Founder and International MD of BeecherMadden, Cyber Security Awards and American Cyber Awards Judge, Industry Speaker.
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Many companies have made some commitment to improving equality within their organizations over the past few months. It makes sense for companies to do this. Research shows that companies who invested in a social purpose saw their sales rise four times as much as their competitors. We are far more aware of companies that engage in brand activism and appear to support the right things, without necessarily making the investment or internal changes needed to show meaningful support to these groups.
HR has a key role to play here. Only five of the Fortune 500 are led by a Black CEO. HR is almost always responsible for recruitment and often responsible for promotion criteria and diversity initiatives. I have one simple step that companies can take to demonstrate their commitment to making change in their recruitment process. I have long been a fan of this tip, but with some additional research on how this affects diversity in recruitment, I see it as an essential step for companies to take this year.
Stop making college education a key requirement for jobs.
What I found most concerning about this requirement is that white men earn engineering degrees at approximately 11 times the rate of Black women. Data from 2016 shows that 35% of white people had a college degree or more, 54% of Asian people, 21% of Black people and 15% of Hispanic people. If you are insisting on a college degree, you are actively stacking your recruitment process against people of color. That same report gives many reasons for these differences. However, it is clear that if companies want to improve their diversity, this is a simple change they can make straightaway to help.
As a recruiter, I see a large number of jobs that require a BA as a minimum when it isn't related to the job itself. I am also noticing an increasing number of jobs requiring an MA or MBA. Candidates who are more than capable of performing the job role are being turned down from positions because they do not tick this box.
I recently had a cybersecurity candidate with 10 years of experience performing the same role rejected solely because she did not have a BA. Of course, college degrees are important for some professions, such as accountants, lawyers and doctors, but the wider workforce shows some concerning trends here.
According to a 2019 report, only an estimated 36% of jobs today are open to those without a college degree, which is down from 72% in 1973. The expectation is that this percentage will continue to fall. This was expected in a job market that was already struggling to attract qualified candidates, but it concerns me what this will mean as we move to a market where there are fewer jobs. It is likely that we will see a tightening of requirements. There has been an increase in the percentage of people who attend college in that time period, but there is a clear mismatch in obtainment and requirements.
While less common, there are also a number of organizations that still use IQ or personality tests as part of their recruitment process. IQ tests are not a suitable replacement for degree requirements. While often used in the graduate recruitment process, there are companies that use these even for experienced hires. I had become aware of how these tests are often not suitable for companies that are looking to improve the neurodiversity of their workforce some years ago. These tests are also inherently biased to those that had created them and have even been used over the years to try and demonstrate IQ differences between races. Rather than being an effective replacement for education requirements, these tests present their own issues if inclusion is a concern.
Removing the requirement for a degree would have many benefits and be more than just a short-term measure to respond to current events. IBM removed this requirement years ago and, at the time, had approximately 15% of employees without a bachelor's degree. The company reportedly wanted to make a tech career more accessible, and this also enabled it to fill skills gaps where it was struggling to recruit. Improving training and development rather than hiring on education can also improve employee engagement and retention. And if those aren't enough reasons, we should all know by now that diverse teams perform better.
This isn't to say that education isn't important and valuable. Our society is very familiar with individuals who have been hugely successful without a college education, but these entrepreneurs are still obtaining a business education through a different route. This is what organizations need to consider — the experience and skills someone has in relation to the role you need to fill. Professional qualifications should carry as much weight, or even more, when they are directly related to the job requirement. Ask candidates what books they have read or what events they have attended to assess their aptitude for learning. Consider investing in MBAs for your executives where it would actually be beneficial for them to have this education.
This one step can help with far more than diversity, but when considering how discriminatory the degree requirement inherently is, it becomes an essential change for organizations to commit to.
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