Our challenge was for our employees to better reflect the racial diversity of the clients and communities we serve. More than half of our clients are racial minorities, but only 25% of our staff are BIPOC.

Over the course of six months, a self-selected work group of hiring managers met with HR and the CEO to identify opportunities to inject racial equity into the hiring and onboarding process.

At the conclusion of this effort, more than a dozen changes were made to achieve the desired outcomes, including: standard equity language in all recruitment materials, including salary in job postings, expanded recruitment to targeted minority media outlets, better collection of candidate demographic information, guidance for interview teams on bias and diversity, and more intentional racial equity discussions during onboarding of new employees. Initial outcomes in the first quarter after implementing these changes include an increase in the percent of racial minority applicants from 21% to 34%. Also, closer to half of candidates interviewed in this time were racial minorities.

Jeremy Hanson Willis, CEO