Weekly digest

The 10 Must-Read Articles for Recruiters This Week

Ultranauts, a tech startup in New York, sits at the intersection of two of the most critical issues facing talent acquisition — remote work and diversity and inclusion. The 7-year-old company provides data quality engineering, data analytics, and automated software testing, all with an entirely remote workforce. According to The New York Times, “They follow a distinct set of policies and practices to promote diversity and inclusion among employees.” For example, the company provides closed captioning for every video meeting; distributes meeting agendas in advance so employees who are uncomfortable speaking up can submit written comments; and solicits daily feedback from its workforce, three-quarters of which is on the autism spectrum.

“[T]he small startup may offer lessons for corporate America in how to hire, manage, and motivate far-flung employees,” writes the Times. Now the company plans to share some of its proprietary talent management tools with other businesses. “We’ve built an engine that unlocks opportunity for people who haven’t had a fair shot before,” says cofounder and CEO Rajesh Anandan. “But if we only do that for ourselves, it won’t have much impact.”

Also on our list of must-read articles this week, The Atlantic weighs in on the issues of politics in the office (not to be confused with office politics — that’s a different story); First Round Review suggests 40 questions candidates should ask and you should be prepared to answer; and Tim Sackett details the one counterintuitive thing companies are doing that reduces the diversity of their candidates by 30%.

Here are the must-read articles for this week:

1. Remote But Inclusive for Years, and Now Showing Other Companies How (The New York Times)

2. Should the Professional Be Political? (The Atlantic)

3. Hiring Remotely Is the New Reality. Here’s How to Do It with Speed (Fast Company)

4. Companies Need to Think Bigger Than Diversity Training (Harvard Business Review)

5. This One Factor Is Reducing Your Diversity Hiring by 30%! (The Tim Sackett Project)

6. Why Recruiters Can Lead the Charge Against the Unemployment Stigma  (Talent Blog)

7. Onboarding: How to Engage Remote Workers with Your Culture from the Outset (HRZone)

8. Old Recruiting Strategies to Ditch (ERE)

9. Stuck-at-Home Moms: The Pandemic’s Devastating Toll on Women (NPR)

10. The 40 Best Questions to Ask in an Interview — How to Go Deeper Than ‘What’s the Culture Like?’ (First Round Review)

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