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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Hiring: The Ultimate Guide

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Diversity and inclusion in the hiring process are widely discussed topics in talent acquisition communities—and for good reason. Both are critical in creating a healthy environment, full of a range of perspectives, where employees feel comfortable being their true selves. If your hiring team isn’t prioritizing diversity and inclusivity, you’re doing something wrong.

D&I is undoubtedly crucial for every hiring strategy, with diverse companies outperforming other companies by 33%. And as 70% of candidates say that a company’s D&I efforts are significant when job hunting, it’s clear that D&I is top of mind for both hiring teams and job seekers.

But far too often in conversations, the lines between diversity and inclusion are blurred, almost as if they’re one and the same. Yet this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Diversity needs inclusion and inclusion needs diversity to create a holistically enjoyable and equitable workplace.

So, what’s the difference between the two? And how should talent teams promote both?

Diversity vs. equity vs. inclusion in hiring: What’s the difference?

A diverse company is a company that hires a wide range of individuals. This workplace promotes diversity across characteristics including race, age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religious beliefs, education, and more.

Equity in the workplace refers to ensuring fair treatment, access, and opportunity for all employees. While diversity focuses on the presence of varied characteristics in the workforce, equity emphasizes the importance of ensuring that every individual has an equal chance to succeed, irrespective of their background or characteristics. This may involve adjusting resources or support to compensate for systemic biases or disadvantages that exist.

An inclusive company is a company that ensures all individuals, regardless of their background or characteristics, feel welcome. This workplace celebrates differences for the significant value that they bring to the workplace.

The benefits of D&I in the workplace are immense. Now that we’ve differentiated between the two terms, how can you facilitate both in your recruiting? 

Cultivating diversity and inclusion in the hiring process

Creating a positive experience for candidates should always be at the forefront of your mind. It’s part of why diversity and inclusion are both so important: an environment that isn’t accepting of some people is unacceptable for all people.

Don’t just take our word on the benefits of a truly diverse and inclusive hiring process. We spoke with Mawulom Nenonene, a seasoned expert and Head of Talent at LTSE about the topic. You can watch the full webinar below or keep reading for our key insights.

Building a Foundation for Equity: LTSE integrates diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into talent acquisition by utilizing pipeline data for strategic top-of-funnel sourcing planning. This approach promotes consistency and reduces biased hiring.

Templates for Success: Role templates at LTSE serve as a central source for hiring managers to find the best candidates. These templates go beyond simple job descriptions, involving additional discovery to understand role goals and required expertise. This emphasis on role understanding is as vital as formal education requirements.

Promoting the Importance of Diversity: The article highlights the significance of diversity for organizational success. Gartner research indicates that organizations with diverse and inclusive decision-making teams are more likely to surpass financial targets. Gender-diverse and inclusive teams outperform homogeneous ones by 50%, and millennials show higher engagement in inclusive company cultures.

Crafting Skills-Based Job Descriptions: Hiring managers should focus on clear, actionable steps for skills-based hiring, ensuring inclusive language and minimizing bias in job descriptions.

The Rooney Rule and the Mo-rule: The Rooney Rule, requiring consideration of underrepresented candidates, is adapted at LTSE to include interviewing multiple women and underrepresented candidates before extending an offer. The Mo-rule ensures equal representation at in-person interviews, aiming to fill gaps in underrepresented talent.

Building a Diverse Hiring Team: LTSE assembles interviewers with diverse perspectives and relevant insights to assess candidates. Regular training sessions empower interviewers to conduct structured interviews, ensuring a candidate-focused approach.

Enhancing Candidate Experience: LTSE prioritizes candidate relationships, providing transparency and a realistic picture of roles and company culture during the first interview call.

Read on to learn actionable steps you can take to promote D&I at every step in your hiring process.

A step-by-step guide to making sure your hiring process promotes diversity and inclusion

Before the interview: The job posting

Promoting diversity and inclusion in the hiring process should start before an interview even takes place. Take time to craft job postings with thoughtful descriptions. What you write and where you post it holds more significance than you may realize.

Promoting diversity

In job descriptions, steer clear from saying that you’re looking for someone who will be a good “culture fit.” Swap out that phrase for one that is diversity-focused: “culture add.” Looking for culture fit often results in hiring candidates similar to current employees, whether in background or skillset. Culture add seeks out individuals who offer diverse, fresh perspectives.

After you’ve drafted up and finalized your job posting, the next step is promotion. Where are you posting your job openings? While sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor are great to promote your position to large audiences, there are many other avenues you should explore to cultivate a diverse candidate pool. 

Dive into job boards that are geared towards a specific subsection of the population. This will help promote equal opportunity employment for historically underrepresented groups. Some examples include 70 Million Jobs,  Pink Jobs, Black Jobs, and iHispano. 

Once a job posting goes live, encourage your current employees to refer diverse candidates for the position. For instance, if you have a new open role for a software engineer (a male-dominated field), encourage your employees to refer female applicants. For further incentivization, provide a reward to any employee who refers a diverse candidate who ultimately receives and accepts a job offer.

Promoting inclusion

Are you using gender-biased language in job postings? Certain words subtly skew masculine or feminine, and these include words you might not even think about. “Rockstar” and “ninja” cater to male applicants, as they possess a masculine connotation.

Instead, embed your postings with gender-neutral language. Rather than saying you’re looking for a “coding ninja,” use inclusionary language like “software developer.” 

Superlatives also have the potential to turn off female candidates. Studies find that men apply for jobs when they meet 60% of the qualifications. Meanwhile, women only apply if they meet 100% of them. While it’s true you’re looking for someone who’s “best-in-class” and the best fit for your organization, overly stressing that in the job description can make female candidates feel underqualified.

For one last inclusionary touch to your job postings, be sure to underscore any inclusive benefits that your company offers. This may include childcare subsidies, paid family leave, and paid parental leave. For some applicants, these may seem like nice perks, but for others, they’re necessities.

Pro tip from Mawulom: “Review every job description for inclusion. Tools for inclusive job description development include Hemingway, Textio, and Mathison.io, which analyses job descriptions for bias and exclusionary terms.”

During the interview: Diverse interview panels

Make sure to evaluate your interview panels for both diversity and inclusivity. When you craft interview panels with DE&I in mind, you guarantee that interviewers greet candidates with a great impression of what it’s like to work at your organization.

Does interview scheduling automation make sense for my team?

ROI is key. This is not a time to invest in software that won’t bring you immediate value. So let’s eliminate the guesswork with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate Your ROI

Promoting diversity

If you struggle to hire diverse candidates, assess your interview panels; they might not be conducive to diverse hiring. To fix this, the first step is to create diverse interview panels that reflect the talent you’d like to bring on board. 

For instance, if you want to hire more female engineers, include at least one female engineer in the interview panel. Candidates want to see themselves represented in their future workplace, and meeting with the interview panelists is the perfect opportunity for them to assess this representation.

Want one more strategy you can add to your collection of hiring practices for diversity? Before your interviewers speak to any candidates, ensure that they’re all trained and briefed on the importance of diversity in the vetting process. Instead of prioritizing candidates who offer what the company already has, they should consider what the company is missing.

Promoting inclusion

Crafting a diverse interview panel is a crucial step in cultivating an inclusive workforce where employees’ backgrounds are represented and celebrated. But here’s one step that many TA teams skip when creating inclusive interview panels: training interviewers on unconscious bias.

Unconscious bias prompts interviewers to make decisions in favor of one person or group while leaving other candidates at a disadvantage. Unchecked unconscious degrades both the authenticity of your hiring process and your workforce diversity.

And as more interview panels take place remotely, video interviews—despite the benefits that they bring in widening your talent pool—can create barriers to success that negate inclusivity. Remote hiring is now the norm, which means that hiring teams must take action in breaking down these barriers.

Some candidates may come from career backgrounds where they’ve never used applications like Zoom before. If your hiring team recruits virtually, take steps to level the playing field for all candidates by giving them materials on best practices for video interviews well in advance.

Pro tip from Mawulom: “Create a lights-on monthly training program to both grow your interviewer pool and to also keep your existing interviewers well trained.”

After the interview: Candidate surveys

You can instill every ounce of your energy into promoting diversity and inclusion in the hiring process, but none of it matters unless your practices actually create a positive effect on candidates. By sending anonymous surveys to talent, you can concretely measure if D&I recruiting efforts properly translate.

Promoting diversity

Collecting information on the backgrounds of your candidates allows you to identify which subsections of the population are represented in your candidate pool and which groups are underrepresented. Consider collecting data on categories such as ethnicity, race, gender, neurodiversity, disability, etc.

Gathering information on personal characteristics must be handled with care and sensitivity. Carefully craft the survey’s language and communicate that providing this information is optional, it’s anonymous, and the information gathered is solely for facilitating proper diversity and inclusion hiring practices.

Promoting inclusion

Based on the data that you collect, assess if any parts of your hiring practices exclude candidates. If you find that you lack candidates from certain backgrounds, examine your job posting for any exclusionary language, or share your posting to job boards geared toward that specific group.

To further promote inclusivity, you can include likert scale questions that gauge how much a candidate agrees with a statement, such as, “My interviewers made me feel comfortable.” This allows you to assess the quality of your interviewers and see if they truly foster a welcoming environment.

Pro tip from Mawulom: “Be as transparent as you can with your candidates, with both the good as well as the challenging. A realistic expectation is far more appreciated than a hype session that will invariably leave a new employee feeling duped. A lack of information about essential aspects of a role or the company may hinder delivering the best candidate experience. LTSE provides each candidate with unique documentation outlining everything they need to know about the role being considered so that each candidate has a clear picture of role expectations, the team dynamic, and the company culture.”

Kickstart your DE&I hiring efforts today

Uplifting diversity and inclusion in the hiring process is a never-ending journey with a worthwhile purpose that spans beyond hiring goals. Find motivation in the fact that you’re helping to create a world where everyone is celebrated for who they are.

In the digital age, hiring teams can now use their tech stack to supercharge their efforts in cultivating D&I. With GoodTime, you can elevate the candidate experience by creating diverse and inclusive interview panels.

GoodTime’s self-identification tagging system allows you to group interviewers based on characteristics, such as “nerdette” for female engineers, to create panels that are representative of the diverse and wide-ranging perspectives at your company.

Ready to take the next step in your candidate experience? Be sure to check out our ebook on the importance of solid candidate relationships in your hiring strategy.

7 Talent Acquisition Trends You Must Know to Succeed in 2023

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Break out those fireworks, talent teams, because 2023 is almost here. But if you want to start the year with a bang, you can’t go into it blind. To thrive in the new year, you must prepare for what the next twelve months have in store—and that means getting familiar with the upcoming 2023 talent acquisition trends.

We’re not psychics, but based on where 2022 left off, we predict that these will be the seven more important trends in talent acquisition next year.

1. Labor Shortage Sparks Challenges

The supply of working-age people will continue to decrease throughout 2023. In fact, over the next decade, the number of working-age people in the U.S. will decline by 3.2%. On top of this, the pandemic still wields a visible impact; there are over 3 million fewer working Americans today than there were pre-pandemic.

When you combine the aging population with the pandemic’s effects, you have a significant labor shortage. Sorry to say, but attracting and hiring candidates won’t get any easier.

Two Strategies for Success: 

  • Diversify your candidate pool. Struggling to find candidates? Tap into different talent pools. For instance, advertise on diversity-driven job boards or take advantage of the fresh Gen Z candidates entering the workforce.
  • Set realistic expectations. Hot take, but the “perfect” candidate doesn’t exist. If you’re dead set on finding a unicorn candidate, you’re likely overlooking plenty of other viable options (and you can’t afford to do that in a labor shortage).

2. Retention Grows in Importance

About 40% of HR professionals said talent acquisition was a major priority for 2021. In 2022, that percentage dropped to 17%. Now, HR teams are focused on strategies that fuel talent retention: employee engagement, compensation, and L&D.

It’s no surprise that retention is becoming a priority. When the job market is tight and finding talent is difficult, employee churn deals an even greater blow to companies. (Not to mention that replacing workers is expensive.) 

Two Strategies for Success:

  • Emphasize internal mobility. Employees who move around within their own companies are more likely to stay for the long haul. Giving employees meaningful opportunities to grow and develop through internal moves leaves them with fewer reasons to leave.
  • Revamp your benefits and perks. Perhaps your employee benefits and perks could use a makeover. To ensure that what you’re offering still aligns with what your employees value the most, ask for their feedback.

3. Rise of the Employer Brand

Your employer brand encompasses how others perceive your company. It’ll be essential in 2023, yet for varying reasons depending on your industry and place in the hiring sphere.

Perhaps waves of layoffs have hit your company this year (we’re looking at you, tech industry). Candidates value job security, and catching wind that your company laid off a sizeable chunk of its staff makes them weary. How does your organization plan on assuaging these fears and improving your public image in 2023?

Or maybe misperceptions of your industry have made it difficult to attract workers, specifically young candidates. This is especially true for the manufacturing industry; less than 50% of young workers see manufacturing as a viable career.

Two Strategies for Success:

  • Freshen up your employee value proposition. Remember: candidate values change all the time. Does your EVP still resonate with what modern candidates care about? If not, it’s time to revamp it.
  • Actually commit to DEIB. Candidates want to know where you stand on DEIB before they accept a job offer. Audit your career page and hiring process for opportunities to showcase your DEIB initiatives and values. 

4. Impending Recession Inflicts More Damage

The looming recession is the elephant in the room for today’s strategy meetings. Companies have begun to trim their budgets and their workforces in response to economic uncertainty.

But while some companies are bracing for what’s to come, most tech companies are already wondering, “When will this end?” Thus far, over 140,000 tech workers have been laid off. Each month, more and more high-profile workforce cuts make the headlines (sorry, not all talent acquisition trends can be fun). The bottom line: Recruiting in a potential recession is different and your processes will need to change.

Two Strategies for Success: 

  • Refine your tech stack. Want to emerge from the downturn stronger than ever? Then implement recruitment technology. Tech tools that maximize your team’s productivity to save you major time and money place you in the best position possible once you revert back to your normal hiring cadence.
  • Maximize what you have. When faced with a smaller budget and fewer resources, you must do more with less. Instead of spending time and money hiring external candidates, consider your current employees. And instead of throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks, use your hiring data to make informed, precise decisions. 

5. Skills Gap Continues to Widen

As technology continues its high-speed evolution, the global skills shortage worsens. Old skills die out just as fast as new skills emerge, and not every company can keep up. In fact, most companies worldwide—87%—say that they have a skills gap or will have one within the next few years. 

Companies say that their skills gaps are the widest in the areas of data analytics, IT management, and executive management. Looking to the future, these same companies agree that the need for advanced data analysis and mathematical skills will grow dire.

Two Strategies for Success:

  • Upskill your current workforce. In the age of digital transformation, upskilling your employees is a must-do. Your company can’t keep up with the latest trends if your employees don’t have the latest skills.
  • Rethink how you evaluate candidates. Don’t weed out promising talent just because of “red flags” that don’t even reflect a candidate’s abilities, like having gaps in a resume. When assessing candidates, focus on the knowledge, skills, and capabilities displayed in their application. 

6. Automation Takes the Spotlight

Automation is a growing topic in the world of talent acquisition. It takes care of the time-consuming parts of your recruitment process so that you have more time to spend on high-value initiatives.

Looking to the talent acquisition trends ahead, automation adoption is sure to increase as more teams discover its benefits. And with a recession, labor shortage, and a workforce skills gap on the horizon, leveraging automation in hiring could mark the difference between talent teams that thrive and flounder.

Two Strategies for Success:

  • Don’t wait to shop for tech. The sooner that you automate your workflow, the sooner you’ll reap automation’s rewards. Automating the interview scheduling process reduces your time-to-hire, delivers a better candidate experience, and moves you closer to hitting your goals.
  • Leverage the right automation. You’ve been warned: not all automation is created equal. Subpar scheduling automation can’t handle the challenges of everyday scheduling. You want automation that can intelligently select interviewers, schedule for speed or for “best fit,” and identify interview options spanning one or multiple days.

Does interview scheduling automation make sense for my team?

ROI is key. This is not a time to invest in software that won’t bring you immediate value. So let’s eliminate the guesswork with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate Your ROI

7. Evolution of Pay Transparency

Pay transparency made a splash in 2022. New York City joined the ranks of Colorado and Connecticut in requiring companies to include salary ranges in job postings, and California is soon to follow in 2023. 

By the beginning of 2023, one-fifth of U.S. workers will be covered under pay transparency laws. As workforces and candidates demand discussions on salary, HR and talent acquisition must respond. Are you prepared?

Two Strategies for Success:

  • Determine your transparency level. Not every organization is ready to go all-in on full transparency. As a starting point for identifying where you want to be on the spectrum, survey employees to understand what they’d like to know about salaries.
  • Get real during the interview process. Don’t wait until the last moment to disclose the true salary offer. Yes, candidates want to do meaningful work, but they also want to be paid well while doing it. They want to discuss compensation in early conversations to know if the role is worthwhile.

Now that you’re caught up on the biggest talent acquisition trends coming in the new year, we have one final suggestion to make 2023 your team’s best year yet. Start the year off on the right foot with best-in-class recruiting tech.

GoodTime Hire helps reduce your time-to-hire, crush your goals, and deliver a seamless candidate experience. Hire automates the entire interview scheduling process to create the optimal schedule for candidates and interviewers and get to the offer stage faster than ever.

See how interview scheduling software can transform your recruiting process today.

Remote Hiring 101: How to Convey Company Culture

Posted on by Rachel Heller

In any hiring process, there’s a fair chance that candidates will ask, “How would you describe the company culture?” Candidates deeply care about company culture; 72% would reject an offer because they feel disconnected from the culture. Yet in a remote hiring process, culture can get lost in translation.

Touring an office and shaking hands with employees makes the intangible concept of company culture incredibly tangible. But with remote hiring now the norm, recruiting teams grapple with conveying culture through a Zoom screen.

Recruiters must take a thoughtful approach to sharing company culture—a difficult task, but not impossible. Read on for our top tips on how to communicate culture when hiring remotely.

Before the Remote Interviewing Stage

While most hiring teams focus on conveying culture during interviews, you shouldn’t ignore the pre-interview stage. First impressions matter; it’s important to communicate your culture before candidates even walk through the (virtual) door.

Optimize Your Careers Page

The careers page is much more than a place to display job openings. With the proper optimization, your careers page can act as a gateway into your company culture.

Our friends at Greenhouse gathered several examples of careers pages done right. Here are some elements from those pages that make company culture stand out:

  • Clearly defined mission and values
  • Company story
  • Quotes from employees
  • Videos/photos of employees collaborating
  • Engaging interactive features
  • Strong brand voice and tone

Fine-tune Your Interview Scheduling

Don’t underestimate the significance of the interview scheduling stage. The way that you navigate this stage reflects your company culture. To communicate a culture of understanding and empathy, you need to show it through your scheduling.

For instance, accommodating a candidate’s schedule conveys that you value their time. Be sure to ask for your candidate’s availability upfront. 

Another way to communicate an empathetic, flexible culture is by straying away from all-day interviews. Scheduling all-day interviews suggests that your company doesn’t value a work-life balance. Most candidates would much rather interview in chunks across several days. 

Does interview scheduling automation make sense for my team?

ROI is key. This is not a time to invest in software that won’t bring you immediate value. So let’s eliminate the guesswork with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate Your ROI

During the Remote Interviewing Stage

Once you reach the interview stage, it’s time for all systems go. This is the prime opportunity to relay what your company culture is like. 

Nearly all (90%) of the companies from our 2022 Hiring Insights Report said that they designed their interview process to reflect their culture. However, 47% said that they don’t actually communicate their culture to candidates. 

Don’t be like those companies. Here’s how to make your culture loud and clear.

Train, Train, Train Your Interviewers

Your interviewers are your company’s spokespeople. Their interactions with candidates should align with your culture. That’s why it’s essential to have each interviewer participate in interviewer training. 

Interviewers should learn how to speak about company culture in a vivid, true-to-life manner. This doesn’t mean listing a jumble of different adjectives. (What does having a “fun” culture even mean?) Instead, interviewers should share concrete, specific examples that paint a picture of your company.

Emphasize Diversity in Interview Panels

Remote hiring opens the door to a broader talent pool—and more diverse candidates. These candidates want to know that DE&I is vital to your company culture. But they don’t want to be told that your company cares about DE&I—they want to see that your company cares about DE&I.

One of the best ways to show that DE&I is crucial to your culture is by increasing the diversity in your interview panels. Candidates from underrepresented groups want to be interviewed by diverse interviewers with whom they share traits. Seeing employees similar to them makes candidates feel represented by their potential employer.

After the Remote Interviewing Stage

The post-interview stage can be a nerve-wracking period for candidates. “Did the interviewers like me? Did I interview the best that I could?” How you approach this stage says a lot about your organization and company culture.

Keep Consistent Communication with Candidates

Is there anything worse than a recruiter who ghosts candidates? Interviewing can be a high-stress ordeal for candidates, and dropping contact with them out of nowhere can kick their stress into overdrive. 

Ghosting reflects incredibly poorly on your culture; if candidates feel mistreated before joining your company, how can they expect it to be any different as an employee?

Be sure to maintain consistent communication with candidates. If setting up a second interview takes you longer than expected, give candidates a quick update to show that you haven’t forgotten about them. Not only will this reflect positively on your culture, but it’ll also dissuade candidates from looking for opportunities elsewhere.

If Rejecting Candidates, Do it With Tact

No one likes to deliver bad news—especially when it’s employment-related. Rejecting candidates is an unfortunate yet necessary part of being a recruiter, and there’s a right and wrong way to do it.

The way that you reject candidates says a lot about your culture. Tactfully rejecting candidates sends the message that your company has a heart. A personalized email with thoughtful wording breaks the news in a considerate manner. 

And remember: delivering bad news is better than providing no news. A survey found that a whopping 75% of candidates never hear back from an employer. Receiving no response after trying your hardest in an interview deals a significant blow to your self-esteem; deliver the rejection as soon as possible so that candidates can move on and discover the job that’s right for them.

Level Up Your Remote Hiring Process Today

Amid your recruiting tasks, never lose sight of your company culture. It should permeate every corner of your remote hiring process (and it’s much easier to convey than you think). Successfully communicating your culture can be just the thing that gets candidates to a “yes” when it’s time to deliver offers.

To cultivate a remote process that’s head and shoulders above the competition, you need some extra firepower in your corner. You need GoodTime Hire.

Hire harnesses Candidate Relationship Intelligence to automate coordination, build relationships during interviews, and provide actionable insights to continuously improve your hiring process.

Learn more about how Hire’s interview scheduling software can transform your talent acquisition process.

10 Essential Ways to Use Inclusive Language When Recruiting

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Do you use inclusive language when recruiting? Or is your unconscious bias roaming free? For some recruiting teams, ensuring that all language is inclusive isn’t top of mind. But it should be.

Research consistently proves that a job description’s exclusionary language can prevent subsections of candidates—specifically underrepresented groups (URGs)—from applying.

It’s crucial to use inclusive language at all touchpoints in the recruitment process, from job descriptions to interview conversations. Inclusivity helps level the playing field for underrepresented applicants, effectively making them feel welcome.

If you’re not sure where to start, we’re here to help. Here are 10 important ways to use inclusive language in your recruiting efforts.

1. Steer Clear of Gendered Language

Do your job descriptions include words like “rockstar” or “ninja”? That’s a red flag. Gender-biased words like these skew masculine and can reduce the number of women that apply to a role.

If that sounds far-fetched, then check out this investigation. HR specialists learned that the reason that their company received less than 2% female candidates for their developer jobs was because of the word “hacker” in the job titles.

When in doubt, opt for clear, gender-neutral language. If you’re looking for an account executive, just plainly say that.

2. Swap Out “Culture Fit” for “Culture Add”

If job descriptions or recruiting materials say that you’re looking for someone who will be a good “culture fit,” consider swapping that phrase out for “culture add.” In some cases, hiring for culture fit turns into hiring for homogeneity, as recruiters seek out candidates similar to them or similar to what already exists in the company.

In this sense, culture fit creates a workforce that recruits people who think and look the same. On the flip side, saying that you’re looking for a culture add conveys that you want a new hire who could enrich the company culture with their diverse experiences and ideas.

3. Highlight the Salary Range

Data on the uncontrolled gender pay gap shows that American Indian and Native Alaskan women, along with Hispanic women, have the widest pay gaps. When analyzing the controlled gender pay gap, Black women have the widest pay gap.

Fostering salary transparency wields a real impact on the gender pay gap. Women who feel that they are paid transparently reportedly do as well or better than men for every $1 they earn. 

Setting the precedent that the salary range will always be included in your organization’s job descriptions lays the groundwork for an inclusive, pay-transparent organization.

4. Spotlight Your Commitment to DE&I

If your company diligently champions DE&I, allude to this in the job description. Most organizations reference this in an “equal opportunity employer” blurb, yet going the extra mile to elaborate on your commitment and convey it in your own words is worthwhile.

Once applicants make it to the interviewing stage, ensure that you’re prepared to expand on exactly how your company uplifts DE&I. Eighty-six percent of candidates globally say that DE&I in the workplace is important to them. More likely than not, they want to hear how you’re reaching your DE&I goals!

5. Underscore Inclusive Benefits

For certain applicants, benefits like childcare subsidies, paid family leave, and paid parental leave aren’t just perks—they’re must-haves. Be sure to emphasize these types of inclusive benefits in the job description. 

Yes, not every employee will utilize them. But for applicants with families and those who are starting families, having these benefits will make all the difference.

6. Don’t Assume. Ask for Pronouns.

Unless stated in their cover letter, resume, or any other materials that they’ve submitted in their application, don’t assume a candidate’s pronouns. Misgendering a candidate is harmful and undoubtedly starts the candidate relationship on the wrong foot. 

When interviewing a candidate, ask for their pronouns early on in the conversation. Ensure that this is noted as a best practice in your organization’s interviewer training.

7. Narrow Down the “Must-haves”

When a hiring manager comes to your recruiting team with a laundry list of “must-haves,” set realistic expectations with them. An excessive list of requirements deters certain applicants from applying.

A study shows that while women commonly only apply for jobs where they meet 100% of the requirements, men typically apply if they meet just 60% of them. If a requirement isn’t directly conducive to success in a role, it’s not crucial to include it in the job description.

8. Remove Any and All Racially Biased Language

It shouldn’t have to be said, yet it needs to be said: the vast majority of job descriptions have no reason to include racially or culturally explicit phrases. The only exception is if it’s directly connected to the position in some way.

There’s cases where common phrases can inadvertently exclude applicants of a specific racial or cultural background. For instance, when job posts say they’re looking for a “native English speaker,” this excludes speakers who are fully fluent in English, yet aren’t native speakers.

9. Eliminate the Corporate Jargon

If an applicant isn’t familiar with a certain acronym, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t skilled in their field. Their previous companies might’ve not used the term, or used a different term in its place. 

Using too much corporate jargon in a job description can deter promising candidates from applying—especially candidates from different regions of the globe, or candidates whose first language isn’t English. Plain language is better.

10. Watch Out for Ageism

Have your recruiting materials ever said that you’re looking for a “digital native”? This phrase identifies people who were brought up during the information age. Phrases like that deter older workers, as they imply that younger applicants are preferred. 

A company with a wide variety of age groups benefits from diverse perspectives. Examine your job descriptions and careers page for any words that favor specific ages. 

Keep DE&I at the Center of Your Recruiting Process

The importance of inclusivity in the recruiting process cannot be overstated. Using inclusive language when recruiting is essential to leaving applicants with a sense of belonging, yet there’s so many more ways to commit to DE&I.

With GoodTime, you can start the interview process on the right foot by creating diverse and inclusive interview panels.

GoodTime’s self-identification tagging system allows you to group interviewers based on characteristics, such as “nerdette” for female engineers, to create panels that are truly representative of the diverse and wide-ranging perspectives at your company.

Learn more about how GoodTime can help supercharge DE&I in your hiring process today.

5 Things Candidates Wish They Could Tell Your Recruiting Team

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Do you ever wonder what’s going on inside a candidate’s head? You should. In today’s hiring landscape, it’s crucial for your recruiting team to put themselves in your candidates’ shoes. 

We’re still in the thick of a candidate’s market; there are two jobs for every available worker. With candidate’s having the upper hand, the smartest talent teams try to channel a candidate’s perspective when evaluating their hiring process. 

Your candidates might start each interview with a beaming smile, but behind that smile, candidates are carefully examining your hiring methods, forming their own brutally honest thoughts on your team and organization.

Here are five things candidates wish they could say to your recruiting team.

1. “My time is precious. Please respect it.”

Don’t expect candidates to move their schedules around to accommodate your interviewers’ calendars. It’s a candidate’s market, remember? Candidates want to schedule interviews at times that best fit their calendar. Ask for their availability upfront.

And don’t even get us started on scheduling all-day interviews. The expectation in the past might’ve been that candidates should block out their full day to speak with your company’s employees, but the past is the past. Now, candidates would much rather interview in chunks across several days. 

Above all, remember: your candidates are most definitely interviewing for roles at other companies. They’re more likely to remember and appreciate your interview process if you schedule their interviews with flexibility and understanding.

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2. “Salary and benefits: be honest upfront.”

Transparency is top of mind for candidates. The Pay Transparency Pulse Report shows that 79% of employees want some form of pay transparency, and 32% want full transparency. To add to that, 68% of respondents said they would switch employers for greater pay transparency, even if compensation was the same. 

It’s common for companies to try to get leverage by waiting until the last moment to disclose the position’s true salary and benefits. This is a practice that recruiting teams need to leave behind.

Displaying transparency not only makes a workplace more appealing to candidates, but is also holistically practical from a recruitment perspective. Waiting until the last minute to learn that a candidate’s expectations don’t match up with a role wastes everyone’s time. Smart hiring teams are transparent from the get-go.

3. “What do you really mean by ‘work-life balance’?”

“A great work-life balance” is a phrase that companies love to throw into the “perks” section of job posts. But what do they really mean when they say work-life balance? That’s a question that an increasing number of candidates have for hiring teams.

Does offering a great work-life balance mean that a company allows employees to set their own hours? Does it mean that the position is remote or hybrid? Job seekers care about the specifics. Candidates ranked work-life balance as more important than compensation, culture, and benefits. 

Interviewers should clearly describe how their company provides employees with the flexibility that creates a healthy work-life balance. In doing so, interviewers will open the door for a greater diversity of candidates, such as working parents, who cannot compromise on a lack of a work-life balance.

4. “Your company celebrates DE&I? These interviews don’t show it.”

Candidates from underrepresented groups want to be interviewed by a diverse array of interviewers with whom they share similar traits. Seeing employees that are similar to them makes candidates feel represented by their potential employer. Candidates will notice if a panel lacks diversity—trust us.

Besides creating diverse interview panels, another way that your recruiting team can uplift DE&I is by having all interviewers undergo bias training. Everyone relies on unconscious bias from time to time. But with the proper interviewer training, it’s entirely possible to reduce bias and create an objective interview process.

All in all, conveying a commitment to DE&I in hiring not only attracts candidates, but also benefits your bottom line. Diverse teams produce 19% higher revenue. Focusing on DE&I just makes sense.

5. “I’m not just a job candidate—I’m human, too.”

Candidates don’t want to be viewed as just a number. They want to be seen for who they really are: a human above all else. Within this, candidates want to feel a genuine, personal connection to your recruiting team. 

Take time to nurture your relationships with candidates. Here’s an insight to jump off of: 62% of employees say that well-being support is their top priority in the job hunt. Offering yourself as a resource if candidates have any concerns is a great way to show that you care about their well-being, and improve your relationship with them.

Make the connection between you and your candidates as mutual as possible. Find out what candidates want in a role—not just what they can offer your organization. After all, you want new hires to feel engaged in their jobs. 

Supercharge Your Recruitment Process Today

Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse into what candidates wish they could say to you, it’s time to put these insights into action and level up your recruitment process. 

If you want to stand out among other companies, you need recruitment tech that truly prioritizes candidates. Look no further than GoodTime Hire.

GoodTime Hire harnesses Candidate Relationship Intelligence to automate coordination, build relationships during interviews, and provide actionable insights to continuously improve your hiring process.

If you want to take your recruitment process to the next level, learn more about Hire today.

Time To Walk the Walk: Data Shows HR Has Good Intentions, Bad Execution

Posted on by Rachel Heller

HR teams have their hearts in the right place—no doubt about it. They’re dead set on improving their hiring processes by uplifting the components that candidates truly care about. But their execution…? That’s a different story.

Our 2022 Hiring Insights Report surveyed 560 HR and talent decision makers to understand the most pressing challenges facing their teams, and what should be done to reel in top talent. 

We found one striking pattern: many productive conversations surrounding what matters most in hiring, yet not as much action.

These conversations include the importance of emphasizing well-being, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, & belonging), candidate relationships, and company culture within the hiring process.

And as a result? Talent teams are missing their goals. In fact, teams fell 50% short of their hiring goals last year. They need to start walking the walk.

Let’s dig into the data.

Candidate Well-being Takes a Back Seat

Shock of the century: candidates want to work at companies that value their well-being. Who woulda thought?

Hiring teams are certainly aware of that fact. Fifty-nine percent of respondents from our report said “employee well-being” was the top enticement for attracting talent. Happy candidates tend to become happy employees, so it’s only logical that teams would see prioritizing well-being as a great way to reel in talent.

But…are teams actually prioritizing well-being when handling candidates? The data isn’t hopeful.

When asked what their organization does to build relationships with candidates during the recruiting process, “interest in candidate’s well-being” was the third least selected response (35%).

The way that candidates are treated in the hiring process clues them in on how they’d be treated as new hires. If a hiring team vocalizes that they support their employees’ well-being, yet they don’t show the same support to candidates, they cannot expect candidates to believe their claims. 

Little Action Taken on DEIB

We hear you: for companies with limited resources and people to get the job done, emphasizing DEIB can turn into a big undertaking. 

Even so, there’s a variety of low-lift DEIB strategies that teams can take action on. Above all, neglecting DEIB deters diverse talent. Many BIPOC candidates need to see that DEIB is prioritized before they can envision themselves at a company.

At first, it seems that hiring teams understand the importance of having a DEIB-centric process. Companies from our report said that “diversity of candidates” is the second most important hiring metric to measure.

But the positives stop there. Only 31% of respondents made DEIB a measurable priority in the past 12 months. In the coming months, just 33% of respondents plan to focus on DEIB.

When teams leave DEIB on the back burner, they not only deflect diverse talent, but also tarnish their business. Diverse teams produce 19% higher revenue. Actioning on DEIB just makes sense. 

Candidate Relationships Fall to the Wayside

To snag the best talent, investing energy into candidate relationships is non-negotiable. Building an authentic connection with talent throughout the hiring process maintains their interest amid a sea of other offers.

On the bright side, 46% of respondents said that forming genuine connections with candidates is more important than ever. 

Yet despite this consensus, just 36% of respondents looked to build better candidate relationships in the past 12 months, and the same percentage plan on improving these relationships in the future. Once again: good intentions, not-so-good execution.

Candidates are interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them. They expect their recruiters to put in the work to form a connection.

Company Culture Remains Unexpressed

In any hiring process, there’s a very high chance that candidates will ask the classic question, “How would you describe your company culture?” 

With 72% of candidates rejecting job offers because they don’t feel connected to the company culture, this is of utmost importance to talent.

It’s not lost on TA teams that job seekers deeply care about culture. Nearly all (90%) companies from our report said they designed their interview process to reflect their culture.

The problem? Just 53% communicate their company culture to candidates in the hiring process. In a nutshell, 47% of companies don’t convey an element that is crucial to candidates—and risk losing out on applicants due to this disregard.

Candidates want to know whether a company’s mission, values, and culture align with their own beliefs. They’re quick to turn down an offer if they don’t see this alignment.

Want the Latest Insights? Read the 2023 Hiring Insights Report

Good intentions, bad execution doesn’t bode well for teams’ hiring goals. But all hope is not lost. The first step in winning top talent is recognizing the most high-value elements that attract candidates. Hiring teams know what these are, so they’ve already done half the work.

The talent leaders from our survey possess the right mindset to succeed in today’s industry. Now, they must turn their intentions into actions.

Want to catch up on the latest hiring trends? Get excited: our 2023 Hiring Insights Report is now available. 500+ HR leaders, 1,000s of real findings, 1 industry-leading report. Read the report today.

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Here’s How To Turn the Great Resignation Into the Great Retention

Posted on by Rachel Heller

By now, we’re all familiar with the Great Resignation (shoutout to the internet’s endless think pieces). Don’t worry—we’re not here to talk your ear off about how employees are leaving companies in droves. Instead, we’re here to discuss how HR teams can transform this pivotal moment, and make lemons into lemonade. To ensure that their employees want to stick around, organizations must turn the Great Resignation into the Great Retention.

But this doesn’t mean that HR teams should throw retention strategies at the wall and see what sticks. In order to retain their people and make the Great Retention the next big phenomenon, companies need to study exactly why the vast majority of employees leave for greener pastures, and then strategize accordingly.

Here are several ways to boost retention in your organization, backed by the data behind why employees resign in the first place.

Make Employee Well-being Paramount

Key Stat: 40% of employees cited burnout as their top reason for leaving their jobs in 2021.

How to Respond: Employees experience burnout when a high workload and a high amount of stress combine with a low level of organizational support. HR teams must prioritize the well-being of employees to successfully combat burnout. This starts by making sure employees have access to the proper organizational support and resources. 

Remind employees of the resources that are available to them—such as Employee Assistance Programs—and think about which resources are missing or need improvements. For instance, perhaps you have a generous PTO policy, yet employees are having to jump through hoops to get their time off approved. Some organizations—wink wink, like GoodTime—also allow employees to take a day off each quarter for company-wide mental health days.

Emphasizing connection across your organization is another way to boost well-being and squash burnout. Consider planning virtual or in-person, get togethers for employees to bond.

Improve Opportunities for Advancement

Key Stat: 33% of people said no opportunities for advancement was a major reason why they quit their job in 2021.

How to Respond: Your HR team’s ability to support the career advancement of employees heavily influences whether they stay or leave. Ensure that your organization provides team members with a clear roadmap for career progression so that employees aren’t left wondering what they’re working towards.

Whether it’s a designated mentor or their team leader, employees will benefit from having someone that they can meet with on a regular basis to discuss their career goals and ensure that they’re set up for success.

Reimbursing employees for learning opportunities that they would like to take on, whether it’s a certification course or educational books, is another great way to support their goals.

Pay Employees What They Deserve

Key Stat: 37% of people said low pay was a major reason why they quit their job in 2021.

How to Respond: Yes, employees want to work at a place with flexibility and a good work/life balance, but they still have to pay their bills. Yet fulfilling requests for higher pay isn’t always an option for companies. Still, there’s steps you can take to ensure that your employees earn what they deserve.

A major way to move the Great Retention full steam ahead is to give employees retention bonuses. That way, employees have a worthwhile reason to stay at your company. Alternatively, set up a bonus plan where employees are compensated whenever your company reaches certain attainable milestones. With that option, employees will get to celebrate your company’s success and be rewarded for their contributions.

Above all, make sure that your company champions pay equity. Every single employee should receive equal and just compensation for their experience and tenure. 

Boost Work Flexibility

Key Stat: 21% of Americans who plan to resign want more flexible/remote work options.

How to Respond: For every company that doesn’t promote flexibility in work arrangements, there’s a handful that will—and those are the companies that your employees will flock to. The proof is in the headlines: we’ve already seen swarms of employees quitting over RTO policies.

Even if the nature of your organization/industry requires all or certain employees to spend time in the office, considering at least a hybrid work policy is sure to make a big impact on employee retention. 

If you don’t know where to start, learn from the companies that are excelling in this new world of work. We’ve compiled a list of four organizations with stellar flexible work policies.

Most Importantly: Listen to Your Employees 

The importance of gathering feedback from your employees cannot be overstated. Ask for their thoughts on how you can improve their experience at your organization. Listen to them with an open mind and be prepared to acknowledge any faults.

Transparent communication is crucial to a healthy company. Thoughtfully analyzing your periodic eNPS (Employer Net Promoter Score), a measure of employee satisfaction and loyalty, is a great way to understand how employees feel and take action on their feedback. 

And if you haven’t held exit interviews before, now is the time to do so. Facilitating candid discussions with employees who want to resign helps you identify patterns that cause team members to leave.

Give Your HR Team a Leg up With Goodtime Hire

Turning the Great Resignation into the Great Retention all boils down to acting in the best interest of your employees. But let’s not forget about your future employees. Talent retention and acquisition are two sides of the same coin; when you successfully cater to candidates, you create new hires that are eager to stay with your company for the long haul.

And the key to exceeding the expectations of candidates? Leveraging GoodTime Hire.

Hire automates coordination, builds relationships during interviews, and provides actionable insights to continuously improve your connections with applicants.

Interested in learning all about how Hire can supercharge your talent acquisition process? Come right this way.

TA Teams and Candidate Relationships: Big Talk, Little Action

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Let’s start with the good news. More and more TA leaders finally recognize that to snag the best talent, forming candidate relationships is the way forward. They know that candidate-focused hiring practices must take center stage, and one-sided practices must be laid to rest.

Now…the bad news: the execution just isn’t adding up. Our 2022 Hiring Insights Report surveyed 560 TA decision makers across the U.S. to understand their perceptions of the most pressing challenges facing their teams, and what should be done to reel in top talent. The report’s data shows that yes, talent teams recognize the importance of connecting with candidates, but not enough teams actually put candidate relationships in motion—and that’s a problem. Too much talk, not enough action. 

If there was ever a time to kick relationship building into high gear, the time is now. In 2021, companies surveyed fell 50% short of their hiring goals. Failing to prioritize meaningfully connecting with candidates means bad news for your hiring goal attainment. It’s time for less saying and more doing.

Candidate Relationships in Short Supply

On the bright side, 46% of our report’s respondents agree that creating genuine relationships with candidates is more important than ever. But the positives end there.

Despite this consensus, only 36% of respondents looked to build better candidate relationships in the past 12 months, and the same percentage plan on improving these relationships in the coming months. Companies have good intentions, but struggle with taking action.

Remote workspaces do not fare any better. Among the fully-remote companies surveyed, just 25% plan to build relationships with candidates in the future. Yet if anyone should focus on relationship building, it’s them. Remote employees are more perceptible to feelings of isolation. This makes it even more important to cultivate trust and connection in a remote hiring process.

Hiring Efficiency Falters

TA leaders surveyed indicated that their main focus lies in improving the overall efficiency of their hiring process. This is a good sign; respondents agree that prompt and clear communication throughout the hiring process is most valuable to candidates, which goes hand-in-hand with an efficient process. Improved efficiency also means more time and space to focus on high-value tasks—such as authentically connecting with candidates. 

But before companies can even start to use this space for building relationships with applicants, they have a ways to go in ramping up their overall hiring efficiency. The majority of respondents—60%—say that over the past 12 months, their time-to-hire has increased. Companies that hire fast have a major advantage in keeping talent engaged enough to win them over. However, the average time-to-hire among all respondents was three weeks.

As for the time spent on administrative tasks, HR teams reportedly spend more than one-third of their time scheduling interviews. Manual, clunky interview scheduling majorly lowers the quality of a hiring process—and a candidate-recruiter relationship. 

By establishing the right processes and technology to eliminate the time spent on administrative tasks and boost hiring efficiency, TA teams can maximize their bandwidth to focus on what matters most: connecting with candidates.

Does interview scheduling automation make sense for my team?

ROI is key. This is not a time to invest in software that won’t bring you immediate value. So let’s eliminate the guesswork with our free ROI calculator.

Calculate Your ROI

Disconnect in Company Culture

It’s not lost on TA teams that job seekers deeply consider company culture before accepting an offer. Nearly all (90%) companies reportedly designed their interview process to reflect their culture.

The problem? Just 53% communicate their company culture to candidates during the hiring process. In other words, 47% of companies neglect to communicate an element that is incredibly top-of-mind for candidates—and risk losing out on star applicants due to this disregard.

Candidates want to know whether a company’s mission, values, and culture align with their own beliefs. They’re quick to turn down an offer if they don’t see themselves feeling happy and welcome at your company. One of the clearest paths to forming candidate relationships is by having them feel deeply connected to your culture—yet this can’t happen if the culture isn’t communicated to them to begin with. 

Want the Latest Insights? Read the 2023 Hiring Insights Report

It’s abundantly clear that in the HR world, there’s lots of talk but little execution—and companies aren’t achieving their hiring goals as a result. Candidates are interviewing you as much as you’re interviewing them, and they expect you to put in the work to form a connection. 

For TA teams to make long-lasting bonds with applicants, they must pull themselves up by the bootstraps and take action. That means leveling up their efficiency to free up time to focus on candidates, and thoughtfully communicating elements of their culture to win applicants over. 

Want to catch up on the latest hiring trends? Get excited: our 2023 Hiring Insights Report is now available. 500+ HR leaders, 1,000s of real findings, 1 industry-leading report. Read the report today.

Four-Day Workweek: A Magic Bullet for Talent Acquisition?

Posted on by Rachel Heller

When considering the major shifts in work arrangements that we’ve seen in the past few years (oh hello, remote work), the recent buzz around the four-day workweek comes as no surprise. If we’ve learned anything from post-pandemic life, it’s that the typical 9 to 5, in-office work paradigm is old news. Normalizing three-day weekends—once just a pipe dream—sounds a lot less far-fetched.

Proponents praise four-day workweeks for prioritizing the wellness of employees with promises of decreased stress and increased happiness. With numerous companies testing out a shortened workweek, we now have evidence to use when judging if this new arrangement really delivers on its promises. Spoiler alert: it does.

Overall, the rise of the four-day workweek comes at an incredibly opportune time for TA teams. With the Great Resignation showing no signs of slowing down, teams must pull out all the stops to attract candidates and keep employees from jumping ship. And with 92% of U.S. employees in favor of a four-day workweek, implementing this policy may be just the thing that puts your company ahead of the rest.

Employee Well-being Wins Talent

The companies that champion employee well-being are the ones that snag and retain the best talent. It’s just that simple. The positive byproducts of shorter workweeks mark a whole new frontier in supporting the wellness of employees.

In a Paychex survey, six out of ten employees identified well-being benefits as a major priority when job hunting—despite the fact that less than half of employees feel their current company makes it a priority. Among five areas of employee well-being, 24% of respondents rated mental and emotional wellness as their biggest struggle at work. This was due to a lack of benefits such as flexible schedules. 

As for the number one way to support well-being, the majority of employees rated additional time off as the best employee benefit. In a similar vein, 68% of workers said they’d rather change careers for a better work-life balance than higher pay.

Noticing a theme? Today’s burned-out employees want companies to honor their personal wellness, and they want to see this through more free time. All signs point to four-day workweeks as a solution to giving workers what they clearly desire. 

Four-day Workweek in Practice

In theory, a four-day workweek and the allure of additional personal time seems like a logical way to elevate talent acquisition. But in practice, does this work arrangement stack up to expectations? Let’s look at the companies that recently tested the waters.

Bolt Improves Work-life Balance

To combat employee burnout, Bolt, a fintech startup, conducted a three-month 32-hour workweek pilot. Employees worked from Monday to Thursday each week and experienced no reduction in salary. 

At the end of the trial, a company survey revealed that 94% of workers and 91% of managers wanted to continue the program. The vast majority of Bolt employees reported experiencing a better work-life balance and more productivity throughout the three months. As a result, Bolt made four-day workweeks permanent.

When first rolling out the pilot, Bolt employees wiped their entire calendars clean. This way, they’d be highly intentional when scheduling meetings and would avoid squishing five days worth of work into four. Workers cut some meetings in half, made some less frequent, and eliminated others altogether.

The Wanderlust Group Boosts Profits

The Wanderlust Group, an outdoor tech company, took a slightly different approach to the four-day workweek. In order to give employees more time to invest into themselves, TWG piloted a 32-hour workweek program that eliminated Mondays rather than Fridays. Like Bolt, employees received no reduction in pay.

The results? Employee morale increased and TWG saw a 121% year-over-year increase in profits. The only loss? A reduction in bad meetings that employees didn’t want to attend anyways. Unsurprisingly, their Tuesday to Thursday schedule is now a permanent policy.

On the logistics side of things, TWG realized that they’d need to cut down on their meetings to maximize productivity during their four days of work. They slashed around a third of their standing meetings and weeded out any meetings without a robust agenda.

TWG also recognized that they’d still need their customer support staff to help customers on Mondays. To alleviate this problem, they adopted a rotating schedule where some staff take off on Mondays while others take off on Fridays. 

thredUP Attracts Candidates

thredUP, a fashion resale platform, tested out a Monday to Thursday 32-hour workweek in 2021 and never looked back. The company wanted to actively prove to employees that a true work-life balance matters.

As a result, thredUp reported that more than half of their new hires who completed an onboarding interview mentioned that the abbreviated workweeks influenced their decision to join the company. 88% of employees cited the new work policy as a positive change. Better yet, voluntary turnover within the corporate team decreased by over 50% since the four-day workweek’s implementation.

Similar to Bolt and TWG, thredUP mentioned that for the new workweek to succeed, employees needed to reconsider the importance of certain meetings. As a whole, employees had to prioritize the most high-value tasks.

No One-size-fits-all

A four-day workweek can do wonders for talent acquisition and retention, yet implementing a successful program isn’t cut and dry. Evident from Bolt, TWG, and thredUP’s varying programs, there’s no “right” way to implement a 32-hour workweek. For a four-day workweek program to succeed, companies need to establish their own unique operational and workflow changes based on their business model.

However, if there’s anything to gain from the recent four-day workweek pilots, it’s that we could all benefit from reprioritizing how we spend our time at work—and that means rethinking our meetings.

Imposter Syndrome in the Workplace: You’re Not A Fraud

Posted on by Rachel Heller

Do you feel like a phony even though your accomplishments tell a different story? Don’t worry, you’re not crazy. You just have imposter syndrome. And you’re far from alone: 70% of adults experience these feelings at some point in their lifetime.

In Crosschq’s latest installment in their People Lead/HER webinar series, Debra Wade Carney, Director of Marketing, and Elena Arney, Director of People & Culture, sat down with three women leaders to get to the root of imposter syndrome in the workplace. 

Jenn Oswald, Head of People Strategy at GoodTime; Katie Mehnert, CEO at ALLY Energy; and ErinBlythe “EB” Sanders, Career Coach and Consultant, dove into how they’ve experienced and navigated imposter syndrome to become the strong leaders that they are today.

You can watch the full webinar here, but for the TLDR, here’s the key takeaways from the chat. 

Is Imposter Syndrome the Best Label?

First thing’s first: should we even call it “imposter syndrome”? EB noted that when the concept behind imposter syndrome became popularized in the 1970s, people referred to it as “imposter phenomenon” before later morphing into imposter syndrome.

“Somewhere along the way, that became ‘syndrome,’ which is problematic in that it pathologizes it,” EB said. “What it’s saying is that there’s something off neurologically with everyone that’s experiencing it.”

EB uses the term “inner critic” to emphasize that these feelings aren’t signs of a disorder, but that they’re feelings that the majority of people experience.

“Imposter syndrome is not categorized as mental illness, but at the end of the day it gets back to a reflection of who we think we are, and that is powerful work we have to do ourselves.”

— Katie Mehnert, CEO at ALLY Energy

Coping With Imposter Syndrome 

The things that trigger feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt vary from person to person. Recognizing the triggers—whether they stem from specific actions, people, or situations—is the first step to mitigating them.

To alleviate imposter syndrome in the workplace, Jenn encourages people at GoodTime to hold open discussions when those feelings begin to arise. She finds it helpful to have a peer at work to confide in for coaching tips or a different perspective.

“Find those allies and people who will support you, and coach you, and mentor you so that you can realize your greatness,” Jenn said.

As a CEO, Katie tries to foster a culture of openness. Similar to Jenn, she encourages people at ALLY to share whenever they experience imposter syndrome, if they feel comfortable. She’s found that imposter syndrome is all around us and can affect anyone, regardless of their title.

Not Just a “Female Thing”

While Katie, EB, and Jenn all have their fair share of experiences with imposter syndrome, its effects extend far beyond the female population. Imposter syndrome remains prevalent among both men and women across a variety of age groups. However, EB noted, women tend to discuss imposter syndrome more openly than men. 

Yet within those populations, she added, people who are part of systematically marginalized and underrepresented groups—such as POC and LGBTQ individuals—tend to experience imposter syndrome to a higher degree. This can be attributed to the negative stimuli that they already experience due to their identities.

As for people with a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as ADHD, imposter syndrome can be a massive struggle. 

“There is a saying in the community that you have to work twice as hard to feel as if you are half as good,” EB said. “If you are neurodivergent, there is the daily baseline of functioning that you’re trying to work with, and then trying to feel as if you are competent and as if you are fitting in.”

Social Media’s Impact

Does social media heighten imposter syndrome? For many people, the answer is yes. Social media generates a constant flow of feedback—both good and bad. That never-ending feedback can compound feelings of self-doubt and feed the inner critic.

In order to combat the negative side of social media, Katie encourages her team to have digital breaks once in a while to center themselves outside of the noise. Digital breaks allow people to reconnect with their purpose and the reasons behind the work that they do each week.

“Reconnecting with what those reasons are, and who we are, and what we want, and why we want those things builds a little shield of, ‘It doesn’t matter what all that chatter is, because I got my own path, I’m doing my own thing,’” EB added.

However, EB said, some people find value in the comparisons that social media breeds. For some, feeling envious of others on social media can inform what they’d like to achieve. They then use this information to the advantage of their personal growth. Instead of comparing, they compete.

“We’re moving into a space where employers need to think of the overall well-being of their people.” 

— Jenn Oswald, Head of People Strategy at GoodTime

The Way Forward

As a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental wellness is now top of mind in the work environment. In order to overcome imposter syndrome in the workplace and other negative thought patterns, give your mind a little TLC.

Jenn sees value in going to therapy to address your mental health head-on. She added that as GoodTime grows, they continue to evaluate their employee wellness benefits.

“I think we’ll continue to see the landscape of benefits change over the next few years and see much more of a focus on mental health,” Jenn said.

Katie believes that there are two distinct parts to addressing negative thoughts: one involves coaching to develop confidence and leadership skills, and the other involves doing the inner work to see where the thoughts come from. Both hold equal merit, and we must tackle both to understand why we think the way that we do.

“We are the way that we are because of the environment that we grew up in,” Katie said. “It is super important as professionals to make sure we are taking care of our mental health.”