{"id":264979,"date":"2020-11-24T12:49:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T12:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/welovesalt.com\/be\/?p=264979"},"modified":"2021-02-24T18:59:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T17:59:56","slug":"how-to-build-diverse-teams-with-manjuri-sinha","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/welovesalt.com\/be\/news\/diversity-and-inclusion\/how-to-build-diverse-teams-with-manjuri-sinha\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build diverse teams with Manjuri Sinha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We recently spoke to Manjuri Sinha<\/a> about building diverse teams for our new diversity and inclusion interview series. This interview is packed with tips and prompts to help you look internally at your diversity and inclusion and improve or implement processes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a two-part series; the first part covers finding talent and hiring diverse teams, and the second part looks into what you can do to be a genuinely inclusive company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manjuri Sinha<\/a> is Head of Talent Acquisition at Olx Group<\/a> and has worked around the world, including Sweden and Czech Republic at technology companies such as Accenture and Zalando, where she was heading Tech Talent Acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She currently lives in Berlin with her husband where she has been based for 6 years. Manjuri loves to travel and her role with Olx allows plenty of opportunity to travel every month (pre-COVID).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges to hiring<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whether you’re a Hiring Manager or work in Talent Acquisition or recruitment there are many challenges you will face when hiring, especially when it comes to diversity. It is important to be aware of these challenges and the impact that they could have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you work with teams in different countries, you must understand their cultures and law. In certain countries, for example, It would be difficult for an organisation to campaign for LGBTQ so this would be a constraining factor you have to adhere to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge is the maturity of the organisation \u2013 are you working with a start-up or a large technology company? The intent to hire diverse talent is there with all businesses, but the maturity of the processes, awareness and training, differs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There could also be certain barriers within the talent pool you’re sourcing from, whether that\u2019s location or the number of people with a certain skillset. Organisations want to hire more women in tech for their office in Europe, for example, but how many women are in that talent pool and how many of those women would be willing to move to another city?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To combat this, you have to make an effort to reach out to lots of different people and one way to do this is to ensure your job descriptions are neutral to therefore attract a wider audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge is unconscious bias. We all grow up with biases but it\u2019s important that you are aware and conscious of it to be able to remove it from the interviewing and decision process. This way all talent in the pipeline has a fair process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside this, common challenges those working in talent acquisition face is the time to hire and location specifics, which could affect hiring decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding great talent<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Manjuri wrote a whitepaper on the four stages of hiring; Enable, Attract, Hire and Retain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enablement is a stage which Manjuri says is often overlooked. By enabling different communities by providing support, connection and inspiration, you can get exciting talent into your company who have already engaged and know your company well. Enablement is important both externally and internally within your organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some simple ways you can enable communities outside of your organisation is by creating groups that people can join, no matter what company or career stage they\u2019re at to share knowledge, training and insights, such as marketing meetups or women in tech.<\/a> This helps connect people in particular fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some organisations also reach out to communities to work together, however, there is a cost. If this is not available, you can start one up yourself. Manjuri gave an example of two engineers in Berlin who started a mentoring club where anyone can sign up as a mentor, select certain topics to share advice on, and then mentees can reach out to you. Manjuri says that she learnt so much from her mentee and emphasises that it is in no way charity work as it\u2019s beneficial for both parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way of enabling talent is by reaching out to universities or graduate schools and starting the introduction to your company there. Make space for junior hires to come in and grow after their university course and give them that platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note that as well as finding great external talent, your organisation will also have a plethora of talent which can be enabled. There are high numbers of employees in organisations who are stagnant in their roles, especially within ethnic minority groups, and they are not given chances to move into leadership positions across a variety of functions. Manjuri explains that there is a definite gap in numbers that go from individual contributor to leadership positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some themes around enablement that organisations can explore include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n