Can we normalize refraining from asking BIPOC (Black, Indigenous People Of Color) employment candidates how they plan to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace as an interview question?
If your company/org cannot answer these questions first, you have no business asking this of a candidate:
1. What kind of environment have you fostered for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility?
2. Have you ascertained whether your historically excluded and minoritized employees feel safe and seen and are able to bring their full selves on the job?
3. What do your mentor experiences look like? Do you provide exchange opportunities with other BIPOC-run companies/orgs?
4. Is your Diversity Commitee compensated for the additional labor they are providing your company/org?
5. Where are the unofficial meetings and conversations taking place that facilitate decision making? Whose voices are excluded or under threat of eraser and how can you foster inclusion in those spaces?
6. Is there a framework of DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility) baked into your mission, vision, polices, procedures, culture, and decision making processes at every turn?
7. Are professional development offerings around this topic optional, or is it made clear that every employee must be a part of these efforts?
8. What systems or individuals are impeding this work and how much longer do you plan to employ them?
Unless you are hiring this candidate as a well paid, well-supported, power-FULL Diversity Officer position (not a neutered figurehead as evidenced by the recent data and reports from Diversity Officers on the incredibly high turnover rates https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/demand-for-chief-diversity-officers-is-high-so-is-turnover-11594638000), AND your company/org has already done the work; you’re asking candidates to provide you with a fairytale you don’t plan to bring to reality. It is not this candidate’s job to answer questions your own company/org is unwilling to answer or act upon just because you read that you should be asking these questions in a Forbes article a few months ago. DEIA isn’t some fad buzzword or burdensome “thing we have to do now”, (like sexual harassment education has become…a mandatory video no one wants to watch, followed by inane questions with multiple choice answers…no real facilitation, no true impact). The urgency and attention with which you address this subject is literally survival for your BIPOC employees.