An ally is someone who is not a member of an underrepresented group but who takes action to support that group to help make their workplace more diverse and inclusive for all.
For workplaces to become truly inclusive it is up to people who hold positions of privilege to be active allies and to take responsibility for making changes that will help others be successful.
Allies at all levels can take action with simple, everyday efforts that make a real difference and in this series, we highlight some things that you can do to be an ally and to support your colleagues from underrepresented groups.
#34: Recruit Diverse Talent (and ensure that your chosen recruiters are committed to recruiting a diverse talent)
To truly make your firm inclusive you need to also have a diverse and inclusive workforce. Therefore your ED&I efforts should include making sure that that you recruit from a diverse talent pool. Are you interviewing diverse candidates? It is not enough to just do a Review of Talent Management and Promotion Processes you need to be reaching the candidates in the first place. Therefore you should be targeting outreach to a wide range of candidates to ensure you have representation from all backgrounds and making sure that your external recruiters are also committed to taking proactive steps to ensure that candidates are representative of wider talent pools.
Read the full “How to be an Ally” series here.
