How do we build truly rich, inclusive workplaces where everybody has the opportunity to succeed? We spoke to Chance Bleu-Montgomery from Bridge of Hope about uncovering hidden gems in the talent pool, building inclusive hiring practices, and growing cultures that give everyone a chance to shine.
- A previously-homeless man with a patchy education background and criminal record sends you a CV.
- Do you disregard him out of hand? Or do you see an opportunity to tap into an untapped talent pool? To hire someone with grit and determination who’ll enrich your culture?
- Or same question, a fifty-something woman who’s taken a two-year career break to care for her dying mum. Do you see her missing career history, or her gained life skills?
Hiring the right people is harder than ever. Skills shortages are hurting almost every industry and around nine million people are still choosing to stay out of traditional work.
At the same time, people who are working are demanding more from their employers. A diverse and inclusive environment is absolutely up there with jobseekers’ and workers’ top priorities.
That means ED&I isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s a major competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. As well as a major competitive advantage in terms of creativity, innovation, and productivity.
But many organisations are still struggling to build the inclusive, empathetic, compassionate workplaces where diverse people can thrive.
Tribepad’s Neil chatted to the brilliant Chance Bleu-Montgomery from Bridge of Hope to talk about these issues. It’s a theme close to his heart, as someone who’s experienced a huge amount of hardship in his life including childhood abuse and time in prison.
Keep reading for our key takeaways from the session. Or watch the sixth episode of The View now to dive into the full conversation (1000% worth it!)
Who are Bridge of Hope?
Bridge of Hope connect marginalised candidates with employers who genuinely care about diversity and inclusion.
They’ve got a huge network of candidates who’ve been alienated from traditional processes and have often been overlooked because of their identity or history – but have an enormous amount to offer, when employers are willing to look.
Adversity breeds great employees
Improving representation isn’t just the right thing to do. And good thing too, because let’s face it: ‘doing the right thing’ isn’t often enough motivation for organisations to act.
Endless research emphasises the same thing: improving diversity is good for business. Chance talks about the business benefits of hiring system-impacted employees, not just for the feel-good factor but because fundamentally, adversity breeds great employees.
Adversity breeds grit – and grit is one of the biggest determinants of someone’s ability to excel. Adversity breeds emotional intelligence. Empathy. Resilience. Creativity. The ability to improvise in tough situations.
All stuff that’s becoming ever-more important as mental health issues skyrocket. Recent research found that a third of people with depression have quit their job, for instance. Tackling workplace mental health demands a resilient, empathetic, and compassionate culture – and hiring people who’ve come through adversity can play an important part.
Overall Chance points out, they’ve seen time and again that system-impacted candidates work harder, stay longer, and add value to your culture. Plus they’re great for your reputation as a true equal opportunity employer.
Ditch the BS CVs – find your diamonds in the rough
If you want to hire more people from underrepresented backgrounds, Chance says, it’s time to look beyond CVs. He likens hiring from CVs to walking into a jewellery shop to buy a diamond:
You’re going into that jewellery shop and you’re buying that ready-cut diamond, all sparkly and nice. And yes, the shop assistant has a great big smile on their face. But some of those diamonds are Cubic Zirconia, because mum wrote the CV, or ChatGPT wrote the CV.
What we really want are those diamonds in the rough, that just need a little polishing and they’ll sparkle like any other diamond
It’s something that’s already top of mind for most of us right now, given the seismic changes AI is wreaking on recruitment. When candidates can spin up CVs and apply for 1000s of roles with a click, it’s time to reassess the value we’re placing on those bits of paper.
Chance talks about building recruitment processes with more varied, nuanced candidate assessment methods that can truly help you meet their mind. And that’s really the key to more diverse hiring.
People can bring all sorts of different qualities to the table from their own lived experiences. When we build a sensitive, empathetic recruitment process that can understand candidates’ intersectionalities, we tap into skills and people we couldn’t previously access – ultimately to better serve the organisation.
Stop feeling bad about unconscious bias – get curious instead
Unconscious bias has been a hot topic for years. But the uncomfortable truth is, there hasn’t seemed to be much actual change. Our Stop the Bias Report 2024 found that 89% of candidates still feel at risk of prejudice when applying for a role, for example. Ouch.
Chance suggests one of the first hurdles is to stop feeling bad about biases. The first step to change is recognising that we all have biases. It’s normal.
But it’s about shining a light on them; about knowing how our minds are patterned to throw up biases. So we can consciously choose to be curious. Consciously choose to view difference as something to investigate and explore rather than judge or reject.
When you do that, Chance says, you start realising how people’s intersectionalities add unique value. So their diverse characteristics become more than a box-checking exercise and more about genuinely understanding how all the facets of someone can strengthen the organisation.
That also goes a long way to solving the issue of candidates not wanting to share diversity data. Because you’re now framing their differences as a strength, not a barrier.
Look beyond entry-level lip service
One excellent point Chance makes, if you want to make genuine progress on diversity and inclusion: look beyond entry level stats. Yes, diversity reporting is great and helps you better understand barriers in your recruitment process.
But ultimately, looking at stats further up the ladder tells you more about your culture. It doesn’t matter how many black gay women you hire, for instance, if your entire management and leadership team are straight, white men.
Leadership is how change cascades down:
It’s easy to come up with good numbers if you’re just looking at entry-level jobs. But what do your stats look like at leadership level? How are you promoting people from different backgrounds? How far can people go with you? Are you creating careers, or ticking a box?
People aren’t idiots. If you’re making all the right noises about diversity but your culture isn’t inclusive from the top-down, they’re far less likely to apply. And even if they do, they’re far less likely to stay.
Join the coalition for change
We’ll leave you with some words straight from Chance himself, because we couldn’t’ve said it better ourselves:
I urge people to understand that change is a wonderful thing. If you stay in your comfort zone, it means you’re not making progress. We have to do this in coalition. People need to get on board with this movement for social mobility, to make organisations – and our country – somewhere really balanced where everyone truly feels included. Please, join the coalition for change.
Better recruitment ladders into better, fairer opportunities for everyone, in a country that everyone’s proud to call home. That’s what it’s all about.
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