Would Martin Luther King Jr. hire a diverse staff if he couldn’t judge a character by the color of their skin?

Would Martin Luther King Jr. hire a diverse staff if he couldn’t judge a character by the color of their skin?

Would Martin Luther King Jr. hire a diverse staff if he couldn’t judge a character by the color of their skin?

diverse staff

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today and the extraordinary feats he accomplished in his time as a civil rights activist, I thought it would be fun to explore what he would think about where we are as a country and Diversity & Inclusion in today’s workplace. MLK’s dream was that one day he would live in a nation where a man would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  What if we took this theory and applied it to today’s business world. What if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were a hiring manager? If MLK couldn’t use race as a factor in the hiring process, would his staff be diverse? Would he hire the diverse staff that he had dreamed of if he were to hire based solely on the candidates’ skills & talents and not based on the color of their skin? If the determining factor was skill, education, and experience would his staff consist of just one particular race?

With better opportunities to all cultures for higher education and the options for how and where we learn, plus the advancement of technology, the expertise, skill and experience gap has narrowed. As a result of the skill and talent gap being narrowed, one would argue that MLK would hire the diverse staff that he dreamed of back in the civil rights era. 

However, as you know, diversity encompasses way more than race. And it is in these areas where companies could be vulnerable. Typically, we run the candidate through an interview process. During the process, we, as hiring managers, assess if they are capable of doing the job. We also, may have a series of questions and interactions designed to weed out those who may be toxic to your organization’s ecosystem. This is the part that could use a major overhaul to the hiring process. These are the areas where we could add a completely different methodology and technology to this equation. Education, skills, and experience will reveal if an individual can do the job, but they will not help you to determine if the individual will actually thrive.

Thanks to advancements in technology we now have ability to effectively “map” an individual and reasonably predict if that individual will do the job and thrive. Imagine the possibilities when you can assess a person’s behavioral profile, driving forces, motivators, and emotional quotient and determine if individual will be the right fit for your organization; not just do the job. This data can help you determine not only the deficits of the person that may affect your diversity and inclusion policies, but it will also reveal what deficits are deal breakers for your company’s environment.

Being able to effectively read and act on the data does take some skill. But, the awesome part is that it doesn’t require talent. It requires practice and patience. The skills themselves are 100% teachable.


Behavioral Profile Assessment Reveals Top Hiring Candidates

Have you ever hired someone for a position that just didn’t seem to fit once they have started? It isn’t until you have already wasted weeks in the hiring & training process, costing your company thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses, that you finally accept the truth that you made a bad hire.

The pressure to make the right hiring decision can be overwhelming, as you not only have to ensure that the new hire has all the right skills for the job, but you need to be confident that they will work well with the existing team. If your employees don’t get along, it will affect the performance of everyone in the office, so it is important to find the right candidate from the start!

Finding the right employee requires more than just knowing their skills & talents, but a thorough understanding of their motivators, behaviors & driving forces. Elevate BDG’s Behavioral Profile Assessment is just the tool you need to help find the right candidate every time!

 

Essentials of Diversity & Inclusion Series

Success in today’s business climate depends on several components. One of them is organizational culture, and the individual cultures of the employees of an organization. Since culture defines many aspects of how we think, feel, and act, it can be challenging for organizations to bridge cultural differences and bring employees together into a functioning team. Culture also influences people’s biases—those both implicit and explicit in nature. This 2-part series includes an optional facilitated debrief.