Navigating DEI’s Shifting Landscape in Recruitment w/ Julie Sowash – The Shaker Green Room at RecFest USA, Ep. 11

[Music] who are you and why are you here today uh my name is Julie soash I’m the executive director and co-founder of disability Solutions um I’m here because I am presenting tomorrow on ethical considerations in AI um on Friday Friday after everybody has an awesome time tonight um and yeah just a lot of learning making great connections got to participate in the RL 100 yesterday um which was really fantastic the inaugural us event and I it was great so looking forward what advice would you have to your peers in the next 12 months um I think it’s really two things and there the same two things I say every time and that’s because things like at their base level don’t change right recruiting is not rocket science I know we like to pretend that it is but it’s not it’s a human human connection it’s using technology efficiently and it’s using our data to know what we need to get done and what’s working and what’s not working and so like every single time I meet with senior ta leaders senior HR leaders I get really intimidated when it starts because I think oh my God these guys are going to have it all together it’s going to be the one that makes me look like I have no idea what I’m talking about inevitably every time that we still don’t have the basics and the basics is the data um and and so that’s really the first thing and I think the other thing is trying to be a little bit more proactive and less reactive to the environment around them right I mean we’ve got to go like Co George Floyd we had this really kind of like Resurgence into the humanity of the world into how we’re going to make hiring um you know more balanced we’re going to bring in diverse Talent we’re going to do all of these things and talk a lot of talk yeah um and then conveniently as the winds change companies use that as an opportunity to retract and I know there’s pressure in the market and I know I am very protective and very Covetous of my brand I built it I it’s my baby I understand but it’s sheer weakness to see these Fortune 100 Fortune 1,000 Brands pull back because they’re scared of a little political change you’re in or you’re out right and it’s okay if you’re out just be who you are don’t try to pretend that you’re into Dei don’t try to pretend that you know now you’re you’re not into Dei because the political winds change like be true to who your your organization and your culture are because it’s like it’s Whiplash for the job seeker and it and it’s this um like fake hope that companies give that that fake like illusion of hope that we’re finally going to get pay right that we’re finally going to build our pipeline so that it’s black brown lgbtq and disabled and then you just pull the sheet right out from under our feet again and we start over Okay so you are presenting tomorrow uh is some of this the focus or some of it sounds like AI in in recruiting and bias around that what’s the focus so I think that I’m generally optimistic about AI um for our community and the diversity community in general just because we are having good conversations I’m actually pleased at maturity of the conversations that we’re seeing at this event online and in other places um and so I I get to present with Fair now and we’re going to talk about why it’s important what are some of the key components of um ethical considerations in AI why it’s important to underrepresented communities like mine and then how do we make sure that once we get that in the seat or we get that in place that we can actually um start to move in the right direction and make sure that we’re continuously moving in the right direction so I’m excited about like conversations around synthetic data sets greater transparency real time data um and I think the biggest thing that I’ve heard kind of and I I’ll say me jerk again but that’s probably not the right word is is companies going we cannot use AI because there’s too much risk because our data is not clean and the reality is is that it’s not possible to have clean data right now you have to have tools partners and data to drive in um what is going to be a better data set and we have a starting point and we move incrementally forward and there’s nothing wrong with moving incrementally forward instead of just saying I can’t do this because it might create risk for myself or my company we need to be excited about what the future holds with AI and really have good governance and and good behaviors out of the gate so that we know that we’re doing the right thing and that we’re using the technology in the data properly so Looking Backward 2024 yep what surprised you the most about 2024 um I think it’s been the the constriction in the market um the the labor market is incredibly strong the US economy is incredibly strong and I think that I think that we’re starting to see some attempts to consolidate parts of the hrtech market um and that’s a little bit what’s driving layoffs it’s what’s driving margins down it’s what’s driving budgets down and it’s not really as realistic to the actual Market itself as in the the co money is kind of driving drying up and now we’re making decisions that we should have been planning for a lot earlier um and some companies are looking again and how to to raise profits by squeezing out middlemen and other people in the market and sort of the the dismay I guess you know it’s like it’s January and I’m hearing hey the Market’s gone to Hell everything’s a mess um there’s 10 million open jobs in the US we have the lowest inflation in the world nothing was bad right but we talk ourselves into these panics because we haven’t built and thought react or proactively to what the Market’s going to look like in 18 months or 30 months and that’s really what I would love to like see HR leaders do better right how do we talk to our SE suite and you and I got to talk about this yesterday with the RL 100 is if you know that you need more money you need to make a business case for how that money is going to get to you you can’t just go to hey let’s build a great EVP and a great career site we don’t need other marketing dollars we don’t need other attraction dollars that’s not that’s not right and so we end up up selling our shelves short instead of saying we need multi-touch attribution we need multiple channels to get in uh in front of the talent that we need and we need to be doing it regularly because hiring is going to e and flow that’s part of it and so we really need our TA leaders and our HR leaders to think more holistically and further down the timeline than right now I know that you live this every day the diversity question the inclusion question and it sounds to me like you’re you’re creating a a picture of the mental hurdle is hard for companies to get over but I would guess that a lot of companies want to be inclusive they want to attract a wider net of folks but maybe don’t know how to do it for those folks that are looking for tactical uh examples or success stories what do you tell them to get to that that place yeah again I mean it’s not rocket science um you you have the numbers in your database you know where your candidates are falling out you don’t need to for me to bring you a Pepsi right who we’ve helped hire you know 4,000 people with disabilities you don’t need to see that what you need to do is spend the time in your data and really be thoughtful about your funnel and then go through it and see where there are opportunities and know that there’s not always going to be an opportunity to hit the metric you want but we need to be moving forward incrementally because this is a lifetime’s worth of work that’s what I tell my team every single day is we have to figure out how to keep moving the needle even though the needle’s never going to move as fast as we want it to so 20125 looking forward what is your number one priority uh my number one priority is continuing to push Dei belonging and not letting it go because some people are uncomfortable with it not letting it go because it’s not the hot sexy thing to do right now this this is our job right this as Dei professionals it is my job to always be the Broken Wheel right to always be pushing because as long as underrepresented communities are not well represented in the SE suite and the leadership and in the TA departments we’re never going to get to equity um so I’m just going to keep pushing the pushing the envelope making some people mad and and saying that Brands need to be true to who they are and not try to play this back and forth game so the big question is is what’s the best thing about being married to Chad so um have you seen him case closed that thanks uh appreciate you appreciate you stopping by is that not what I was supposed to say that was perfect that was perfect if somebody wants to connect with you for professional reasons where would you send them uh LinkedIn Julie sowash you can find me there all the socials all also uh disability talent.org thanks for hanging out for a little bit Julie enjoy the rest of your day thanks guys thanks Bab [Music]