Our podcast guest today is Kaylee Parkinson from Papercup! Kaylee is an experienced people / HR manager with a background in tech / graduate recruitment and a passion for inclusive workplaces. We talked about her transition from recruitment into a People function, inclusive workplaces, feedback cultures and the role of recruitment in creating a diverse workforce.
Here are some key highlights:
What are inclusive workplaces?
An inclusive workplace is one where everyone can do their best work and allows people to be heard, valued and rewarded equitably. It’s a place where we not only celebrate our diversity; it’s also about understanding that these differences contribute to our success as a company.
We also talked about the value of cognitive diversity in solving problems in the workplace. This is a concept discussed by Matthew Syed in his book “Rebel Ideas”, where he researches the value of people with diverse viewpoints and how different upbringings, backgrounds, and education form these perspectives.
Recruiting diverse talent
Recruiters and sourcing play a big part in creating a diverse workforce. As recruiters we generally contribute to understanding the interview process, the market, providing feedback and influencing when poor decisions are made. Recruiters also go the extra mile by writing diverse job descriptions and challenge hiring managers when they request candidates from only certain universities. Recruiters can also provide take-home assignments or live test interviews to accommodate for different candidate personalities and call out bias when it takes place.
It was great catching up with Kaylee. Feel free to connect with her via LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaylee-parkinson-she-her-5740931b/
Or give the episode a listen!
Coffee with a Recruiter 