What are the most effective strategies for building a diverse talent pipeline?

When assessing the current state, be careful to address the biases you undoubtedly have and may not be aware of. Despite learning and building awareness, it can be difficult to overcome biases that are naturally present in all of us. An example is similarity (like-me) bias. We all have backgrounds and interests that define who we are. People have a natural tendency to favor those with similar backgrounds and preferences, while unconsciously excluding others who are different. I find it important to try and mitigate these biases as much as possible. In this case, that could be achieved by involving an assessment panel as diverse as possible, in order to ensure a more objective analysis of the current state of the talent pipeline.

When you're checking out a team, it's not just about the work they do and their job backgrounds. It's also about how they chat during breaks, get along with each other, and whether they do stuff together outside work, like team-building activities. Having diverse team is good because it helps everyone get better at talking and being more outgoing. So, looking at a team, you gotta consider how they work together and whether they're buddies both at work and outside of it.

Defining diversity goals should be a team activity. Too often, the desire to build a diverse team comes from an individual belief of a leader, who doesn’t necessarily feel either comfortable sharing that desire or that it is the responsibility of their team. However, when making it a team’s objective, every member is then given a voice, a space to have ideas and the pride of seeing it working.

To take one step deeper is getting to the root cause of why you are trying to drive diversity within your organization. We can all have a definition of what diversity means, but why are we intentionally driving initiatives around diversity NOW? I have seen many ill-practices where diversity goals become a check mark item or a compliant activity which then elicit the wrong behaviours. Understand why we are driving diversity goals should then inform you of what goals we want to take on, and what should be measured is the ultimate impact of diversity and not pat ourselves on the back that we have hit the quota of hiring diverse candidates.

In the field of engineering, the importance of certificates should not overshadow the significance of the right mindset when selecting candidates. While certificates may open doors, they should not be the sole criteria for job selection. Quality should always take precedence over quantity. Experience has shown that individuals with few or no certifications can often outperform those with 100+ of them. Having a balance between qualifications and the right mindset, which includes problem-solving, adaptability, and teamwork, is essential for making successful hiring decisions in engineering. It's not just about what's on paper but about a candidate's potential contributions and ability to apply their knowledge effectively in the real world.

In my opinion, improvement and feedback should be an ongoing, open, and two-way process. Relying solely on annual assessments is insufficient. Feedback should come from various sources and be integrated into day-to-day interactions to promote continuous growth and collaboration. Encouraging diverse perspectives and regular communication is key to fostering a culture of improvement.

Leave your ego behind. This is one of the most important things for a team lead to do, if you want to build a strong talent driven team. I have noticed way too often, that managers are afraid to hire true talents and grow people, as they feel threatened - this is crucial mistake. We all grow as a team, we all have different skill sets - thus strong talents can only help you grow as well.