Here’s a hypothetical question. You are an employer with a space in a top position in your company, and you have four candidates to choose from. One is a well rounded, experienced male from East Port of Spain; another is a young, energetic and creative black woman; the third is openly part of the LGBTQIA+ community with a wealth of knowledge about the job; and the fourth is a highly capable, differently-abled person.
All four show evidence of great leadership skills, ability to do the job and education in the necessary fields, and they were all highly recommended by their peers. Each one brings something different to the table with their knowledge and ideas.
There is a need for diversity in your company, as there is a trend of only a few people from select communities being enrolled in your business.
The question is: who do you hire and more importantly, why?
Are you hiring this person because you need to fill a quota; because they have similar philosophies, ideas and positions to you; or because of their abilities, skills, capabilities and experience? Are you hiring for diversity, or capacity?
This was explored on Tuesday, the second day of the TT Chamber of Commerce virtual workshop – Leadership at the Crossroad: To a Modern Workplace. Panellists were Jonathan Cumberbatch, assistant vice president, human resources and administration of the University of TT, Natasha Subero, consultant at Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, Safiya Johnson Noel, managing director of Safiya Group Ltd and keynote speaker Karrian Hepburn, managing director of Guardian Media.
The panellists agreed that for a business to be truly diverse, leaders must find the right balance between finding different people for a more agile workspace and simply finding the right person for the job.
Mind your own prejudices
Subero warned against falling into the trap of hiring people based on your own biases, especially since everyone has their own biases and prejudices.
“There was a time when I was responsible for recruiting at a major national organisation in Trinidad, and I noticed a pattern,” she said. “I found that the best candidates usually went to the same schools that I went to, or maybe the same university, or maybe the same religion.
"So my perfect candidate was a mirror image.”
She said she discovered her own biases through conversations with other people, who pointed out the similarities in the people she selected.
“Our biases as human beings, particularly human beings in positions of power, are really very strong, and they're often completely unconscious,” she said. “So what diversity does is, it says, look at yourself in the mirror and understand that you have some biases.”
Hepburn also shared a similar experience, saying in the selection of the cast for Guardian Media’s CNC3 7 pm newscast, she came across criticism, not for hiring people just like her, but hiring too many people who were different from her.
[caption id="attachment_980313" align="alignnone" width="360"] Karrian Hepburn -[/caption]
“We
