Cover Story Rights Council has identified as a barri- er to diverse hiring. “You might say you welcome individ- uals from diverse backgrounds in a job description, but if you reject an appli- cant because they don’t have Canadian experience, you’re hurting your diver- sity goals,” she says. The reality is we don’t have enough people for Canadian experience. “Supply chain management has many newcomers with excellent foreign ex- perience, often from Fortune 500 companies within their countries, and many newcomers also use education and other avenues to be proactive about adapting to the Canadian working envi- ronment,” says Hann. Language used in the job description can also be a discouragement. industry has been contending with for years,” says Hann. The same survey found that consum- IF THE KEYWORDS YOU FEED INTO AN ATS TO SCREEN CANDIDATES ARE BIASED, YOUR RESULTS WILL BE BIASED. “Examples are gendered language, as well as excessive jargon which makes it harder for people with transferable skills to recognize what the job entails,” she says. Studies show female participation in the supply chain workforce is rising. A 2021 Gartner survey found 41 per cent of the total supply chain workforce is fe- male (up from 36 per cent in 2016) but as you move up the ladder, fewer roles are held by women. Only 15 per cent of C-suite supply chain executives were fe- male, relatively unchanged since 2016. “It’s a classic glass-ceiling problem. It’s also a very thorny issue that the er goods and retail companies were more likely to have women in sup- ply chain leadership roles than heavy industrial manufacturing. A possible reason for this, beyond cultural reasons, is that industrial firms are more likely to require a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) degree for leadership roles, which women are less likely to have. “It’s possible that there are roles where a formal STEM education is cru- cial, but in general, it’s easy to post a role, and say there just aren’t enough female candidates,” she says. “But if your peers in consumer goods and re- tail can fill very similar roles without requiring that degree, are you being too restrictive?” She says leaders in traditionally male-dominated industries, like heavy manufacturing, need to recognize that their culture is excluding women, which Hann says is to their detriment. “They need to stop assuming that women are less interested than they are in other industries, and formal di- versity programs and targets are a step towards doing that,” she says. In 2019, Supply Chain Canada insti- tuted its Top 100 Women in Canadian Supply Chain list, and the Women in Supply Chain Association is also bring- ing visibility to women. “Leadership recruiting is often about making industry connections at a very high level and connecting with organiza- tions advancing women in the industry is a great way to broaden those talent pools,” Hann says. A company with processes in place to provide workplace accessibility is well- situated to extend accommodations into its hiring process. Hann says employers can seek excellent recommendations from the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). “Companies should say loud and clear in their job postings and public-facing communications that they are happy to accommodate various needs of people with disabilities and make sure that their websites meet WCAG 2.0 (web content accessibility guidelines) standards.” She advises companies to ensure hiring managers are trained to provide accessible, flexible interview options, including alternatives to in-person in- terviews via phone or video. Hann says complexity in the entire hiring process should be reduced be- cause the more arcane the process, the easier it is for bias to slip back in. And applicant tracking systems (ATS) are not immune to bias, in spite of the claim to neutrality. Creator bias is easily en- coded in automated tools. “If the keywords you feed into an ATS to screen candidates are biased, your results will be biased. People don’t re- alize that they’re doing it,” she says. “Everybody has an idea about what they think diversity is. Everybody thinks they are diverse, but they’re not actually as diverse as they should be.” But there is good news. “Once you set a culture of encour- aging diversity, it’s a kind of virtuous circle: the more people from diverse backgrounds rise in an organization, the more you build that culture, the more you encourage diverse candidates to apply at all levels.” SUPPLY CHAIN CANADA • ISSUE 1 2022 • 13 © Andrey Popov / shutterstock.com
Powered by The Davis Media Company Inc.
Supply Chain Canada Issue 1, 2022
| Title Name |
Pages |
Delete |
Url |
| Empty |
Search Text Block
Page #page_num
#doc_title
Hi $receivername|$receiveremail,
$sendername|$senderemail wrote these comments for you:
$message
$sendername|$senderemail would like for you to view the following digital edition.
Please click on the page below to be directed to the digital edition:
$thumbnail$pagenum
$link$pagenum
Your form submission was a success. You will be contacted by Washington Gas with follow-up information regarding your request.
This process might take longer please wait
