It should be top of mind to be intentional about how to attract and retain diverse talent in the tech industry. Deja Adams brings her expertise in partnerships that she has seen first hand in her career. She shares her experience from her work at the Flatiron school with easy ways employers can improve their hiring practices to increase diversity. Clearly, partnerships with organizations, like Flatiron, which provide bootcamps, training programs, and tech focused trade programs is one way to create this change. In addition, there are some great tips packed in this episode around employers tapping into diverse candidate pools, improving job descriptions, and various hiring strategies that can improve traditional hiring systems. Leave understanding how to remove limits within your company and keep the needle moving in system improvement.

"How do you encourage employee retention and keep those diverse candidate pools engaged once they join your culture and community and make them feel welcomed and heard so that they truly have a seat at the table?"
-Deja Adams

Deja Adams, Account Executive at Flatiron School, is passionate about growing partnerships that foster opportunities for all kinds of talent in tech. That is why it was an honor to sit with her and gain from some of her best practices that can make this a reality.

She starts by digging into ways employers can improve job descriptions with things like inclusive language and level of education. Then, she talks about how to hack the referral system to be inclusive and definitely addresses the power of partnerships. It’s about meeting the diverse candidate pools where they are at and continuing to build on-going sustainable partnerships. We discuss ideas on how you can even bring improvement ideas to your own hiring divisions.

She leaves us with some inspiration -- “Make no little plans.” Reminding us to not limit ourselves as a company or individual. There are organizations that can partner with companies or help provide you the career training you need to succeed.

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