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Faking D&I: Wells Fargo’s Farce Damages Everyone’s Credibility

Hiring

“What did Wells Fargo do this time?” – as if we’ve just come to expect to the scandals that come to light from some of the nation’s largest companies. Though the spotlight is once again on Wells Fargo, the credibility of the entire effort towards diversity and inclusion hiring has been damaged.

We’d like to think that these global companies have checks and balances on top of checks and balances. We expect departments of people who oversee organizational policy and manage internal compliance. Yet, Wells Fargo is now being criminally investigated in New York for faking interviews specifically geared at women and people of color. The fake interviews were meant to bolster the appearance of their D&I initiatives without actually doing the work.

However, this spotlight on Wells Fargo brings unnecessary scrutiny to every other company that is making an effort to incorporate diversity and inclusion practices into their organization. It undermines every company’s image, PR message, and all of the work that HR and TA teams have put into new programs.

Many job seekers already feel as if their applications go into a black hole, never to be acknowledged. But imagine being interviewed, only to find out down the line that the job as already been filled, or it isn’t even real. This type of behavior discredits the entire hiring process.

As a staffing agency, we work with companies that have committed themselves to hiring the most well-rounded employees with diverse backgrounds and varied experiences. Whether they request that we provide blind resumes or recruit from new pools of talent, our job is to build trust with our clients and our candidates.

When candidates are unable to trust the process that is laid out before them, it makes our ability to fill jobs more lengthy and costly to our clients. There are no winners when companies tout policies that they have not intention upon following through. It’s even worse when policies are manipulated intentionally and maliciously. 

Study after study confirms that diverse teams are more productive, smarter, and innovative than teams with a homogenous background. 

To learn more about how Talener can integrate your D&I programs into the recruitment process, please reach out to the team at info@talener.com.

View our recent case studies and gain an even greater perspective.