How can I make my HR practice more equitable?

Help! I’m a new HR manager in a department-of-one. I’ve only done admin jobs before, so this is a big step for me. My new job is with a small nonprofit that does job placement for people with disabilities. I know that they have not done much work on racial equity before, and I want to do my part to help them move forward. But I’ve only been to a few workshops myself, and none of those were really meant for HR people. They were very general. Can you help me know where to get started in this new job?

Dear HR FriendCaitlin UpshawMarch 17, 2023Comment

How can I convince my boss(es) to let me post the salary for our open jobs?

I try to stay on top of best practices, and I know that we will get better results and just be more fair to candidates if we include salary ranges on our job postings, but my bosses (both my direct manager and the CFO, who she reports to) are against it. Both bosses have expressed an interest in DEI and trying to make the company better overall, but I haven’t gotten through to them on this. Can you help me with the major reasons why salary transparency is a good thing these days?

Dear HR FriendCaitlin UpshawMarch 1, 2023Comment

When should we hire an outside facilitator?

You’ve got the weekly leadership team meeting down to a science, and your 1:1s with your direct reports are often fantastic conversations. But what about this meeting? It might be an important board meeting, a budget-wrestling session, an all-staff meeting following a community crisis. Maybe you’re launching a strategic planning process for the first time in five years!

Now, the stakes are higher.

Management Skills, Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawFebruary 15, 2023

We say we have "core values," but now what?

My company just went through the process of defining our “core values.” I didn’t love the process and a lot of people have complained about how it seems like the CEO and his friends just came up with a list of words that sound good. What’s funny is that the words DO sound good and I think they are great values for us to aspire to. So, they announced the values and posted them on our Careers page, but that was over a month ago and no one has heard anything about this since. … I do feel like I have a good relationship with our head of HR, so I could talk to her, but I need some advice on what to even say. Help?

Dear HR FriendCaitlin UpshawFebruary 1, 2023Comment

What are core values, anyway?

Your organization probably has a values statement on its website. You might even know where it is and what it says! (Interestingly, there are good odds that “integrity” is on your list - the world’s most common “core value”.)

But - do you know how this statement was made? Who chose these words? Was it your Board from 7 years ago? And what do they mean?

Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawAugust 17, 2022Comment

EEO Statements can be Awesome

We’ve all seen it: that sweet statement at the end of every job posting that tells everyone not to worry, that the people doing the hiring hold absolutely no bias whatsoever and will totally make every decision without regard to race, sex, national origin, disability status, sexual orientation, etc.

We all know that’s complete and utter BS, right?

Recruiting, People Strategy, Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawAugust 16, 2022Comment

When it costs nothing to do the right thing

Online discussion forums (fora?) are a funny thing. While we generally have our daily conversations inside our bubbles, where opinions rarely surprise us and everybody knows your name, forums allow us to hold conversations with people from outside (often far outside) our little bubbles. I live in Portland, Oregon, which is the epitome of the “liberal bubble,” where I can generally expect that 99% of the people on the streetcar live on the same side of the political spectrum—if not quite as far to one end—as I do. Because of this geography, I jump at opportunities to…

Management Skills, Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawSeptember 30, 2021diversity, LGBTQ+, chick-fil-aComment

Are you tokenizing your employees of color?

Creating an equity & inclusion strategy in a white-dominated organization is a business fraught with peril. Picture it: You're launching your internal equity & inclusion action team. On this team of 10, only 2 people identify as POC. Of those 2, neither has a management role, and most of the other people on the team are managers or executive level.

Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawMay 24, 2021equity, leadershipComment

Hiring in the Comfort Zone

Recruiting and hiring would be so much easier if we were all robots. We'd achieve just the right balance of whatever it is we need, all without the feelings and patterns and habits that, more often than not, work against our success…

Recruiting, Inclusion & Workplace CultureCaitlin UpshawMarch 28, 2021hiring, recruiting, diversity, equity, inclusion, hrComment

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