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Summary
There's no silver bullet to building a diverse and inclusive organization at scale. So how do you know what things to try, and what's working and what isn't? Our UX team used our user research chops to look at this problem in a user-centered way. In this session, we'll share how we married data and qualitative research to identify and fix holes in our recruiting, hiring, and retention practices.
Key Insights
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Nearly 60% of HubSpot's UX hires came through employee referrals, reinforcing homogeneity and limiting diversity.
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Slowing down hiring allowed the team to focus on thoughtful sourcing beyond referrals, increasing diversity in their funnel.
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Design thinking methods, usually applied to customers, were effectively repurposed to understand and improve the hiring process internally.
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Women and people of color often enter hiring processes with lower confidence due to factors like technical jargon and strict job requirements.
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Providing universal interview prep guides helps all candidates, especially those with lower confidence, level the playing field.
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An associate practitioner program enables hiring and developing junior talent who may lack direct experience but have high potential.
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Belonging is more than diversity and inclusion; it is fostering an environment where everyone feels genuinely welcomed and can thrive.
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Unseen diversity traits like neurodiversity and background can strongly impact employee belonging and retention.
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Leadership openness about personal challenges, such as mental health, powerfully signals inclusivity and encourages trust among teams.
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Remote and distributed teams face unique challenges in creating inclusivity, requiring intentional relationship-building and dedicated social time.
Notable Quotes
"Maybe I too had joined another tech company that really wasn’t walking the walk when it came to diversity."
"Building diverse teams isn’t just about being trendy, it’s about having the best shot at solving our customers’ hardest problems."
"This diversity and inclusion work isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon."
"Nearly half of the candidates were coming from referrals, which encouraged sameness because people tend to refer those like themselves."
"Women are extreme rule followers: they're less likely to apply unless they meet all the job requirements, unlike men."
"We found we had mixed messages at almost every stage of the candidate experience, disadvantaging those with lower confidence."
"If diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance, but belonging is actually being on the dance floor."
"Unseen diversity like neurodiversity or background strongly correlates with feelings of not belonging on the team."
"I’ve chosen as a leader to openly talk about my mental health journey to set a tone of vulnerability and listening."
"Remote teams need to block time for informal connections like coffee or breakfast just to build authentic relationships."
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