How tech startups can hire more diverse teams
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Diversity in the workplace has become an essential topic in the last few years. Studies show that a diverse workforce can better problem-solve and be more productive, boosting the bottom line. To build a diverse and inclusive workforce, companies need to ensure that they recruit, hire, and manage their teams without biases. This is a challenging process for any company. Tech startups can face even more obstacles during the hiring process, as they often look for a specific skill set but cannot always compete with the salaries global corporations can pay. To provide entrepreneurs with advice on hiring more diverse teams, we invited three experts on the topic.
After our panel discussion on the women’s perspective on fundraising for tech startups, our latest event focused on hiring diverse teams. For anyone who could not join the webinar, we collected some insights from our three experts:
Johanna Seeliger is the co-founder and CEO of Diversify, a Zurich-based inclusion and diversity consultancy that specializes in delivering inclusive HR services to startups. In one of her mandates, she serves as the head of people at Skribble, a TOP 100 Startup that makes signature processes 100% digital.
Ravina Mutha is the co-founder and the head of corporate development of Enterprise Bot, an AI company that creates a next-generation conversational experience for customers to solve operational business issues. Enterprise Bot’s technological solutions map the entire customer journey to send automated responses in seconds and create an exceptional customer experience. The startup was a Venture Leader Fintech in 2018, and it has employees in Switzerland, India, the Netherlands, and Portugal—with a team strength of over 65 employees. 
Kristine Howard has been working in the IT industry for 20 years as a developer, business analyst, and people leader. She’s worked at two hypergrowth startups, including the Aussie unicorn Canva, before joining the AWS Solutions Architecture team in 2018. Kris leads a team of AWS Developer Advocates and is the Regional Lead for the Women at Amazon affinity group. She speaks at tech events worldwide and has conducted nearly 200 interview loops for Amazon.Considering the importance of diversity
Johanna: “I would like to change how we look at diversity. Many employers have this particular skill set that they are looking for, so they feel that they cannot look at diversity. But diversity enlarges the talent pool. So, employers have more talent they can choose from. It is more business savvy to include diversity.”
Kris: “Diversity is a must-have unless your product is so niche and your customers are exactly like the people who build it. Everyone wants to scale and go global, so you will have to cater to a more diverse audience. Ignoring diversity is also a reputational risk: Nobody wants to look at a picture on your website and see everyone looking the same.”
Ravina: “Diversity is about more than having people with different nationalities or gender identities. Diversity means having different ideas and opinions. Having people with different perspectives has helped us a lot.”
Writing job ads
Ravina: “Know the nuances of each country you are recruiting in. Tailor your job ads to the different cultures and expectations. We do not look for ninjas, gurus, or rockstars. We write gender-neutral ads.”
Johanna: “Remember that women behave differently than men during the recruiting process. Women want to have a lot more information about the company and the position. The more information about the team, mission, or vision you can put into the ad, the better. Make sure you use gender-neutral language: Gender-decoder tools will highlight masculine- or feminine-coded words that you can replace with synonyms.”
Kris: “When possible, we include some videos that show our teams and illustrate who we are and what a “day in the life” looks like. This helps you get away from the traditional corporate speak. Also, consider making a point of discussing parental support in the job description so that candidates don’t self-select out or have to feel anxious about asking.”
Placing job ads
Ravina: “What worked well for us was word-of-mouth advertising. We reached out to our teams and had them reach out to their networks. We also made sure to enable applicants to have conversations with employees who have similar roles to the one they applied to. This created an openness to discuss the role and the opportunities.”
Johanna: “Do not just put out an ad, but actively reach out to people. LinkedIn has some great and affordable recruiter tools that allow you to contact people directly. Usually, people who get contacted directly also respond faster, and it is generally seen as a positive recruiting strategy.”
Kris: “Don’t rely on people in underrepresented groups to do your recruiting work for you! As a woman in tech, I often get asked if I know other women who have skill x and experience y, as if I have binders full of candidates ready to go. But men can also start building these networks themselves.
Removing bias
Johanna: “Gitlab has a detailed step-by-step guide on how they recruit and how the process developed. It is a great starting point to get information.”
Kris: “The Harvard Implicit Bias Tests are helpful. They are free, and you can find out how biased you are. It is a great way to get the discussion started.”
Johanna: “We use the Applied tool to select candidates to interview. We ask specific questions about their experience and skills and the software randomizes and anonymizes the answers. We do not know who gave which answer, but we can score the answers. In the end, we can see the CVs of the people with the highest scores. Of course, there can be language barriers, but it helps us make decisions that are less biased.”
Structuring the recruiting process
Kris: “If you give applicants homework, be aware that you may limit the talent pool. Applicants have families and commitments, so it is not particularly inclusive to have people spend hours and hours on a task. Make the assignment shorter, and consider putting less weight on it. You can always follow up during the interview process.”
Ravina: “Don’t be scared of making mistakes because you will make mistakes. We hired people who had the perfect skills and experience, but it did not work out. So, you do not have to change the whole process because a hiring decision did not work out.”
Johanna: “Change your perspective. Do startup employees really have to work every evening and pull all-nighters? We have this idea that people in startups have to give 200%, and if they do not do that, they are not motivated or good enough. This is wrong. I would like to see more part-time entrepreneurs. I have seen CEOs and founders who worked part-time and built successful companies. We have success with startups that write ads that mention that the job is 60%–100% and that job sharing is possible. This significantly increases the talent pool and the chances of finding the right person.”
Strengthening a diverse team
Kris: “Diversity will improve your product offering, especially when you are globalizing. Having native speakers who know the local culture can be a huge advantage. But you also have to make use of these skills and experience: You need to create an inclusive culture so that people can be themselves. Everyone needs to be included, even if they have family commitments or work remotely. Leaders have a big responsibility to make sure that everyone’s voice is being heard.”
Ravina: “We used to have a lot of alcohol-related events, but we also do other inclusive events such as theme parks, marathons, even escape rooms. We became more aware of the cultural differences around the world. We want to be supportive and aware of the different cultural aspects.”
Kris: “Be transparent and clear about the success criteria of a position. Make sure you have frequent check-ins during the probation period to see if everyone is happy and goals are being met.”
Staying focused and open-minded
Ravina: “Be open and supportive. One of the most important things is to treat people as people. And have fun with it. Be open-minded and create an inclusive culture that gives people a sense of belonging.”
Johanna: “A lot of people are afraid of the diversity journey. Do not be afraid of possible mistakes, but see it as a learning experience. Get feedback and encourage feedback and be interested in learning about topics and opportunities. If you look at it from this perspective, you can get new inspiration.”
Kris: “Make people feel welcome so that they’re happy to be part of your company and culture. I read an article that simply having a plant in your office (or your Zoom background) is more welcoming, especially to women. I have walked into startups that were very men-coded, which can be intimidating for women just starting out in their careers. It makes such a difference seeing a welcoming environment and being reminded that everyone is different. Think about that plant when recruiting.”
