By Denise Merle
Senior Vice President and Chief Administration Officer
A couple of years ago, I was part of a hiring team interviewing external candidates for a critical role in our business. There was one candidate in particular who was very impressive, and when it came time for her to ask us questions at the end of the interview, she asked: “What do you enjoy most about working at Weyerhaeuser?”
Well, the interview panel was filled with people who’ve worked here a very long time. We were so ready for this question! We talked about our fantastic culture, how much we all love the people we work with, and how proud we are of what we do and how we do it. We let her know how long we’ve all been working at Weyerhaeuser and why we’ve chosen to stay for so long. We thought we knocked that question out of the park.
But when we offered her the job, she declined. And when I asked her why, she said, “Honestly, everyone on the interview panel has been there for decades. It just didn’t make me feel comfortable that I could fit in, or that you’d be open to any new ideas I might have. I’m really looking for someplace with more diverse tenure.”
Let me tell you, I was shocked. I really thought the tenure on our interview panel was a selling point. It was a big lesson for me about how important it is to be thoughtful about the diversity of our hiring teams — whether it be race, gender, age, tenure or even factors such as geography, skills, job level and business line. When we interview candidates, we have to remember they’re also interviewing us, and they want to see themselves fitting into our world. They want to see real evidence that our work environment is diverse and inclusive, and the first impression we make with the people on our hiring teams can often make or break their decision.
Now of course our hiring teams have to include the experts we need to assess candidates for their competencies related to the role. That’s a given. But for a couple of years now, we’ve also been encouraging hiring managers to think about who else they might include on their hiring teams to round out the diversity of the group as a whole. In addition to showing candidates a broader view of the team they’d be joining, taking this step also provides the hiring manager with a more diverse set of perspectives on the candidates being interviewed, which can help mitigate any unconscious biases that might interfere with the selection process.
In 2020, we began masking names on resumes at the first stage of review as one way to mitigate unconscious bias in our selection process. By the end of this month, we’re going to start tracking the diversity of our hiring teams as well so we can monitor our progress over time. Our belief is that both these measures will help ensure all qualified candidates make it through our hiring process with a fair shot at being selected, regardless of their race, gender, age or any other characteristic, and that once they receive an offer, they’ll be just as excited to join our team as we are to hire them.
I want to be clear — when we get to the end of the hiring process, we will always pick the very best candidate for the role, and diversity characteristics should never be a factor in that decision. Our goal is simply to do everything we can to remove unconscious bias along the way so we can give everyone a fair opportunity and make the best hiring decision possible — and at the same time show candidates the breadth of diversity that exists in our company and the inclusive environment we’re trying to build.
Now, we know not every hiring panel can contain every possible aspect of diversity; that’s not realistic. Our initial goal is for every hiring panel to include at least one of the following aspects of diversity that we’re able to track using our people data system:
- At least one woman, or
- At least one person of color, or
- At least one veteran, or
- A range of people of different ages, or
- A range of people with more than 10 years of tenure and fewer than 10 years of tenure, or
- At least one person who resides in a different geography than the hiring manager, or
- At least one person from a different business unit or department than the rest of the team.
As a hiring manager, you may not know all the above information about people you’re considering adding to your hiring team, and that’s OK. Please do not start asking people personal questions! Instead, form your hiring team based on the information you do know. If you can include more than one aspect of diversity, that’s great, but for now we’re looking for at least one aspect present every time. Hiring managers will receive an automated email form as soon as an offer letter is accepted, asking for the names of everyone who was involved in the hiring process. This should take just a few minutes to complete, and the information will feed a BI report that pulls demographic data from PeopleSoft. To protect privacy, no individual information will be visible or shared, and we will not be looking at data at the individual hiring team level. The BI report will only show results in aggregate at the sector and business unit/department level.
Of course, having diverse hiring teams will only matter if our hiring managers are truly open to the different perspectives they may hear about candidates. If you’re a hiring manager and you’re not already using a process that collects and tallies individual feedback from each panel member prior to the debrief discussion, I encourage you to talk with your recruiter about adopting that method to help avoid groupthink and to give every person on the team an equal chance to share their views.
If I could go back in time, I would make sure there was at least one person who had recently joined the company on that hiring panel I was part of, so the candidate could have heard from someone newer about how great our company is and all the opportunities for growth and engagement we offer for people at every level. Imagine the difference that would have made in her decision!
If you’re a hiring manager, thank you for taking time to add diversity to your hiring team so you can benefit from the breadth of perspective they will bring to your hiring decision. And for all employees, if you’re interested in being part of a hiring team outside your normal area of expertise, please click the button below and let us know. Those who have done this before know it’s a great way to learn about different parts of our company while offering your unique perspective to the hiring process. We’ll keep a list of people who are willing to participate so our HR team can help hiring managers reach out to you.
Thanks for everything you do to help us progress on our diversity, equity and inclusion journey.
