When we talk to organizations about improving their workplace culture and goals through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), they often respond with what’s become a catchphrase: “But we only hire the best.” Well, of course. The hiring process is difficult and should obviously end with hiring the most capable person for the job. But the notion that DEI is somehow opposed to that is terrible on two levels, philosophical and practical.

The philosophical error is that by saying “we only hire the best” as a response to the clear need to diversify our spaces, one is essentially saying that only the candidates from the dominant culture typically interviewed are the best. White people are the best. Cisgender men are the best. Able-bodied people are the best. Straight people are the best. Ex cetera. All of this is as demonstrably untrue as it is offensive but it’s remarkable and frustrating that this gap still goes unnoticed by hiring managers.

The practical error is that hiring the best typically means choosing the best candidates from a limited hiring pool. As the Harvard Business Review reported, “The most popular channel for finding new hires is through employee referrals; up to 48% come from them, according to LinkedIn research. It seems like a cheap way to go…[but] they can lead to a homogeneous workforce, because the people we know tend to be like us.”

“Fun” fact: I was once directly told during an interview that the company only hires PLUs: people like us. The interviewer was a straight, white, cisgender male and everyone who worked there was white as well. Microsoft programmer Susan Warren identified this issue way back in 2004, calling the lack of women in IT “the classic chicken and egg problem” and noting that, despite her established talents, she was not among the thousands of Microsoft’s designated Most Valuable Professionals. “Does that mean I’m not up to snuff technically?” she asked, “I doubt it.”

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Source: Breakfast Culture™ Inc., Jefferson Darrell, Founder and CEO, juin 2023