Hiring and diversity was the focus of the Women in Technology Council’s first Talent Innovation Summit. We had the opportunity to be in attendance with so many successful women in tech and it was truly an impactful morning. The last panel of the event featured four women from top companies in the area. Jill Layfield, former CEO of Backcountry, led the panel with Dianne Rivera (Goldman Sachs), Denise Leleux (eBay), and Alison Lutjemeier (Adobe). The panel shared great ideas for innovative recruiting and maintaining diversity. Some of their tips include:
1. Have women on your recruiting board.
2. Remove all unconscious bias by educating your employees
3. Set up a diverse slate of candidates, as well as a diverse set of interviewers.
4. Make sure that you aim for a 50/50 gender ratio in the workplace
Jill Layfield offered some advice, that stood out amongst all else, from another CEO in order to gauge employee wellness:
“In my one-on-one meetings with employees, instead of jumping into the agenda and tackling our list of tasks – which is something all of us women are good at, we have our lists – I start off with four questions.”
By Lexis Allen, Technical Recruiting Coordinator, MX