Whenever I post about D&I initiatives and hiring URMs, people say: but where do I find them?

And this is the wrong approach.

You are not hunting down and trapping URM candidates. You are building a habitat at your company and letting them find you.

People will say "Well, the first URM hire is the hardest! Once you get a few, the culture will change."

This like saying "Put a pile of fish in the desert and they'll manifest an ocean."

If you have to go out hunting URMs, luring them, trapping them, lying to them, they will not thrive at your company.

Your numbers will get a brief bump and then people will burn out, leave, and warn others against you.

Because your rare diversity hires know they are rare.

They build communities for themselves so they can find each other.

And they know which companies are bad.

But on the flip-side, URMs also have an idea which companies are good.

It's usually the companies their friends are at and vouch for. The companies that have done the work.

(No, no company is actually Good. But some companies give more of a damn than others.

We don't expect paradise, but safety from boldfaced discrimination would be nice.)

When companies are bootstrapping, the founders hire people they know.

If your founders are two white guys, their initial hires will be white and mostly men.

A lot of URMs expect this.

But if your company is over 100 people and the stats are the same, that's when the true theme arises.

Because that's a pattern. That's a culture. That's a choice.

And if your company is growing and you have to fight to get URMs to talk to you, your problems lie within.

You need to fix the habitat.

Roll-out inclusive policies:
- comprehensive parental leave
- infertility treatments
- trans* medical coverage
- childcare
- mental health coverage

just to name a few

"But no one here needs those benefits!"

yeah, that's kinda the point, isn't it?

you want people who do

I keep hearing "it's so hard to find experienced URMs!"

And yet I interview at FAANGs and they have a bunch

Experienced, technical URMs exist

They go where the money and benefits are

A big talking point lately has been company response to COVID-19

Are you giving people blanket PTO? Are you pushing back deadlines? Are you helping with childcare? Are you continuing to pay your contractors?

Or did you have lay-offs and go "neat, people are working more now!"

If URMs aren't interested in your company, it's because your company hasn't presented itself as a place they want to be

That's on YOU to fix