

Scrub that resume—removing names and other

identifiers

Jimmy
What’s in a name? As it turns out, quite a bit. Resumes serve Smith
as the first glimpse of a potential candidate, but high volumes
often force hiring managers to scan quickly for key words
Joanne
and phrases to whittle down the list of applicants. Even Smith
when recruiters intend to scan for skills alone, the personally
identifying information in resumes can trigger implicit bias.
Chief among the culprits? An applicant’s name.

In 2003, a landmark working paper on bias in hiring by

Even when recruiters
the National Bureau of Economic Research found that
intend to scan for skills
job applicants with more common white names received
alone, the personally
50% more callbacks than applicants with names perceived
as African-American.12 Mainly a result of implicit bias,
identifying information
this discrimination is not limited to race or ethnicity in resumes can lead to
but spans gender, nationality, unconscious bias.
and many other
identifying factors.

IMPLICIT BIAS—unconscious attitudes

or stereotypes that affect our
understanding, actions, and decisions;
often unintentional, implicit bias can
still create and reinforce discriminatory
barriers to opportunity. Also known as
“unconscious bias.”

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Resume scrubbing helps information for volunteer began to implement blind

overcome implicit bias.
At Projectline, we’ve
committed to resume
scrubbing across all hiring
practices when presenting
candidates to a client. We
use PDF redaction software
to strip resumes of any
information that could
be personally identifying,
such as names, sorority
or fraternity information,
religious-specific
INCLUSION: FROM FANTASY TO REALITY
activities, and other factors
that could unduly or
even unconsciously bias
a recruiter for or against
a candidate.
The data suggests that
resume scrubbing works.
In 1970, women made
up only 5% of musicians
in the top five orchestras
in the United States. But
as leading orchestras
auditions, that number rose
to more than 25% by 1997
and continues to rise.
Recruiting cannot always
be entirely unbiased—as
soon as an applicant walks
through the door for an
interview, in-person bias
can be triggered the same
way resume content can
trigger it. But removing
as much bias as possible
from the early stages
of recruitment exposes
organizations to many

Use pre-employment assessments to evaluate job candidates

more qualified candidates
with less bias. and helps them ensure
What if you could objectively measure job candidates on essential qualities for that all candidates are
a role—before reviewing hundreds of resumes and being exposed to data that considered with fairness
might trigger implicit biases? You can, and Projectline does.
and equity.
We use Berke Assessment technology to process job requirements and
identify the core candidate traits that correlate with success in specific
roles. The Berke cognitive and psychometric assessments generate a Job
Fit Score that drives key insights about traits, such as personal work habits
or problem-solving skills, that are unrelated to specific knowledge but
can suggest how well a candidate will align with a role. This can indicate
where and how a candidate will flourish and help remove implicit bias from
recruiting processes.

By performing Berke Assessments early, you can find high-scoring “job-fit”

candidates before implicit biases can begin to urge hiring managers toward
unconscious preferences as they cull resumes. You can also use Berke
Assessments to create objective interview guides and conduct structured
interviews that promote unbiased selection decisions.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

Break the looking glass—go beyond the conversational interview

We are all predisposed to favor individuals who remind us of ourselves, in any capacity. Job
interviewers who have been selected to evaluate candidates often have high confidence in
their own competence and tend to project that confidence onto anyone who seems familiar,
regardless of that person’s relevant skills or job experience. A study on bias in hiring by the
Kellogg School of Management defined this phenomenon as Looking Glass Merit.13

To resist Looking Glass Merit, avoid the familiar,

conversational candidate interview. Instead,
build a structured interview with questions
based on the list of requirements your team
defined in the job description. This will benefit
all candidates regardless of gender, race,
nationality, age, and all other demographic
identifiers. Maintaining clarity around your
priority skills and candidate qualifications
will give potential hires an opportunity to
demonstrate whether they are an objective
match for the role.

In the interview, ask clear and concise

questions that support your core requirements
for the role. Opaque interview processes will
not promote diversity—or identify the best
candidates for the job. More transparent
approaches, clear job descriptions, and
structured interviews will. This more deliberate The best way to combat Looking
approach forces candidates and interviewers Glass Merit is to devise interview
alike to speak more directly to aptitude for the questions based on the list of skills
job, yielding better interviews that are more
your team created.
consistent, wider talent options, and more
diverse, more effective employees.

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

III. SELECTING FOR DIVERSITY

Numbers don’t lie—how to pick the best candidates

Whether or not your organization emphasizes diversity, you

always want to hire qualified, effective employees. The value
of diversity hiring is that it provides you with the broadest
35 279
possible talent pool to choose from, but when the time
9
comes to pick your new employee, what’s the best way to
know you’re making the right choice? We recommend using a
proficiency scorecard methodology to ensure that your hiring
Using a scorecard
team makes decisions based on each candidate’s relevant
methodology ensures
merits, not Looking Glass Merit. You can create a proficiency
scorecard using the core skills and qualifications you
that your team makes
identified in the job description and used in the structured decisions based on
interview. Have interviewers score candidates’ answers across a candidate’s actual
the core responsibilities and requirements. (See Figure 2.) merits, instead of
When a candidate receives scores based on specific criteria, Looking Glass Merit.
it leaves less room for an interviewer’s implicit biases to affect
the process.

If treating a candidate as a number seems a bit impersonal,

that’s the point. Grading each candidate on an intentionally
leveled playing field helps to ensure that all candidates are
treated equally and without discrimination.

This isn’t to say that you must always hire the candidate
who scores the highest. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you or
your team—or the candidates—to function like computers.
We are humans who require interaction, engagement, and
relationship building. But the scorecard methodology gives

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

everyone on a hiring team a clear focal point for discussion

and minimizes recommendations based on gut instinct or
personal preference. For example, if an interviewer prefers
one candidate over another because “he seemed more
technically competent,” a proficiency scorecard can help
the hiring team evaluate the recommendation as objectively
as possible.

Savvy hiring teams can also analyze candidate scores

against historical data to identify trends and work with HR
to help meet specific hiring goals or improve practices. Job
descriptions, interviews, and scorecards that attract a diverse
range of candidates and successful hires can be emulated
by other hiring teams. If interviewers consistently record
scores that might suggest bias, HR can intervene through
awareness‑building, communication, and training if necessary.
The goal is not to root out biased “culprits” but to equip hiring
managers with the skills and tools they need to assemble the
most efficient, successful, and diverse teams.

FIGURE 2: SAMPLE PROFICIENCY SCORECARD

NO PROFICIENCY LOW SKILLS SKILLED HIGHLY SKILLED

0 +1 +2 +3

General marketing
automation

Marketo and/or Eloqua

Project management

Team leadership

Large budget
management

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 Diversity hiring for business leaders: A practical guide to more inclusive recruiting and hiring

We’re committed to helping our clients

succeed in adding high-caliber, diverse
talent to their teams.

CONCLUSION

A better workplace for all

At Projectline, we’re committed to helping our clients succeed in finding and hiring diverse,
high‑caliber professionals. That’s why we’ve integrated diversity hiring into our own hiring
processes from recruitment to candidate selection. We offer our Diversity Hiring methodology
by default for all our clients, and while we allow clients to opt out of this process, we strongly
believe that the best way to make a meaningful impact on diversity, inclusion, and equity in the
workplace—and make every enterprise more effective—is to take large and intentional steps
forward. And because we train all our employees on diversity and inclusion, they help to create
more inclusive, open, and productive work environments on our clients’ teams. It’s part of what
makes Projectline different.

Whether you’re looking to increase diversity across your workforce or simply find the right
person for a specific role, Projectline is here to help. Our innovative processes, technology,
and unique access to talent make us a leading provider of talent and resourcing services to
top technology clients across the globe. At Projectline, we’re committed to pioneering a better
workplace for all. We call it the Future of Work.

SEE THE DIFFERENCE WE CAN MAKE TOGETHER

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SOURCES

[1] Vivian Hunt, Dennis Layton, Sara Prince, “Diversity Matters” (McKinsey & Company, February 2015)
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/organization/our%20insights/why%20diversity%20matters/diversity%20matters.ashx

[2] Credit Suisse Research Institute, “Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance” (Credit Suisse Research Institute, July 2012)
https://www.credit-suisse.com/corporate/en/media/news/articles/media-releases/2012/07/en/42035.html

[3] Samuel R. Sommers, “On Racial Diversity and Group Decision Making: Identifying Multiple Effects of Racial Composition on Jury Deliberations” (Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 2006)
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-904597.pdf

[4] Sheen S. Levine, Evan P. Apfelbaum, Mark Bernard, Valerie L. Bartelt, Edward J. Zajac, and David Stark, “Ethnic diversity deflates price bubbles” (PNAS, December 30, 2014)
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/18524

[5] Katherine W. Phillips, Katie A. Liljenquist, and Margaret A. Neale, “Is the Pain Worth the Gain? The Advantages and Liabilities of Agreeing With Socially Distinct
Newcomers” (Society for Personality and Social Psychology, December 29, 2008)
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167208328062

[6] Max Nathan and Neil Lee, “Cultural Diversity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Firm-level Evidence from London” (Economic Geography, 2013)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecge.12016

[7] Danielle Gaucher, Justin Friesen, and Aaron C. Kay, “Evidence That Gendered Wording in Job Advertisements Exists and Sustains Gender Inequality” (Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011)
http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/static/documents/Gaucher-Friesen-Kay-JPSP-Gendered-Wording-in-Job-ads.pdf

[8] Kieran Snyder, “Language in your job post predicts the gender of your hire” (textio word nerd, June 21, 2016)
https://textio.ai/gendered-language-in-your-job-post-predicts-the-gender-of-the-person-youll-hire-cd150452407d

[9] Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard-Hoellinger, and Mary C. Meaney, “A Business Case For Women” (McKinsey & Company, 2008)
https://www.forbes.com/2008/10/03/business-women-economics-lead-cx_1003mckinsey.html#45c83fe62d5d

[10] Lou Adler, “New Survey Reveals 85% of All Jobs are Filled Via Networking” (The Adler Group, 2016)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobs-filled-via-networking-lou-adler/

[11] Nicholas A. Bloom, James Liang, John Roberts, Zhichun Jenny Ying, “Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment” (The Quarterly Journal of
Economics, Oxford University Press, Vol. 130, Issue 1, March 2015)
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/does-working-home-work-evidence-chinese-experiment

[12] Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination”
(National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2003)
https://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/files_adapp-advance/content/LaborMarketDiscrimination.pdf

[13] Lauren Rivera, “Hirable Like Me” (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, April 2013)
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/hirable_like_me
www.projectlineservices.com

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