The Daily Idea from Harvard Business Review

 

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January 06, 2014 Referrals Can Have a Negative Effect on Diversity Hiring managers talk a good game about equal opportunity. Yet they tend to hire candidates who have some sort of connection to a current employee: a friend, a friend of a friend, a former co-worker. If companies aren't careful, hiring these people — particularly when it comes to hiring the white friends of white employees — can have pernicious effects. This doesn't mean that HR departments should do away with referrals. But they should take a much more holistic approach to hiring — metrics over perceptions — if they truly value diversity. SOURCE: White People Do Good Things for One Another, and That's Bad for Hiring by Nancy DiTomaso

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