Diversifying Talent through Community Partnerships at The Washington Post

Two years ago, I was seated in a wooden pew at a historic synagogue in Washington, D.C. listening to Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth talk about what grit means. According to Duckworth, grit is "a person’s perseverance and passion." It is a lead predictor of success, but it is not to be confused with talent.

Grit served as my gateway to discover a new career path at The Washington Post. In 2016, I was hired by The Post to help build a strategy around diversity and inclusion as it relates to one of the company’s most rapidly growing sectors, engineering, and specifically to the hiring and retention of women. I applied my background in event planning along with grassroots community organizing skills and got to work.

The goal of curating events designed to attract diverse talent involves six important steps:

1. Look under the hood. If you’re looking to further grow your company within a niche area, begin by getting to know the stories of those that are already there. Ask your employees about their passions and motivations at work, find out how they came to be where they are. Then, become a part of their network, while simultaneously expanding your own.
2. Do your research, but don’t do it alone. The rookie mistake that I made when coming to The Post was trying to learn about all of the associations, Meet-Up groups, coding boot camps, university programs and other related tech groups on my own. Instead, expedite the process by asking employees within your company to connect you with the groups they are already plugged into. Before you know it, you’ll have a long list of good leads. However, not all leads are worth pursuing. If your goal is to elevate your talent brand, also look at key indicators such as social media presence, to determine if the organization will be a beneficial outreach partner in the long-term.
3. Get out of the office. One of the most helpful approaches to learning a new industry is to immerse yourself in it. I knew next to nothing about women in technology, aside from that they too had grit, but I was determined to learn more. I signed up to attend as many external events as possible, sometimes with a Post engineer, sometimes on my own, to learn more about the industry from a holistic perspective. This approach helped me further build my network, and helped me learn first-hand about the organizations that have an impact and could help support the work of The Post.
4. Design a low-barrier to entry model. When you’re ready to establish a partnership with an external group, curate events that invite talent of all tech backgrounds, both traditional and non-traditional, that do not come with a high ticket price attached. This model has proven successful for The Washington Post. One year into this work, we are recognized as the go-to destination for women in tech events in the greater D.C. area.
5. Evaluate each initiative. Build long-term partnerships. In the past year, we have strengthened our talent brand and increased our candidate pool through partnerships with DC Web Women, Women Who Code, DCFemTech, Girls Who Code, and several other groups that are driven by a mission to increase opportunities for women in tech. This was hard work at the beginning to get each event, with a new partner, off the ground. The key to long-term success is building lasting relationships with those partners that prove to be effective. Instead of looking to reinvent the wheel for each event, build off of your successes and learn from your failures.
6. Follow-up with the talent. If you’re putting in the work to get to and through the event, you will want to make sure not to miss this key step! Your follow-up with prospective candidates is just as important as the overall experience they have at the event. Take the time to make it personable, to remember a small anecdote of your conversation, when possible, and begin nurturing your lead.

The Post’s outreach efforts have already made a deep impact in elevating the engineering brand of The Post and decreasing the recruiting team’s time-to-fill. The strong sense of community that has been built internally through hosting external outreach events is my most proud accomplishment and unexpected outcome of our diversity strategy.

If you are interested in getting to know more about The Post’s outreach efforts and how you can partner with us, please be in touch. You can find me on LinkedIn, or reach out by e-mail, Lisa.Yochelson@washpost.com.