Bullhorn Director of DE&I Kristina Bell does not agree with the current industry perception that the buzz around DE&I has quieted. Attention-grabbing headlines may have died down, she says, but people working to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace are making progress. Through career mentorship programs, culture programs and employee resource groups, organizations are building more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Bell discusses vital criteria to building a successful DE&I program, common challenges leaders face, how to build DE&I practices into talent acquisitionand steps managers and employees alike can take to create a sense of inclusion and belonging in an organization.

Kristina Bell

Director of DE&I, Bullhorn

What are the key components of a successful DE&I strategy?

A successful DE&I strategy first needs the right owner. Companies often leverage council or committee structures to advance DE&I, but that sort of arrangement lacks true accountability and will eventually stall. Someone must own the strategy and be accountable for it through their goals and performance.

It's critical to have quantitative and qualitative data. You have to know who is in your organization and understand their experiences in order to create a strategy that speaks to the uniqueness of the company and its culture.

The organization's most influential leaders should understand how your DE&I work correlates to the company's culture, core values and long-term business goals. The leaders with the most influence will be able to champion the message and align with the initiatives in ways that inspire others.

And then you need programming — specific initiatives that are created to advance your strategy. This could be hiring initiatives to drive diversity or culture and development programs that support career growth and retention. This is where a lot of companies sometimes fall a little bit short because they have good intentions but can’t quite figure out how to actualize it. So, you have to create long-term, sustainable programs that really bring the vision and strategy to life.

Of course, I could easily add two or three more things to this list! For those at the beginning of a DE&I journey, these four components are a good place to start. For others who have been at this a while, you can use these four questions to help assess your progress. First, do you have the right person leading your DE&I work? Second, is data driving your decisions? Third, are the right leaders engaged? And fourth, what programs have you put in place, and how are you measuring their impact?

There are those that believe that the buzz around DE&I has quieted down. How can the pace of change be accelerated?

I can understand the perception that the buzz has settled because in 2020, social awareness about equity and inclusion was at an all-time high. Things have quieted a little since then. There are fewer headlines about big donations and partnerships and not as many announcements about high-visibility DE&I roles or initiatives being created.

But those of us who are immersed in this work know how much energy is still moving through this space. We continue to see positive movement in representation and retention in large part because of the programming we have. At Bullhorn, we have mentoring and career pathing initiatives that ensure equal access to opportunities for everybody. We have culture programs like our employee resource groups or quarterly outings, virtual and in person, and our focus on mental health and well-being — all of these activities support safety and a sense of belonging. So for me, for us at Bullhorn, the buzz has definitely not quieted. It is on pace, and we’re energized by our progress.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in DE&I now, and how can this be dealt with?

One of the biggest challenges right now — and I think about this constantly — is the pace at which priorities change. There’s always something out there within the DE&I umbrella that is worthy of attention. For example, just in October, there was World Mental Health Day, the final few weeks of Hispanic Heritage Month, Diwali and Black History Month in the UK, to name a few. Every month, there are many wonderful cultural and social celebrations in addition to various current events that impact us as humans.

The challenge is understanding how to balance what's in your strategic vision with what's happening currently while staying true to your company's values and business needs. It’s tough to do that, especially in the wake of something significant happening that makes you feel like you have to engage or make a statement. Sometimes you will have to react. The secret to getting through that is aligning your actions with the kind of company and culture you have.

Employees have a role in this as well. We can’t expect our leaders to have the same awareness level as we do about an issue. We need employees to elevate their voices to help drive the right behaviors and actions with their leaders and peers.

What is the opportunity for the industry right now? What would be a small next step that a company could take?

It's difficult to suggest a general next step because we are all at different stages in our journeys. But no steps are small, so be sure to take a moment to acknowledge your efforts.

The biggest opportunity, though, is to keep the momentum. DE&I is not something that should be a trending topic or a short-term priority. It should be how you do business. How you treat people is a reflection of your core values. The diversity that you have is a representation of the customers and the communities that you serve. Figure out ways to make employees feel welcomed, valued and safe so that they’re having fun and keeping your customers happy. That’s always going to be the opportunity.

Why is DE&I in the workplace important? What is the big benefit of getting DE&I right?

That's easy! When you get it right, you have happy employees and happy customers.

How can organizations embed DE&I into their hiring practices? What has Bullhorn done in its own hiring practices?

There are some foundational things to do at the start of a journey. You can make sure your talent acquisition partners are presenting diverse candidate pools to your hiring managers every time. When you normalize diverse candidate pools, hiring managers are more accustomed to seeing varieties in skills, industry, gender and identity, education, race, age and more. The "two in the pool" approach, as defined by Harvard Business Review, says that when there are at least two minority candidates in the final candidate pool, the chances of a diverse candidate receiving the offer increases significantly.

Talent acquisition partners and hiring leaders should understand how to source for transferable skills. When you consider talent that’s not in your industry, you expand your reach. By focusing more on skills such as problem-solving, relationship building, communications and project management, and less on industry, you naturally attract more diverse talent.

It's critical for DE&I and Talent Acquisition to maintain a strong partnership. I have regular touchpoints with our TA team to brainstorm, share best practices and create new approaches to diverse recruiting.

We are currently embedding more culture into our recruiting efforts — leveraging our social channels to share authentic moments that employees are having, encouraging employees to be culture champions and celebrating our employee resource groups. Ultimately, we want people who don’t yet work at Bullhorn to get a glimpse of how the culture really feels. This is the type of approach that builds over time. And of course, as with all social media, consistency is key.

Tell us a bit about your role, including your biggest areas of focus at Bullhorn.

If you've ever heard the phrase, "There's levels to it," that would be a start at describing my role. I lead Bullhorn's DE&I strategy with the support of my amazing DE&I strategy team, which includes our CEO, chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, chief people officer and SVP of HR. One of my favorite moments since being at Bullhorn was a conversation with our founder and CEO, Art Papas, where he said in reference to our DE&I strategy team, "In this space, there are no titles — we're just people who are learning and doing the work together."          

To support our strategic direction, I focus on programming, which I've already talked a lot about. I run our mentorship program, employee resource groups and our initiatives to support mental health and well-being. I partner with our HR analyst to review and analyze our data quarterly, and I collaborate with our business leaders to align actions.

I’ve also become an informal business partner to employees and leaders at all levels of our organization. This is one of the more unanticipated parts of my role that I've really come to enjoy. It's important that people have access to what they need to advance their careers. Sometimes people need a bit more coaching, direction or information to get there. I'm thankful to have built a level of trust that makes employees feel comfortable connecting with me.

Above all, I want to ensure that our culture respects and celebrates the diversity within our organization while at the same time being incredibly inclusive to all. And that’s kind of tricky to do. Sometimes it’s necessary to have specific programming that focuses on elevating women, racial minorities or early career talent, for example — that’s equity. But ultimately, we want everyone to feel like we have a working environment where they can be themselves and be creative and thoughtful in ways that contribute positively to their career aspirations and our customers’ success.

To learn more about Bullhorn’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion, visit their website.