It’s hard for companies to recruit and retain good STEM talent right now.
You’ll interview anyone who is anywhere near the right credentials. And you’ll bend over backwards to get them to accept your offer.
It seems there is such a shortage of good engineers and scientists. You can’t find any from diverse groups.
Why is no one applying?
But this is the wrong question.
In reality there are plenty of good engineers and scientists. There is a diversity of available engineers and scientists.
What you should be asking is not why no one is applying, but why no one is applying here.
The Case for Transforming Your STEM Workplace
If you strive for better innovation, then you need diversity.
And if you struggle to increase diversity in STEM, you need to transform your workplace.
Because workplace climate is a primary reason why women and people in other underrepresented groups leave STEM fields, particularly engineering and science.
To determine if your workplace climate is declining or is otherwise lacking in support for a diverse workforce, perform an internal assessment.
I can help you with this.
I’m providing some general guidance below. And I can also walk you through a step-by-step assessment.
We’ll assess where you are. And strategize a tailored approach to transform your STEM workplace for more innovation.
How to Assess Your STEM Workplace Climate to Enhance Diversity
A good place to start is by taking a look at your STEM team from a diversity standpoint.
With an unbiased eye, you want to see a diversity of people. A diversity of backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and genders.
You want to see different personalities, styles, strengths and abilities.
Take note of how you see your STEM workforce. Then take a look at diversity and inclusion in your workplace.
Perhaps you have initiated some kind of program to address diversity and inclusion. If so, assess the effectiveness of that program.
For example, check to see if it’s:
- resulting in more awareness about the issues and benefits of diversity and inclusion.
- making positive changes to processes, procedures, strategy, policy, etc.
- changing the culture, i.e., shifting people’s thinking and behavior in favor of diversity.
- actually enhancing the workforce to be more diverse.
Take note of how you see your STEM workplace. Then look at your diversity strategy.
For your diversity strategy to be most effective it must be integrated into your overall corporate strategy.
Your top leaders should embrace it. Your managers held accountable for it. A diverse workforce should be part of your vision.
If this is not the case in your organization, your diversity strategy will not be effective.
Once your leadership has established and embraced its diversity strategy, you can continue your assessment.
Your strategy is successful when there’s diversity across the organization, including the leadership ranks.
4 Ways to Assess Your STEM Workplace for Supporting Diversity
If your STEM workforce is not very diverse and the workplace climate does not seem as welcoming and supportive as it should be, then there are several approaches you can take to change this.
To determine what to focus on, perform additional assessments in key areas, such as the following 4:
- Recruiting, Interviewing, and Attracting Candidates
I often hear people say that there are no “diverse candidates” available.
It’s easy to tell yourself that. But it’s not true.
You don’t see people from diverse groups because few are applying. And they’re not applying because they don’t want to work here.
And they don’t want to work here because they’re not impressed with what they see about your workplace.
So assess how you’re recruiting.
Assess how you’re drawing in and interviewing candidates.
And take a look at the messages you’re sending.
Here are a few things to consider in your assessment:
- The relationship and collaboration between HR managers and STEM hiring managers
- Your learnings from exit interviews or candidates who turn down offers
- The appropriateness and appeal of your recruiting materials and practices
- How fair and bias-free your hiring practices are
- How you review and continuously improve your hiring practices
- How hiring decisions are made.
- Breaking Down Barriers to Inclusion
Inclusion has a huge effect on your workplace culture.
People who don’t feel included are likely to not engage. And eventually will either find another job or disengage altogether.
An inclusive culture drives employee engagement and improves retention.
But implementing an inclusive culture can be complex.
It requires understanding bias. Accepting and managing your own bias. And being open to the different ways people feel included.
To assess how your company is doing on inclusion, consider:
- approaches you’re taking to improve bias awareness
- the practices you have – or need to put – in place to promote inclusion
- ways you encourage employees’ different styles and approaches
- access to support and feedback systems to assist all employees
- how you manage remote employees and help them stay connected and engaged.
- Providing Career Growth and Promotion Opportunities
Employees who continue to have growth and promotion opportunities are more satisfied in their jobs.
Thus this is a key metric in assessing your workplace climate.
You want to ensure that access to opportunities is fair and well communicated. Other things to consider are:
- Any unintended barriers to growth and promotion that may exist
- STEM employees’ access to mentors, sponsors, and coaches
- How future leader candidates are identified and selected to be groomed
- How willing your leaders are to sponsoring protégés who are not like them.
- Enabling Workforce Flexibility
Flexible work policies allow employees to manage work and family and other community and outside activities.
They tend to be high on the priority list for women, but are important for anyone caring for family members.
If you want to draw a diversity of candidates for your workforce, having flexible work policies will help you do that.
If you want to maintain STEM employee satisfaction and engagement, having flexible work policies will also help you do that.
When assessing workforce flexibility, consider:
- The family-friendly policies you have in place
- Whether such policy information is readily available, easy to access and apply
- How you ensure fairness in the assignment of extra duties
- Your expectations for overtime and if they are fair and reasonable
- Your remote or hybrid work policies and practices.
Next Steps Following Your STEM Workplace Assessment
After completing this assessment you’ll have a clearer picture of what your STEM workplace is like and how it supports diversity.
It’ll help you see where to fill the gaps for higher employee engagement, improved retention, job satisfaction and career fulfillment.
You’ll be able to use the assessment results to plan for the changes and improvements needed to drive innovation, customer satisfaction and ultimately better business outcomes.
For help with your STEM workplace assessment and the follow-on steps, contact me here.