December 01, 2021

IslandWood Works to Embed Equity in Hiring Process

by Asa Duffee, ANCA Director of Marketing & Communications
 

WHEN KATRINA MILLER joined ANCA Organization Member IslandWood as Director of Human Resources in 2018, the organization tasked her with helping advance its Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) efforts. IslandWood was beginning an organization-wide effort to build a race equity culture, and sought to implement new hiring practices that would help cultivate a more equitable and diverse institution.

It is well-established that the staffs and boards of environmental organizations are disproportionately White on average. The professional environmental field in the US has developed through a history of White supremacy culture, and today grapples with how that culture persists. Nature centers are by no means exempt from this. As Merica Whitehall wrote in the Summer 2020 issue of the Directions journal, “if nature centers want to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive we must examine and redesign our systems, our policies, and our procedures.”

Miller has spearheaded the effort to examine and redesign one such system at Islandwood: the hiring and onboarding processes. This is part of a larger trend among nature centers, in which organizations are recognizing the inequitable practices that they have used in the past. As Vu Le has written on the Nonprofit AF blog, these practices include an overreliance on formal education, gate-keeping based on unimportant factors, and a focus on short-term goals, as well as not listing salary ranges on job postings.

To be clear: equitable hiring practices don’t automatically result in an equitable and inclusive organization. In other words, “diversity” can’t be a goal independent from justice, equity, and inclusion — if the larger organizational culture and structure is hostile to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees, they will leave. Green 2.0’s 2019 Leaking Talent report shows that the lack of promotion and retention of BIPOC employees is a serious issue, and that environmental organizations suffer when they do not focus on retaining the BIPOC employees that they worked to recruit. However, implementing equitable hiring practices remains a vital part of creating organizations that are truly inclusive — and having a racially diverse organization will itself increase BIPOC employee retention, according to the Leaking Talent report.

As such, IslandWood has made significant changes in its recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding processes. The following list provides examples of how the organization strives to change these practices.

RECRUITING
  • Centralized hiring process through the HR department, involving HR in approving job postings and selecting candidates where practical
  • Created a template for job descriptions and reviewing postings for bias
  • Prioritize BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) candidates specifically for opportunities where non-BIPOC staff are dominant and for educator roles
  • Offer an IslandWood application form as an option for applicants who do not have a formal resume
  • Ask all applicants to respond to a general JEDI question, and do not advance applicants to the interview phase if their response does not indicate a commitment to social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
  • Clearly state salary range, work schedule, and job classification on all job postings
  • Focus job descriptions on what is required for each position, without inflating educational requirements
  • Invest in advertising to expand job listings to reach a larger BIPOC applicant pool
  • For our educator roles — prioritizing lived experiences and teaching experiences over a requirement of specific educational degrees. For example, we removed a prior requirement of a background in environmental education (EE) because the field of EE, to date, has not been diverse or inclusive.  
  • Include a commitment to JEDI as a required qualification in all job descriptions
INTERVIEWING
  • Break interviews into two groups when more than 3 or 4 people need to interview a candidate
  • Whenever possible, have interviews conducted by staff members who have previously demonstrated effective interview skills
  • When practical, include the HR Director in interviews to help ensure objective observation and interview feedback
ONBOARDING
  • Provide Spanish versions of open enrollment benefits packages
  • Provide an interpreter for Spanish-speaking staff members
  • Review onboarding schedule to ensure that there is adequate time to orient and educate newly hired staff members
  • Inform new employees about employee-led affinity groups

[reprinted from islandwood.org with permission]

Change is a process

These changes at IslandWood might seem simple when read from a list, but actually implementing such changes can take time.

“People don’t inherently embrace change,” says Miller. “Because it is a process, it can sometimes take longer, or it can seem like it’s more of a burden to do this work, but really it’s building the muscle to do it.”

Any organization making significant changes will face some debate among its stakeholders, especially when those changes connect to values in larger social institutions, such as formal education. Therefore, “the hard part is educating people on why it’s a good idea to make changes,” says Miller. 

For instance, when IslandWood had turnover in its leadership team, Miller advocated that the organization prioritize BIPOC candidates for the open position, as the leadership team was predominantly White. Though some stakeholders were reluctant to be so explicit, Miller addressed their concerns — it wasn’t that they would entirely refuse White candidates, but that they would prioritize BIPOC candidates given the context of the situation.

This especially makes sense when considering that organizational racial diversity has myriad benefits as indicated in Green 2.0’s Leaking Talent, including improved decision-making, ability to form new partnerships, and even enhancing fundraising efforts. It’s particularly important that organizational leadership includes that diversity; Leaking Talent reports that “the greatest benefits of diversity occur when People of Color represent at least 25% of the senior leaders.”

Miller says that though IslandWood’s stakeholders needed time to fully consider changes such as prioritizing BIPOC candidates and re-evaluating education requirements, such changes have now been widely accepted.

Beyond hiring practices, flexibility can widen the candidate pool

The pandemic has radically changed how people work in the US, and how people view work. Workers in many roles are now familiar with performing their responsibilities remotely, and workplace cultures are more frequently prioritizing flexibility.

Such changes complement equitable practices that encourage a racially diverse staff. IslandWood has approached this moment as an opportunity, particularly with positions that don’t need to be onsite.

Bainbridge Island, where IslandWood is located, is over 90% White and has a high cost of living. Because of this, IslandWood has intentionally recruited candidates from outside of the immediate area, and specifically kept some positions remote — at least temporarily. In some cases, the organization is hiring remotely and will later evaluate if the employee wants to relocate in order to work in person. This would not function for all positions, but Miller says it’s advantageous for certain IT or administrative roles.

Working toward an organizational JEDI framework

As stated earlier, “diversity” cannot stand wholly apart from justice, equity, and inclusion. Any organization that works toward a racially diverse staff without considering the underlying institutional structures, will only achieve a short-lived diversity at best. Still, equitable hiring practices are essential to any organizational JEDI framework.

Miller says any organization can begin the journey toward a JEDI framework today, first by evaluating its current practices — and then working to change them. And it really is a learning process, she says, so don’t be intimidated.

“You can’t be afraid to make a mistake, because you’re going to,” she advises. “But you learn.”

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FURTHER READING

American Alliance of Museums: Equitable Hiring Practices

BEETLES Project: Examining Equitable and Inclusive Work Environments in Environmental Education (pdf)

Green 2.0: Leaking Talent — How People of Color are Pushed Out of Environmental Organizations

IslandWood: Our Commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

Merica Whitehall: Actions Always Prove Why Words Mean Nothing

Nonprofit AF: Our hiring practices are inequitable and need to change

Nonprofit AF: When you don’t disclose salary range on a job posting, a unicorn loses its wings

Nonprofit Quarterly: 5 Hiring Pitfalls To Avoid—If You Want Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Leadership

 

 

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