What action have you done or change you have made relating to D&I in the last year?

[Kat Warner]

Sometimes the changes we make are big and obvious, and sometimes it's the little things.

This is a thread to share the changes you have made no matter what the size.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

It's not a huge one, but as we've grown, we've needed to go into a bit more recruitment.

Last year, we came out of an interview, said "yes, she's good, make the offer" and then when she started, we asked for feedback on the interview.  She pointed out that while she did not think there was any diversity problem and she got a fair interview, it was noticable that the panel was white, male, acting in the same role, and for bonus points, all attended the same school.

So we banned that panel from ever doing another interview and always include someone from a different role, plus someone who isn't a white male.

[Kat Warner]

Interviews are hard on both sides.  Perception matters because the very nature of interviews means people have to make (big) decisions based on limited data.

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

I've heard similar stories and I agree that having diverse interview panels can help candidates feel more comfortable with the idea of joining the team or the company. This practice can also remove bias in the selection process. In my own experience, I didn't use to care much about the lack of people who "look more like me" and always felt confident about fitting and integrating. But as the years have passed, I've found and accepted real challenges to feel that I belong when teams are less diverse and I'm part of an underrepresented minority. I believe that It starts with increasing the representation of diverse groups, which in the end gives companies competitive advantage.

[Daniel Ebers · Accepted solution]

Joined our brand-new diversity team as a local supporter for our branch office.
Will do my best that all of the efforts they put into the idea lead to increased attention throughout the company. Hopefully the journey will be a success :-)

[Mary Ramirez · Accepted solution]

Advocated internally for different job boards where we could post our jobs so that we have a diverse set of candidates in our pipeline! 

[Kat Warner]

Nice!

[Kat Warner]

In my office we use Slack reactions to indicate when we are ready for sprint close and open. A typical post until recently looked like this:

A couple of weeks ago someone had some fun by answering with 🤙  (which is neither a thumbs up or down) which progressed into more hand icons with a range of colours (👌🏻 👊🏽 👋🏿)) and some thumbs up and thumbs down responses in different colours. 

I expressed frustration that this fun made seeing who was ready or not much harder. Then I clicked, it is a minor thing but by setting the response icons to the colour that suits me might not be innocuous to everyone.

This light-hearted discussion lead to the suggestion we are now using:

It is a very tiny change of something that likely caused no real harm - but it is an improvement and more respective of diversity and inclusion in this office.

[Taranjeet Singh]

@Kat Warner This is a small yet a change of bigger impact on Inclusion & Diversity. I like it.

[Samie Kaufman - Your Gal at Gliffy]

I like it, too :) I always try to just use the yellow-orange for my slack reactions for that reason.

[Kat Warner]

That option always reminds me of The Simpsons

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

I feel lucky that the company I work for makes diversity and inclusion a priority, and that they are making available resources for employees to learn about it. I did volunteer to participate in a 'belonging and inclusion' committee and we've been working on initiatives to raise awareness about things like unconscious bias, the use of inclusive language and what diversity means. We're also working on adapting inclusive practices in hiring (e.g. there is a software called textio that reviews job descriptions to identify biased language), and also on creating forums where people can tell their stories and help educate everyone.