To attract or not to attract great talent – 3 tips to avoid biasing job descriptions
While a rose by any other name still smells sweet, when it comes to jobs a name and description could be the difference between...
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Melissa Dobbins
- 5 days ago
- 5 min
To attract or not to attract great talent – 3 tips to avoid biasing job descriptions
While a rose by any other name still smells sweet, when it comes to jobs a name and description could be the difference between attracting great talent and falling flat. Job titles and descriptions are the first windows into the job. They allow potential applicants to imagine the stage of the organization, the role they would play, and determine if they would want to take on that role. When done well, job descriptions will resonate with those that will be great for the positi
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Melissa Dobbins
- 6 days ago
- 2 min
Increasing diversity does not always require budget
Are your job descriptions inclusive? Sometimes, simply rewording them around the goal of the job can greatly improve diversity.
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 18
- 5 min
The importance of ‘Why’ behind DEI
“Why” is a common theme on the career.place blog. “Why” is the trick to refining job requirements and identifying transferable skills. It drives prioritization and selection of initiatives, technologies, and candidates. It’s behind creating exciting job descriptions. It’s what brings meaning to our work. “Why” is so critically important to so many aspects of what we do. And yet, we often skip the most fundamental “Why” question of any DEI effort. “Why do we want Diversity, Eq
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 11
- 4 min
The formula for COMPELLING diversity, equity, and inclusion goals
“How do we create truly compelling goals?” Good question. The formula is simple: goals must be CLEAR, MEASURABLE, COMPELLING, and REASONABLE. But, of course, ‘simple’ does not always apply to the details. The individual asking the question had what they thought were compelling goals – they were aligned to the organization’s stance on DEI, supported the DEI initiative, and they were the right thing to do. But, if they were truly compelling, why wasn’t the individual getting an
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jan 4
- 4 min
The meaning of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging through the dance, art, and business
“What is the difference between diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging?” A common question for those new to the D&I conversation, and for many who are not so new to the conversation. The answer is both simple and vastly complex as it’s full of nuances and subtleties seeped in human behavior, perception, and assumptions. To infuse emotion and nuance into answering this question, we turn to analogies. One of the most common is “the dance”. “The dance” as an analogy to D&I
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Melissa Dobbins
- Dec 21, 2022
- 4 min
Shifting the privilege conversation to empower change
“The talk.” A phrase that usually evokes an immediate response. Often it brings up memories of that very awkward conversation with a parent or child about the ‘birds and the bees’. “The Talk” is one of those “if you learn nothing from me, at least know this” moments where a parent conveys to their child a critical piece of information to keep them from making a dangerous, long-lasting, and, in some instances, fatal mistake. After “The Talk”, we are a little wiser when enterin
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Melissa Dobbins
- Sep 21, 2022
- 4 min
Using panels to remove bias from the hiring process
Career.Place was hiring. We wanted someone who was passionate about our mission of promoting and creating equitable hiring practices. Someone who was able to embrace our values of respect, integrity, and genuinely good intentions, was creative with approach, not afraid of risks, thrived with discovery and change, had an eye toward detail and the discipline to complete tasks, and a small collection of knowledge and abilities. So naturally, we used our own candidate screening p
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Melissa Dobbins
- Aug 31, 2022
- 5 min
Three steps to evaluate newly required skills on a budget
Since COVID, so many things have turned upside down – how people interact and engage, how they shop, and what they buy has all changed. The walls of the workplace, the balance of work-life, and the construct of a team has all changed. With such profound shifts, what it means to be successful has shifted with it. Teams are now required to achieve goals, execute tasks, and solve problems they have never experienced. In other words, the demands of jobs are changing. For example,
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Melissa Dobbins
- Aug 24, 2022
- 5 min
The trick to effectively measure candidate demographics without biasing the process
“As I work to set up my diversity goals, how can I measure an increase in diversity of applicants when I don’t actually know if they are diverse? One cannot necessarily see diversity...and although we ask EEOC questions, we shouldn’t, rightly so, see the answers.” This is a great question. It’s a great idea to track metrics of success of a D&I initiative, such as the diversity of candidates and diversity of hires, but such metrics are not always straight forward to measure. E
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Melissa Dobbins
- Aug 17, 2022
- 4 min
Three tips for driving diversity in your candidate pool
Diversify at the source: three tips for driving diversity in your candidate pool While diversity challenges don’t always stem from the source, without diversity in your candidate pool, there is little chance for diversity flowing into the workforce. And with diverse workforces driving value such as competitiveness, profitability, and retention, ensuring diverse candidate pools is well worth the effort. So, how do you increase diversity in your candidate pool? Here are three w
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Melissa Dobbins
- Aug 10, 2022
- 7 min
Driving DEI support through ROI – how to measure success
Return on Investment, or ROI, is one of the most fundamental calculations behind business decisions. Often times, ROI dictates which initiatives get investment and support, and which end up on the edit room floor. Mastering the ROI calculation is critical for gaining support and funding for your programs. Of course, this begs the question – what is this powerful ROI calculation? Like with so many great questions, the answer is, unfortunately, “it depends”. ROI calculations de
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Melissa Dobbins
- Aug 3, 2022
- 5 min
Creating job descriptions that excite, not bore
For many candidates, job descriptions are the first window into an organization – it is where they first taste what the organization is really like. It is where they first imagine themselves as a part of the culture and workspace and get that first tingle of excitement at the prospect of working there. Job descriptions are the movie trailers, the back cover, the “coming up next” teaser for jobs. They should leave candidates excited and anxious to see more. So why are so many
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jul 20, 2022
- 4 min
Tips for evaluating candidate sources
For many, diversifying your workforce starts at the source. The more diversity in the candidate pool applying for your job, the more likely there will be diversity in the resulting hires. So, if you are not getting the range of diversity you need in your candidate pool, it may be time to change or expand where you are sourcing your candidates. Job boards, associations, recruiting firms, and other candidate sources all claim the same thing – access great candidates you need to
128
Melissa Dobbins
- Jul 13, 2022
- 4 min
Stagnating diversity – the pitfalls of stack ranking candidates
You are ready to hire. The job post goes out and the candidates flood in. Dozens or hundreds of candidates pile up demanding your precious time. So, you use a bit of HR technology magic. With a few clicks you have a stacked ranked list – in order of the best candidates. Now, all you have to do is go top down looking at the highest ranked candidates to find that perfect fit. Fast, fair, effective. Or… is it? When done incorrectly, stack ranking is fast but not at all fair and
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jun 29, 2022
- 5 min
Stop Ageism! Here are five tips to combat ageism in hiring
As part of their effort to plan 2020 content, the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC), a nonprofit consortium dedicated to equity and inclusion in the academic workforce, put out a simple open-ended survey question to over 2,000 job seekers: “To help you advance your higher ed career, what topics would you like HERC to address in its job seeker materials?" The second-most common response – requests for how to combat ageism. Appearing 68 times in the 762 responses,
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Melissa Dobbins
- Jun 8, 2022
- 4 min
LBGT+ Inclusion – going beyond Pride month
June, the month of Pride. Vibrant colors decorate logos, marketing campaigns, and advertisements; the rainbow marking solidarity and support of the LBGT+ community. It is beautiful, it is emotional, it is temporary. Celebratory months like Pride, Black History, Mental Health Awareness, Women’s History, etc. are a perfect catalyst to spark interest, focus, and intentional inclusion. But, to be truly impactful in our efforts to engage, include, and celebrate, we must go well be
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Gabe Gurman
- Feb 18, 2022
- 1 min
The Narrative of Hiring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Starring Metrics
This week we were honored to contribute a piece to the JazzHR blog. Take a tour ... Talent Acquisition Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Metrics and how to use them to build a compelling and insightful DEI narrative. And a special thank you to the JazzHR team - great partners in the mission to create more equitable, impactful, and efficient hiring processes. Check it out here. #NoBias #diversityandinclusion #jazzhr
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Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 16, 2021
- 5 min
Inclusion Tips for Candidates during Interviews (Part 2 of 2)
In addition to all the details leading up to and around the onsite and/or virtual interviews, there are plenty of opportunities to create welcoming or alienating environments within the interview. From the location, to the questions, to who’s asking them, the interview experience can make or break the candidate experience. Is your team showcasing inclusion and understanding with every detail? Are they asking the right questions in the right way without putting anyone in a dis
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Melissa Dobbins
- Oct 12, 2021