Avoiding Tokenistic Hires

Welcome to Hire Potential with Indeed, a series of fireside chats with experts in diversity and inclusion, employer branding, recruiting, HR and more.

According to Indeed’s 2021 D&I report, while 81% of working Australians believe that people from a different ethnic or cultural background are treated equally where they work, only 73% of workers from a cultural or ethnic minority group agree, with one in five (21%) feeling that they are not treated equally at work.

While it is important for companies to not only instate but also act upon their diversity and inclusion recruiting initiatives, it’s even more crucial to not treat D&I as an item to check off on a to-do list. For this discussion, we are defining tokenism as “the practice of doing something (such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group) only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly.”

Along with our guest Madeline Hill, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Randstad Australia, in this episode, we dive deep into what tokenism can look like in the workplace, how it can be harmful to your employees, and what employers need to start doing today to help avoid tokenistic hires and truly build a diverse, inclusive, and belonging workplace.

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Prologue

Jay: Welcome to Hire Potential with Indeed. A welcoming workplace is built from the ground up with attention to diversity, inclusion, accessibility and openness. But the way many leaders and companies approach this is full of gray areas, uncertainty, and quite often fear. Hire Potential with Indeed is here to demystify the process through the most powerful channel possible, conversations, groundbreaking ones, too. 

I'm your host Jay Munro, Senior Country Marketing Manager of Australia at Indeed. And in this podcast series, we'll tackle the issues we face in the modern workplace, from diversity and inclusion, to remote working, accessibility, fair hiring practices, and more. This podcast is an initiative of Indeed.com, the world's number one job site according to Comscore with over 250 million unique visitors every month from over 60 different countries.

Introduction

Jay: Welcome to the third episode of Hire Potential with Indeed. Before we dive in, I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we're meeting. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present, and the Aboriginal Elders of other communities who may be here today. 

In this week's episode, we'll be discussing avoiding tokenistic hires. Diversity in the workplace refers to an organisation that intentionally employs a workforce composed of individuals of varying gender, religion, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, and other attributes. According to Indeed's 2021 D&I report, while 81% of working Australians believe that people from a different ethnic or cultural background are treated equally where they work. Only 73% of workers from a cultural or ethnic minority group agree with one in five feeling they are not treated equally in the workplace. While it's important for companies to not only in state but also act upon their diversity and inclusion recruiting initiatives, it's even more crucial to not treat D&I as an item to check off on a to do list. 

For this discussion, we're defining tokenism as the practice of doing something such as hiring a person who belongs to a minority group only to prevent criticism and give the appearance that people are being treated fairly. In this episode, we dive deep into what tokenism can look like in the workplace, how it can be harmful to your employees, and what employers need to start doing today to avoid tokenistic hires and help build a truly diverse, inclusive, and belonging workplace.

Today, we're joined by Madeline Hill, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Randstad, Australia to discuss why businesses must eradicate the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort towards facilitating a diverse workplace, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a team. Welcome, Madeline.

Madeline: Hi, Jay. Thanks so much for having me.

Jay: Madeline, could you start by sharing with us a little bit about your role at Randstad Australia?

Madeline: Sure, can. I oversee Randstad's diversity and inclusion offerings to customers. We collaborate across our internal business and with customers, as well on their strategies and policies and build relationships with our customers, so that we can implement diversity and inclusion initiatives. And create value and business impact for customers.

Jay: That's great. Do you see that there's more desire of different customers that you have to start developing the diversity and inclusion practices?

Madeline: There is. We've had this role within Randstad Australia for four years. Over that time, we've seen a great increase in the work that we're doing across some of the pillars that we operate in. Anything from more gender inclusive practices and recruitment practices, in particular to the hiring of Indigenous Australians and people with disability. Definitely seeing more customers wanting to recruit in those spaces. Yes.

Jay: I guess that's really promising that such advances are happening at the moment. We're here today to talk about tokenism, which is really fascinating as a topic. There are three components to preventing tokenism being diversity, equity, and inclusion. Can you Talk to us a little about these?

Madeline: Sure, so diversity is around the types of people that you have in your organisation. Ethnicity, race, gender, socio economic class, sexual orientation, nationality, those kinds of things. Equity is making sure that everyone has equal access to the resources that you have at your disposal, or within your organisation. inclusivity means that the mix of people that you have no matter their background, where they're from, that they're all welcomed, they feel included, they have a voice that is heard and that they genuinely contribute to what's happening within a meeting, what's happening within the company. That they're not there just because they look different, I guess.

Jay: Let's think about candidates or employees who do think they look different, or that there's something unique about them, or they're in one of those social groups. What do you think they should do if they feel or suspect that they're being tokenised at work?

Madeline: Look, I think this does happen, unintentionally, probably. There is a fine line between tokenism and diversity. I think that if people feel that they're being tokenised, there are a couple of pre-emptive things that I would I advise. They are things like researching the company that they are going into. Things like, look at pictures, asking the company, what is the ethnic and diverse makeup of the company? Is their culture one of inclusiveness? Do they actually contribute in meetings? To ask in interview as well, ask the manager because managers are such an important linchpin in this part of the diversity and inclusion conversation. Managers are there to make sure that meetings are inclusive to make sure that people feel valued and feel welcomed and feel that they belong. 

A candidate should never feel that they have to be rolled out, that they have to be the representative for the group that they are representing, because it contributes to making people feel anxious. There are studies that show that it impacts mental health in a negative way, creates frustration and disillusionment, negatively contributes to turnover. There are a whole bunch of negative impacts that these people feel if they are being tokenised. And so, companies need to be very careful about that because they're actually doing more 50 service, and then you've got your name out there in the market with negative branding. You're actually behind the eight ball even more so than you were hedging not hired.

Jay: I think it's all of our responsibility to try and recognise tokenism when it's happening, and who's being affected by that in the workplace. I think this is where it becomes really interesting and quite challenging, is sometimes there might be a bit of peer pressure on managers, saying that they need to employ people from certain groups, when it may end up in tokenism. Do you have any advice for those managers who may be feeling a bit pressured or being told they need to employ certain candidates?

Madeline: I think it is about intent and authenticity. For example, a company that is just starting out the D&I journey, you've got to start somewhere. My advice to managers would be, perhaps to hire a couple of people at the same time who are diverse, and that might take a couple of different hiring managers across the organisation to do that. But to be open and transparent about where you are in the journey of this D&I journey that the organisation is on, so that you come across with authenticity and be transparent about what you're hoping to achieve and the why. The why is always so important. For managers who are being pressured, it's about them also asking, what is the objective and where are we going with this? What is my involvement? What training is there not just for me, for my team, across the organisation. There are a number of things that a manager can bring up.

It depends on the type of requests being made, too. Organisational readiness, for example, to take on people who are of an indigenous heritage. There does need to be some training, some organisational readiness, some cultural awareness of how you support Indigenous Australians in the workplace, and having a buddy system. Some mentoring for that employee is also really important to the longevity of that employees. Sometimes there really needs to be some pushback from hiring managers because to hire someone without the support mechanisms, I’ve seen, it doesn't end well. That goes for lots of different groups and people with disability is another one. If there's not the support there, it doesn't go well. And for the employee, it can be really frustrating and just demoralising, as well. You've got these impacts on individuals and their mental health, and can be so easily remedied by knowing what you're doing and just reaching out and asking for help.

How to support employees who feel they are a tokenistic hire 

Jay: Yeah, it's so important to know how to support individuals from those different backgrounds and groups. I'm wondering if you are a manager and you have made a hire of someone who is from a diverse background. Do you have to tell them up front that it's not a tokenistic hire? How do you deal with that? Do you just make sure you can support them in the way that they need to be supported?

Madeline: I think again, the manager employee relationship is critical. It depends on where you are in the journey. Because for me, if I was walking into a new organisation in my first week, and there were no other women there, I'd be looking around thinking what is going on here? Should I have known this? It's a fine line, I think. My advice would be, if you are making your first diversity hire, that again, be transparent, be honest and authentic about the why. We actually want to hire you for your skills and your abilities, not because you're female or not because you're whatever it is. That you have the right skills and abilities and attitude to do the job. That's first and foremost. It just depends on where an organisation is in their journey. 

But to your point around supporting that is the most critical part, and that is making sure that people are able to be heard in a meeting. We've all been in meetings with people who the loudest voice is heard or someone who talks over the top of other people. The managers role is really to ensure that everyone has a say, and that people feel that what they say is valuable, regardless of where they're coming from. And the reaction to what they say is never belittlement, or being judgmental or putting people down because that stifles any contribution that, in fact, the whole room makes. 

Ask two questions I would say, the manager needs to support and if I am going to be the only female in the department, then probably a heads up about it might be good. Also, sharing the why and the intent and where you're on in this journey, would be helpful.

Jay: What about other employees who may make assumptions or start saying that that new person was hired because they are a female or they are indigenous? Do we really have to educate them, and how do we go about that?

Madeline: I think yes, because the last thing that any employee needs to hear is that they've been hired because they are indigenous. Or because I need to tick that box of diversity and we have a target for hiring someone with a disability. It's demoralising and humiliating for individuals. 

I think that managers have an obligation if that comes up, or to be talking about the person's ability and their experience and what they bring. The value that they bring to the table to the organisation because that is always why we should hire people. And just because someone is of a certain ethnic group or a certain minority group, then it's probably even more reason to say, this is why we've hired them, and to really shut down those kinds of negative conversations because those water cooler conversations can be quite dangerous. 

There is definitely a benefit for companies to have one voice and one message when it comes to these kinds of communications. Managers, again, are the linchpin. Also, senior people within the team that are able to help shut down those water cooler conversations, if they're negative around-- that they actually have great skills, or they've got this kind of experience, and we can all benefit. Understanding the real piece that sits behind it is critical for everybody.

Jay: I feel like it's unfortunate, but I feel like it's really unreasonable to have to justify hiring decisions that we're hiring based on skill or talent or experience to others in the workplace. It just shouldn't happen.

Madeline: But it does. Yeah.

Jay: It does. It's also a bit unreasonable, or unfair to have to explain to our new team members, "You weren't hired because you're from that group." "You were hired for the skill." It should just be what the hire is based on, really.

Madeline: Absolutely, and I think my company is about to experience these because we have been fortunate enough to receive a grant from the federal government to do work with customers, actually. We're going to be one of those customers ourselves, and that is taking on people with disability into our organisation. There's a whole change piece around it. There's training involved. We're partnering with very specialised disability training provider. We've got cultural assessments happening. There is a whole cultural transformation that needs to happen in order for us to be welcoming. We do have people with disability working in our organisation already, but to really embrace this, we've taken that next step. It will be very interesting to see what the reaction is and how much training is required, or what conversations need to be had, if they need to be had at all.

We're certainly opening ourselves up for review because we have Latrobe University doing an analysis on it, and the good, the bad and the ugly will be there in the report to see. I think it is about taking those unintentional barriers away and people's opinions and conversations and all of those things under the surface, really need to be addressed for people to be welcomed and feel that they really belong. That it's not just a tick box exercise, but that you are genuinely, authentically, wanting to embrace these people for their contribution and the value and the perspectives that they have to offer.

Jay: It's really admirable that Randstad is involved in this. When you said just then a tick box exercise, some of these programs that encouraged diverse candidates to apply, can potentially feel like they're going to be a diversity hire, which can take away from their experience and skills. Do you know yet, I'm sure you're still planning and working this out? But how do you support these candidates in, I guess not feeling that way?

Madeline: I'm not sure we do entirely. The point of the recruit able pilots is to uncover those barriers. Candidates that we employ will be interviewed. Yeah, we obviously will be transparent about this. This is how we embed the process in our business, is finding out what the unintentional barriers are and what the issues might be for different individuals. We need to draw that out because like the Indeed report illustrates, sometimes you think you're doing a great job with D&I. But what do your employees actually think? There's a gap between organisation's thinking they're doing a great job, and the reality of that for individuals. For us, part of this pilot is not just acknowledging that that may be the case, but actually, what are the details that sit behind that so that we can learn from it? Not just for our organisation, but so that we can push that message out there for other organisations as well.

Jay: I guess sharing those learnings with your employee base as well will help them feel supported and included.

Madeline: 100%.

Jay: Part of our report showed that huge number of Australians feel they need to hide themselves or part of who they are in the workplace for fear of discrimination, retaliation, a whole heap of negative responses. Do you think that people would be likely to hide part of themselves because of fear that they have been tokenised?

Madeline: I think the research shows that people definitely do. If they're the people that we take on through the recruit able pilot, I would hope that that's not the case because there is a lot of training happening and a lot of work being done around that. But the research certainly shows that across many minority groups, that people absolutely don't bring their whole selves to work, and for a lot of different reasons. I think that managers, again, are the linchpin here, by managers who foster inclusive workplaces and who really support people. The statistics show and the Diversity Council of Australia has some good stats on this, that inclusive managers, their staff will be something like, I think it's six times better at innovation. They'll be a two and a half times better with their discretionary effort that they provide if they're able to be their authentic selves at work. There are all of these benefits for the organisation, for employees, and not just the minority group employees, but all employees if you have an inclusive manager. The training is critical. For the employees, my heartbreaks that we have people in the workforce who feel that they have to hide their personalities, or their or their unique talents because they're not being supported to bring that out. We don't draw that out for the benefit of them and for the whole business. Yeah, absolutely. It's critical that managers support people, and there is awareness across the wider organisation, as well.

Signs that you’ve accidentally made a tokenistic hire 

Jay: We all make mistakes, though, particularly when we're leading other people. You can't get it right, every time. What if we are or we have made a tokenistic hire, and we don't realise. Are there any telltale signs or things that we should be aware of to alert us to that?

Madeline: I think there are telltale signs, if you'd look for them. Certainly, if people don't feel that they are being included, they will stop contributing because they're disillusioned or they've been shut down. If you've got someone in your team who isn't contributing, it is about having that conversation. People won't always acknowledge that and come forward with that, as well. It is about how do I as a manager support people? I think it's also about acknowledging, when you potentially haven't done the right thing, and being honest about that and saying, "I noticed that you're being really quiet, you're not contributing. Can you share what has happened to create this?" and take responsibility and accountability for that because you're absolutely right. We don't get it right all of the time as managers.

Managers need to be reaching out for help, and they need to acknowledge that they need help. That there is definitely help out there across the organisation. Whether it's training or whether they need someone to mentor them, they'll coach them. Or they need to connect their particular employee to a mentor or to a coach. It's about having the discussion in a respectful way for everybody's benefit. It is absolutely, about acknowledging that as managers, we can't always get it right. And the intent. If the intent is good, and I hear this-- I was speaking to one of our partner organisations earlier in the week, one of our indigenous partners because we're about to launch our first Reconciliation Action Plan. I was talking to them and asking for their advice about how to launch it, and what do we do. They had some amazing information that I would never have thought of those kinds of things. Reaching out to partners or other companies or friends that might be able to help is critical because there is great knowledge out there. You just have to tap into it.

Jay: Going back just a little bit there, I think there's a big shift that needs to happen with managers, in particular. When you have a disengaged team member, quite often because of pressures and targets or metrics to meet, you don't think about why. You just approach it as a disciplinary meeting or performance management. That shift is to have more of that conversation happening and try to uncover what it may be that's impacting that team member. If someone is a candidate of a diverse background in the team, and the only one, is it fair to put that pressure on them to stand up and I guess, educate the rest of the team or educate us? Or what do we do in that case?

Madeline: I don't think it is fair. I think that it is the organisation's responsibility to educate, to do their research, to inform themselves of what needs to happen and how an organisation supports people. I don't think it's fair because not everybody is comfortable with that. Some people sure, will be comfortable, but certainly my experience is that most people don't offer that even when are asked. Yes, absolutely not fair to ask people and expect them to educate you. You need to take responsibility, and educate yourself and widen your networks and tap into different people and be supported by your organisation to help you do that, as well.

What will it ultimately take to ensure a better and more inclusive workplace in the future

Jay: This whole concept of tokenism is apparent outside of the workplace, as well. We see panels in webinars and news and all sorts of different settings. Sometimes you think, well, there's no female on that panel. It's not diverse enough, or there's no indigenous member on that panel. It's not diverse enough. I think sometimes we forget that it's not great to have that representative involved, just because we want to see the diversity in front of us, or visually in front of us. Look, Madeline, it's always a pleasure to chat with you. I do want to finish with our final question, which is how we finish every episode of hire Potential with Indeed. What will it ultimately take to ensure a better and more inclusive workplace in the future?

Madeline: I think it is about cultural change. It is about inclusion and how you embrace people. It is ultimately about diversity of thought, and to the benefit of everyone, to the benefit of organisation's productivity, bottom line results, and education, training and giving it a go. I think organisations sometimes they don't take that next step because they don't know how to, but just jump in. If you have good intent, then you'll find a way to make it work and be open to reaching out and asking others how it's done. Just jump in and get started.

Jay: It's great, great advice. Again, thank you so much, Madeline. Really appreciate the insights.

Madeline: Thanks for having me.

Conclusion 

Jay: Thank you for listening to Hire Potential with Indeed. Before you go and start building a better workplace, don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review if you found this podcast helpful. If you'd like to read our full D&I report, click the link in this episode's description and fill out the form.

Just a quick note, the information provided on this podcast does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead, all content we discuss is for general informational purposes only, and you should consult with a legal professional for any legal issues you may be experiencing.

The data in this podcast references Indeed’s 2021 D&I report. 

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Sources: Indeed is the world's #1 job site according to Comscore, Total Visits, March 2021.

Sources: Over 250 million unique visitors every month, Google Analytics, Unique Visitors, February 2020.

Sources: The research in the report referenced in this episode was commissioned by ThatComms Co on behalf of Indeed and conducted by YouGov. The study was conducted online between 11 - 17 February 2021, involving 2,060 working age Australians (aged between 18-64) currently in either full or part-time employment, or actively looking for work.