Diversity in the workplace is increasingly important. It enhances decision-making, sparks personal growth, and opens the door to fresh ideas, perspectives, and solutions. Integrating yourself into a diverse team will help facilitate a fruitful career path and make you a more well-rounded worker and human being.

But how do you know if a company is dedicated to building and maintaining a diverse workforce?  First, it’s important to conduct some research: 

• Check the company’s website for a DEI policy, and then ask about that policy during the interview. 
• See how diverse the team is – on the ‘team page’ on their website and during the interview process. 

Along with researching the company, it’s critical to compose questions to ask the interviewer yourself. With this in mind, we’ve created a list of diversity-oriented questions to ask during the interview.

What does diversity mean to you (the interviewer) and the firm?

Asking this question during the interview can give you a glance at what initiatives or policies the company operates on. Since the interviewer is one of, if not the first person you’ll meet, their answer might let you in on the current state of diversity in the company. A positive response to this question contains specifics relating to the company’s initiatives.

Can you summarize your DEI policy?

If the company has a DEI policy on its website, you can ask the interviewer to summarize it. This is your chance to understand how the company embeds its DEI policy into the workplace. Depending on the depth and specificity of the interviewer’s answer, you can discern whether the policy upholds or if it might be there to check items off the “diversity list.”

How do you promote diversity in the organization?

If a company doesn’t act on its DEI policy and actively advocate for diversity in the firm, it can come off that any diversification efforts at the business level are disingenuous. Ask the interviewer how inclusive language is used in the workplace or if multiple religious holidays are celebrated year-round. Is there regular bias training provided? How diversified is the C-Suite? Depending on the interviewer’s answer to these questions, you can determine if the company will champion your cultural diversity and valuable perspective.

I noticed that the company does not have a DEI policy. Are there plans to create one, and how will it be implemented?

During your research, if you notice that the company does not have a DEI policy, we suggest asking the interviewer if it has plans to create one and how it intends to implement it. It’s one thing to create a policy, but it’s another to act intentionally and consistently.

How are you finding your candidates, and what steps are you taking to ensure people from diverse groups apply to open jobs? 

An important part of recruiting diverse candidates is ensuring that job opportunities are presented to the right people. Ask the interviewer if the firm researches and examines who sees its job advertisements. That is one of the best ways for a company to analyze if its postings are seen by diverse groups. Follow up that question if needed by asking if the company plans on making any necessary changes to improve diversity recruitment. 

How does the company maintain its diverse workforce?

Understanding how a company maintains a diverse workforce is critical to understanding if their DEI policy is just lip service, or if they are committed to maintaining a diverse organization. On top of fostering a healthy workplace, some companies provide additional benefits and perks to make sure that women and diverse candidates stick around. On the other hand, if you see that the team members, for example, are mostly white males, consider asking the interviewer why that is.

Asking diversity-oriented questions during an interview can tell you about the company you’re applying to. The answers you receive will provide valuable insight and help you decide if you want to continue the interview process or accept or deny a job offer. Check out our blog for additional information on this topic and more articles about the wealth management industry, including our latest blog debunking myths in financial services. 

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