In one of my lines of consulting work, I support a few high-performing senior organizational leaders each year in their career advancement. This ranges from career visioning to job search preparation to role sourcing. I am often made aware of promising roles with well-known organizations, and other times I run across really great roles right here on Linked In. And most of the time, I never share those with my clients. Here are 3 reasons that I don't share roles that come across my feed or to my inbox:
1. 4+ page job descriptions.
2. Missing compensation.
3. Unrealistic requirements.
For context, many of my clients are Black women in or headed toward C-suite roles. I am currently working with a VP track national director of accounts for a major retailer, a large nonprofit SVP, a nonprofit founder/CEO, and a president/CEO candidate. And they deal with enough. Pay disparity. Untenable boards of directors. Ridiculously low budgets. An abusive sociopolitical climate that impacts every part of their work. White culture norms. And daily microaggressions. So, I dare not recommend a role to them with an organization that based on how they conduct searches is likely to create more of the workplace trauma that they have likely experienced all of their professional lives.
Here's my rationale for my three non-negotiables:
1. A 4+ page job description means one thing: You want too much. This role is more than one person can reasonably do. You want them to do too much and be too much. And despite all those words on all those pages, you actually lack clarity about what the role is and what success looks like. There is no way that what's reflected in a 4+ page job description can be fairly evaluated for success.
2. Be open from the start. Lack of compensation transparency makes it likely that your offer will be subjective, and if you're a Black woman, lower than that of a similarly qualified candidate. Black women already earn roughly $0.65 cents per every dollar earned by a White man. So, no. I'm not sending them a JD that doesn't tell them what they could potentially earn (or not earn) in this role - especially if the JD has more than 4 pages. "We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits" means nothing. Plus, if you won't share the salary up front, what else will you hide from them on the back end?
3. Jesus is in heaven. You want 15 years of progressive experience with 3 degrees and experience across multiple sectors? I'm not expounding much more here. Simply put, you want Jesus, not Jasmine.
If you are an employer, please think about the message you're sending with your JDs, the culture you're potentially inviting people of color to enter, and the inequity that you may be perpetuating with your hiring practices. Make a commitment to enact hiring practices that are free from bias and work toward building a workplace culture that supports rather than further harms Black women and other people who have already been chronically and historically marginalized in the workplace.
What now?
Order Triumph in the Trenches to understand the lived experiences and workplace realities of Black professionals.
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Dr. Sharla Horton is the owner and principal consultant of Lifted Consulting and Strategy, a boutique strategy firm offering organizational strategy for organizations and career strategy for senior organizational leaders. She is also the co-founder and principal consultant of School Excellence Solutions, a nonprofit consultancy focused on transforming education through excellence in leadership, instruction, policies, and programs. Dr. Sharla is passionate about helping people and teams across industries shift mindsets and practices to improve their outcomes and deepen their impact.
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