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| ISSUE NO. 671 |
| IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INTERVIEW . . . a few words that could be your favorite ones to hear...or make you want to turn and run. If there is one takeaway from this message, it's that thinking about something differently - hearing a new perspective, a different voice, or another experience - can be the start of a revolution in workplace practices. When we started hearing from newsletter readers about the need to address equity in the How to Apply process, we received an inquiry from Sal, steward of Roosterhaven, a small regenerative farm in the midwest US, that stopped us in our tracks. It was the kind of email that made us ask, What if we changed the way we think about the interview...forever?! Sal pointed out that the interview process can be challenging for a wide swath of our population: those who identify as introverts, neurodivergent folks, those with historically marginalized identities, and...anyone who feels nervous about performing their best in front of a 5-person interview committee. Even one-to-one interviews can still be challenging for many of us - and we're not talking solely about the good kinds of challenges that can help you learn and grow. We're talking about whether an interview process is really what serves everyone in the hiring experience, because - as we've pointed out before, what's best for the employee is best for the employer. What if asking for an interview, or the way you conduct your interviews, has narrowed your applicant pool, or left you missing out on some of your best and most successful future team members? (If you haven't read the story of Ansel Adams in Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods, we recommend it as just one example of how those who don't conform to standard systems of success may have something to offer that we never could have predicted.) While we're always on the lookout for examples of alternatives to the interview, we were also inspired by readers who reached out to share how to make the interview process better. Here are a few that we're grateful to have been made aware of: // 1 / A simple but revolutionary idea is to ask the candidate what format works best for an interview, and accommodate their request - for example, in-person, via phone, or on Zoom. 2 / We love the low-investment, high-return option of providing interview questions in advance. To us, it speaks to the generous attitude of allowing individuals to perform at their very best, rather than sneakily attempting to throw curveballs or perform jump scares. 3 / We've saved the best for last in suggesting, per Kristin Cheung's article on Community Centric Fundraising (another outlet for revolutionary thinking and practices), that employers consider compensating people for their interview time. (We've seen at least one job poster on GFJ offer this option.) Such a simple but radical step gives a sense of valuing a potential employee right from the start. It may also result in more dedication during the interview process, which in turn means that, as an employer, you've maximized the time and money that you spend on hiring. We've said it before and we'll say it again: there's a perception that compensating people generously makes you a sucker at best, and a bad business person at worst...but when employees feel valued, they are more likely to do better work, and to stick around, which means that everyone profits. // Before we sign off for another week, we want to check in on legality and discrimination, a topic that cannot be separated from these conversations. Whether you believe there are some things that should go without saying...four decades into life, we've learned that language is there for a reason: use it to draw healthy boundaries, spread inspiration and ideas, and - yes - correct and clarify when necessary. That's what we thought about when we heard from another reader about how employers still ask questions about age in the interview process, which is illegal because: discrimination. Questions about age can also be part of a line of inquiry that falls under 'family planning', and can be used by employers to suss out whether they can expect a new hire to be seeking parental leave. Again, this is illegal. Attempting to control the reproductive freedoms of any future employee - regardless of gender - in the name of productivity, or maximizing the 'value' of human labor, is oppressive. Longevity and loyalty are built through welcoming work environments, an atmosphere of trust and reciprocity, and a sense of teamwork. Your team members' freedom is a reflection of your own. To Revolution, Tay + Dor
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tidbits...resources on anti-racism, environmentalism and food culture AKA stuff we're reading / listening to / watching / noticing / thinking about / captivated by this Tuesday . . . |
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