Okay, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for joining me here today. It's Thursday afternoon. I want to thank ASCP, I have Edna here, I see some of my friends, Sean. This is my third ASCP in a row here. I did last year annual meeting, I was at Boston at Knowledge Lab, and here they asked me to come. Asked me to come back today. And so I'm happy that they asked me to do this presentation because I think many of you were here this morning with Michelle Obama and Dr. Holliday and what they were talking about, diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so here I've been fortunate enough to get into more detail about how do we do this? How do we bring diversity into our laboratory? How do we get people from all walks of life, coming from different, have different stories? Where do we get these people from to come in to make our laboratory better? As John Meacham said yesterday when he was quoting MLK that we cannot be what we can be unless you are what you are. And you cannot be what you can be unless we are what we are. And we were talking about our laboratories. Your laboratory cannot be as the best laboratory can be unless your employees are all that they are. And as laboratorians, as many of you are administrators or managers and directors, it is important that you understand what it means to be all that you can be for your laboratory. You need to understand exactly what diversity, equity, and inclusion really means in context of getting employees, getting people with different life stories to come into your laboratory to say, hey, I want to be a part about that, a part of that. So I was very happy to be asked to talk about some of the best practices of recruiting a diverse workplace. And so we're going to talk about that. So let's get started here because I know we're on a timeframe. So that's me. I'm a director of ASPCL, I'm a top awarded chapter. I'm a laboratory quality coordinator for Centennial Health System. I'm a life coach. I'm a counselor. And that really has helped me on my psychology journey. Now I have a doctorate in psychology and what's interesting about that, it helped me learn more about myself such that I can help people in their journey to learn more about themselves. And so all of this is intertwined and dovetailed together so that I become pretty good at handling or dealing with people and their personalities. Conversely, I'm an introvert. So I'm not naturally, I do people, but it works out well for me because it helps me become objective and help people find their truth. Disclosure, I have no relevant financial relationship with any commercial interest to disclose. So this is a course, so of course we've got to have some objectives. So I've written some objectives. I'm doing a power of three today. So first we're going to understand how a lack of diversity impacts the workplace. So that's important because some of you, as we were talking, I think Michelle Obama said today, some people are not even cognizant that they don't have diversity. We're in our comfort zone. Everybody looks like me, I'm good. Everybody thinks like me, I'm good. We're not really understanding the impact or the lack that you are experiencing. So we're going to talk about how a lack of diversity impacts the workplace, impacts your laboratory. Next, we're going to understand the benefits of increasing workplace diversity and creating an environment of belonging. That is a very powerful number two. Not only am I making that case, I'm going to share with you some of the benefits of increasing diversity. And then the most important part of that is creating an environment of belonging. Because when we're talking about belonging, we're talking about inclusion. Because it doesn't matter, you can hire anybody you want, but if they don't feel that they belong there, if they don't feel that they matter, if they don't feel like you want them there, they're not going to stay. So we're getting right back where we started. So that's very powerful. And so we're going to talk about how to create that environment of belonging. And then we're going to discuss recruitment initiatives to attract applicants from underrepresented and marginalized communities. And sometimes we're going to talk about our bias that we have in our hiring methods. I've highlighted some things that we're talking about. We talk about, quite often, implicit and explicit bias. Implicit bias is the one that catches us, that unconscious. Some of those assumptions and those stereotypes that we go through our day with and that we apply and we will project onto different groups of people that look differently than we do. So we're going to talk about that, how we can maybe reduce some of those biases and infecting our recruitment efforts. So again, so what's the course outline? I'm going to make the case for diversity. Some people are not all with diversity. They feel that we're good, we're okay. So I'm going to make the case. We're laboratorians. We also are business people. We have a business, we're a laboratory. It's a revenue generator for most places. So we're going to make the business case for that. Then, because we're laboratorians, we like data. We've got to have evidence. And that's what John Meacham was talking about yesterday. We talked about evidence. And that's when we're going to look at some diversity data. I'm going to show you that regardless of how you feel, whether you want it or not, diversity is happening. So you better get on board with it. If you want to be successful, if you want to have a laboratory of people that feel that they belong there, that they want to be there, and they want to be in your laboratory to provide patient care. And then finally, we're going to look at some recruitment strategies to get people from different lifestyles, different walks of life, to come in and stay in your laboratory. So here we go. Here's our first question. Do you prefer to dance alone or with others? That is the first question. Right there, are you that person right there, like dance by themselves, just need some music? Or do you like the line dance and a line? Dancing is good. I have a lot of, I have a few clients, and that's part of, sometimes my therapy is to dance. If you hear music, music is good for the soul. So I can't get a pole. So I'm going to have to make a way with this. I'm going to have to talk. So everybody raise your hand. Okay, here we go. Everybody raise your hand. Who all like to dance alone? Alone, you dance alone. Okay, not that many. How about dancing with others? See, more, okay. And who doesn't care who just likes to dance? See, there we go. There's our real people. There's our authentic selves right there. It doesn't matter. Just give me a song. Good enough. I apologize that the pole doesn't work. This is ASCP. But we can do without it. So let's get started. So let me make the case for diversity. Let me make the case. Let me try to get you on board to change the demographic, to change the look of your laboratory, okay? I love this. Diversity is bodies. Inclusion is culture. You're going to hear me talk about that word quite often. That is a very important word, inclusion. I told you that before. Diversity is bodies. Inclusion is culture. And that was from DeRay McKesson. He's a civil rights activist. That is so important. I want to start with this quote from DeRay McKesson to emphasize that recruitment diversity is only the beginning in addressing the people issues in the workplace. Inclusion is the goal. It is worthless to hire people from different cultures or lifestyles or races or perspectives and then create an environment where they do not feel welcome or that they belong. It is imperative that people feel that they are needed and that their voice matters in the workplace. However, we are not going to go too far to examining the methods that contribute to feelings of inclusion since we're on limited time right now. But I want to remind each and every one of you that we, and I say we, that we must not forget that getting the people in the lab is only the start. That is only the beginning, okay? It's not just HR. It's us in the laboratory. It's very important that we create an environment of inclusion. So let me give you the definition of diversity. Diversity is the condition of having or being composed of differing elements. That's true. That's what it says. That's what DeRay was saying. Diversity is bodies. Different people got different elements. But then look, this is from Merriam-Webster Dictionary. They go, they say, especially, and that's in italics to really highlight that, the inclusion of people of different races, cultures, et cetera, in a group or organization. That is so important. Inclusion, again, as I told you before, is so important if you want to have effective diversity, if you want it to mean something. And I say effective diversity because why are you having these people from these different workplaces and lifestyles? You want them to contribute to your laboratory. You don't just want their body there. I know many times with our staffing issues, we want just a warm body. I need somebody in hematology. But the laboratory is more than that. You want these people to contribute. And all of this contribution, it contributes to the community and makes your workplace a better place to work. So let's talk about the lack of workplace diversity impacts. So first one, groups made entirely of individuals sharing the same characteristics, racial, ethnic, gender, social, are less innovative than diverse groups. And one of the things I want to add in there is socioeconomic characteristics. That's very important. Where we stand on that wealth ladder, you'd be surprised how that makes a difference in how we think and how our thinking changes the more money we make. You'd be surprised because why? Money is power, especially in this country, money is power. And you'd be surprised. You really want to belong to that group. And so your thinking changes. Two, lack of new energy. No diversity. I like having new people coming to the lab, meeting new people, because they bring energy. And when you have those with different cultures, with different life stories, they bring a new and different type of energy. So if you don't have that happening, you lack that type of new energy. Detreason employee retention. This is an outcome. If you lack diversity, people don't see themselves in your laboratory. It's difficult to retain them. It's really difficult because it's only me there. So therefore, we don't really make those bonds that's necessary. So you see employees, many times we're going to talk later in the presentation how they follow their group, those people that they have that relationship with. So if people are leaving, well, I'm going to go with my friend. It's another lab. They're working. I have more people there. This laboratory don't have many people like me. So that goes to make a job change. We know it's a very complicated thing. It's not just about money. We are complicated beings. We don't usually make decisions based upon one characteristic. Usually it is a combination of forces that are acting together to make our decision-making. But I'm telling you that as far as in the laboratory, changing jobs for minority or under-representative groups, not having people that look like me contributes to my decision to leave and go somewhere else. And then number four, groups lacking diversity increase the likelihood of immoral decisions. Now I put this here that some would take issue with number four regarding the comment that lack of diversity may contribute to a lack of morality by our organization. Now this is not nothing new. This thought was first proposed by a right-of-home neighbor when he said that, he stated that groups are more and more than individuals. I would add that groups lacking diversity have a tendency to have more and more immoral actions. I put out as an example, if you remember Google, when Google came out, they had the Nest thermometers. And you may not remember that, they put microphones in those thermometers. They made that decision to do that. I would say if they had more people at Google, if it had more diversity, and we're all aware of the diversity challenge that Google has, it had more people, not just from the same gender, not from just from the same race, but also the same social or different socioeconomic groups. That decision may not have been made, can't guarantee that, but they would have some different voices in there that might have said, hey, wait a minute, that's not, you're gonna put microphones in a thermostat? That's not cool. We know that having different viewpoints helps people or different voices that matter to come up with different decisions. So what are the benefits? So we talked about the negative impacts. We talked about what happens, or what may be happening in your lab that you may not be aware of that's affecting your workplace, your staffing issues. And we know staffing is the issue in the laboratory today. We know that. We talked about Obama, talked about it this morning. We know when COVID happened, staffing just took a hit. We're still feeling the residual effects of COVID, even though they're saying we're coming out of it. I can tell you that it is very hard to get qualified people and we're stealing from each other. And that's part of this presentation. I'm gonna say we need to stop stealing. We need to start planting some seeds so that for the next generations, our next cohort of laboratorians are prepared for that and we are starting early. So what are the benefits? Let's talk about some of the benefits of having diversity in your laboratory. Gender diverse companies that are also in the top quartile for gender diverse executive boards are 27% more likely to have superior value creation. So you're saying you're making more money. Those of you who count pennies and dollars and whatever, we've got the data. Gender diverse boards, and that's very important because I got some more data here. We're gonna look at how the pay disparity, the gender pay disparity, that happens in the laboratory, even though we know 71% of the laboratory are females, but you find out they make less money than the males in the laboratory. Why is that? Why is that? Because as you move up, you make more money. So as you move up in the laboratory, you see it become more male dominated, the directors, the administrators. So that contributes to that. Diverse teams are 87% better at making decisions. I take that back to Google. I put good money on that and as a psychologist, we like to say likelihood. I would like to say the likelihood that microphone being put in that thermostat probably wouldn't have happened if they had a really diverse group in that, wherever that decision was made to say, hey, let's put a microphone in there. Let's see what's going on. That'd be a good thing. I think if they had a really diverse team there, there would be a second thought on making that decision. And then finally, companies that have a highly inclusive culture have 2.3 times more cash flow than employees. So those of you looking at dollars and cents, there we go, 2.3 times more cash flow, revenue generating. So here's some more benefits. Financial, increased productivity, diverse workplace has allowed for more diverse ideas and processes. That's a given. You got different people coming with different stories. They're gonna see things differently. Think of things that you may not have thought of. Another financial benefit, increased in marketing opportunities. If potential employees are accustomed to see that a company is a diverse place, well then they feel that, hey, this must be a pretty cool company. It makes them feel that they can relate more to that. Because I see myself, I see all different types of people. It's a rainbow in there. You know, that means anybody can work there. That means that it may be pretty cool. And that's what we say those things to ourselves. Is that looked like a more conservative company? Am I gonna fit? But if I see it's very diverse, that gives me a likeability. If I see it's very diverse, that gives me the likelihood that it's gonna be a successful employer. In the community, and we always have to talk about the community and how our company looks to the community. We have improved cultural awareness. As we know that today has been told, we see all the time, our countries are getting more and more diverse. So we're branching out, especially when we talk about unrepresented communities. We have Latino populations, we have other minority populations. You need to be able to have, send ambassadors. You need to be able to send people into those communities that look like those people in communities that will be able to talk that language of those communities. It is important to have those people in your laboratory to be able to represent adequately. And then finally, under community, a positive reputation. Companies that have a diverse workplace are often perceived as better employers. That is actually true. And if you're honest with yourself, you can say that. Any place you go, you see, everybody works there. Anybody can work there. That's what it says to you and I. When I go and I see a diverse workplace, whether it's a car dealership, where is car dealership? But any other place that you go, you see all different types, you feel better about it. You just feel better about it. And that goes into our decision-making. So next we're gonna move into the laboratory diversity data. As I told you at the beginning of this, I'm gonna give you some data so that you can have that to complete that conversation. Some of you have to sell it to administrators because as we mentioned earlier in our signature session with Michelle Obama, diversity sometimes for companies is just a thing to do, a checkbox. It requires resources, and if we're talking about getting people, bringing more laboratorians in, that means we need to be dedicated so that we need to get the C-suite on board. So, we got to bring data. So, we're going to look at composition by sex. This is 2019 data. Male workforce and the female workforce, as I told you earlier, got about 97,000 males, almost two, what, two and a half times female. Seventy-one percent of clinical laboratory technologists and technicians are female, making them the more common sex in the occupation. And as I mentioned earlier, okay, there's more females there. Well, look what happens next. Average salary, male, about 52,000. The average is 48, female is 46,000. And I can tell you that pay disparity is an outcome of the diversity of the, what we talk about the DEI giving everybody the opportunity to move up. This is, you know, we have this history of how, in the hierarchy in the healthcare. And this is the effect of that hierarchy, the historical effect, that females are still striving to become equal pay for equal work done. Here's some more data. Laboratory diversity, this is a decade. We started in 2010, moving down to 2019. As you can see, the population, white, black, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, all the minority communities are increasing their representation in the laboratory. And this is just the MLTs. As a percentage of, total percentage of laboratorians, the minority population is increasing. And this is for MLTs, and as you can see, it's the same pattern for medical technologists. And this is over a decade. This is just to 2019. And I can guarantee you, in the next decade, you're going to see that. That trend is going to continue. So, here, I thought I had another poll here. As you can see, the poll doesn't work, so I got to come up with something here to talk about. So, this poll here was supposed to ask you, what do you feel about the, what does diversity mean to you? So, if you don't mind, some of you get the courage, can you go up to the microphone, give me some words, what does diversity mean to you? Do we have any volunteers? There we go, number one. Thank you. What does diversity mean to you? So, I work for Foundation Medicine. I work in the Research Triangle Park site. I was in the beginning of it, so I had the, I had, I got the chance to see our workforce grow. And as a person that worked in healthcare, a person that worked in science, seeing, usually I was the only one in the room, usually the only black person in the room, usually the only black woman in the room. And our current workforce, when I get into work, our security person is a black woman. When I get upstairs, several supervisors are women. Several supervisors are black women. My associate director is a black man. My director is a black man. Several supervisors in other departments are women. So, that's what diversity looks like for me, is being able to go into my job, see someone that looks like me, have, that has had similar backgrounds, and being able to talk about those similar backgrounds. But also, not just seeing someone that looks like me, but other people that look like me, but also, especially in the healthcare where you, I know that this is a female-dominated career, but seeing so many different races, seeing so many different people within higher ranks, my laboratory director was a woman, two women, actually. It was always women. So, that's what it looks like to me, is being able to know that I, as a lab tech, when I started as a lab tech, now I'm a histology supervisor, being able to do that within a couple years, that's what, given the opportunity, that's what it looks like for me. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anyone else? No? Why don't you contribute? Anyone else? There. Thank you. I work in a small lab up in northern Wisconsin, very small lab, and diversity to me means meeting someone that comes from a completely different culture. So, we have a tech that we brought in from the Philippines, and that's, I know absolutely nothing about the Philippines, so it was really interesting to hear her perspectives and how different it is here for her. Great. Thank you. Yeah, one more coming from the back. Come on up. I'll actually agree with both of those, and I totally agree with you. That is a serious issue, but I'm going to approach it above and beyond the gender, or even race, I define diversity about collective approach to a disagreement, and getting away from the yes environment. To me, disagreement is the foundation of evolution, but we avoid it because we've always done it that way. Absolutely. That is a great point, you know, and that kind of dovetails what we've been talking about these past two days about disagreements. Disagreements is a hallmark of democracy. That's what it's about. We disagree because why? We all got our own selves. We all have different voices and different perspectives, and it's okay. But the challenge that we have today, the challenge in our country is the guardrails, those borders that we have, our disagreement that we agree on the basic foundation that democracy is the best thing going for our human civilization. We agree on that laws should be followed, and we agree on the basic tenets of reality. But where we go south is when we start questioning those disagreements when we don't follow the laws or when we say we disagree, and the disagreements become personal. Disagreements are where you can get some good stuff from. So that is absolutely wonderful because that's what we were talking about when I was telling you about in those boardrooms of Google, you need to have some people in there that disagree with that. You need to have some yes men. And because if you are solid in who you are, what you are, what you're about, or where you're going as a company, you're okay with disagreements. As a matter of fact, you need to question yourself if everybody agrees with you because you're really not that smart. You're not. Especially as laboratorians, we're pretty smart people. Let's be honest, we're science people. We come from the STEM. That's what we are. We question. Because we're scientists, we know not to believe anything. We know not to believe. We're going to question everything. And we know that the citizens that we serve depend upon that, depend upon that disagreements that we have. We say to each other, prove it. If you say that, prove it. So we have data. Come with evidence. And that is a very salient point that you brought up, and that is in the background of what we're talking about. When we talk about diversity, we're talking about different thoughts. We want to have some good, constructive disagreements. And thank you all for rescuing me on Poll Everywhere for that moment. I got one more coming here, and I know it's not going to work either, but we're going to talk about it when we get there. So let's get to the next part, why you came in here today, and why I appreciate you joining me here today. We're going to talk about some recruitment strategies to increase diversity. How do we get some different people? And when we talk about diversity, so many times that we mention, we talk about race, culture, but we're also talking about disabilities, neurodiversity. We talk about all different types of people. We look at people for what they can do and what they can bring. So we want to minimize our LGBTQ family, everybody, when we talk about diversity, we're talking about everybody. And you have to remember that, especially here, that there will be challenges. It is not easy. So I need you to be dedicated to make these things happen. So first, let's talk about some before activities. There's some things you need to do or have done or have ready before you embarked upon this journey. If you're serious about increasing your diversity in your organization, you've got to have these things. Otherwise, I'm telling you, you're just going to be spinning your wheels. Because before, or at least in concert with diversity recruitment efforts, the lab organizations need to make sure that they are serious about increasing diversity and not just paying lip service to the notion. So the first one, ensure the organization has a commitment to diversity. And you would think this might be a given, but I'm telling you, it's not a given. And you know how we are in our society. This is a hot topic. This might be the hot topic for the moment. It can't be the hot topic. It has to be a continuous effort. And when I talk about having an organization has a commitment to diversity, I want to remind you, there was a hospital in Texas that had just recruited a chief diversity VP officer. And they rescinded the offer to the officer four days before he was supposed to come on to the job. And the reason that they rescinded the offer to him was they said he was too sensitive to inclusion. He was too sensitive about race. And the reason some background behind that is that before he conferred or talked to one of the hiring people, one of the VPs about an incident that he had out in the city in Texas. And we'll get more detail than that. And saying that how he was disappointed, and it was a race-based event. And because of that event, that is why right, I think a few days later, they took the offer back because they said that he was too sensitive about issues related to race and culture. That is amazing. And that's what I'm telling you about paying lip service. It takes dedication. It takes you being uncomfortable with a conversation. Out of all the conversations that we have, race is one that people get very uncomfortable with. You know, we talk about how it feels, how we got to here in history, and some people may take that as a personal indictment of themselves and who they are, when it's not about that. It's about understanding where you came from, why things are the way they are today. Because I guarantee you, the water situation in Jackson, Mississippi, didn't just happen last week. I can tell you, if you look in the history, it has been a history based of Jim Crow, based on racism, based on the economic conditions that caused them so that they did not have clean water. And it all comes out from that challenge, that ongoing conversation or debate we have about race. And the outcomes when you make bias and prejudice decisions. So a study conducted back in 2006 by Kelly, Dobbin, and Kelly reported that many diversity education programs led to little or no increase in the representation of women and minorities in management. Many companies think that diversity metrics are all about the body count. How many women, people of color, or other marginalized groups they employ. However, as I said earlier, those are just outcome metrics. They do not tell the whole story, nor do they identify where the problem may exist. Whether the issues are in hiring, promotion, executive sponsorship, process metrics, direct where a company needs to focus its attention. You need to look at how fast people of color move up the ladder, pay disparity between men and women doing the same job. Those are some of the things you have to look at. It is not, and I keep telling you, it's not a body count. Your organization must have a commitment. That is why we as laboratorians just can't do it. We have to have hospital administration on our side. Elements of diversity, equity, inclusion should be integrated into professional development plans and performance reviews. And I know that's kind of hard. How do you integrate? How do you talk about that? In a workplace where diversity, equity, and inclusion are lacking, and at an absolute minimum, this would impact those on the outside. If you're not practicing DEI, that's going to affect your employee performance. If your employee don't feel like they're included, they're not going to give their all. They're going to give just enough. You have these terms we're talking about today, quiet, quitting, and all of that. No matter how you feel about that, we know that if an employee is just looking at the time clock, you're not getting all that you're paying them for. You're not even getting all that they may want to give, simply because they don't feel like they belong. Accountability is important. One practical place to start is performing an audit on promotional pay, hiring, and firing practices. Are there any patterns you see that correlate with age, gender, ethnicity, religion? For example, are employees with similar backgrounds and positions being promoted with percentages that are different from each other? That's when you talk about accountability. Look at that. That's why I always suggest that your DEI department does not be a part of your human resources. Human resources has a different goal than DEI. So DEI is going to look at what goes on in your organization from a different perspective than human resources. And so that's the best way to have accountability, because they're going to be more truthful to what's happening. They're going to look at the nuances and then provide that report. So you've got to hold them accountable. You've got to look at those departments and have some of those difficult conversations. And then finally, review the job description posting. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that job description thing. The language used in a job description can encourage or discourage potential candidates for applying for a position. Your language, what you talk about. At some point in each one of our lives in here, we've been that job searcher. Some of us more recently than others. So what's out there, that job description for your laboratory or for your organization is a picture of you. You know, what are you looking for? It used to be more role. We need this, this, this, this, this. It's not that. We've evolved, and we need to understand the type of language that we're using. Some of them are gender-biased. What you need to write your job ad is if you were making a product to a consumer, focus on how the worker will benefit from being in the role and part of the company. That may mean emphasizing how they will contribute to the company and what role they will play in the company's projects and initiatives. Instead of writing a laundry list, as I was just mentioning before, of responsibilities, mention exciting or challenging projects or other experiences that a candidate will get to have while they're in the job as a laboratory, you can talk about, hey, you know, we're bringing on a new line. We need someone who's open. Or you want someone who's willing to learn validations, verifications, want to be part of that. Because we know we talk about med techs, MLTs, well, we know I do CVCs, chemistry, know-how. Those things are given in the job, and you need to talk about those things that are not really given, not really talked about. And then also, those opportunities to move up in the companies, to try some new things. As we talk about outreach to the community, we have those types of programs, you may want someone to have that ability to go out and be that ambassador to high schools or colleges. Don't write out an entire wish list of skills and qualifications. Instead, stick to just the fundamental skills needed to perform the role with a goal of no more than seven bullet points total in the section. If you absolutely need to list more, consider splitting your skills section into the required and the desired qualifications for the job seekers. Forego flowery language in job titles. Use clear and concise language. Avoid bias or discriminatory language, and be aware of gender coding. Keep in mind that inclusivity also encompasses disabilities and neurodiversity. Diversity statements included in your job postings shouldn't ignore these types of potential candidates. You know, we need to be open to those. We have some positions in the laboratory for the individuals who are disabled or have some physical challenges. We need to be open to those types of individuals also in your job recruitment process. So some more recruiting strategies here. Conduct job fairs at high schools, community, four-year colleges serving minority and ethnic populations. And not just conduct job fairs with intent. We have positions in the laboratory that does not need certifications or qualifications. Talk to them about that. We know in high school, especially now in high school, we have these individuals who don't know what they want to do. As you know, the military has a robust high school recruitment program. That's just how robust ours should be. We are in the same situation. We have no people coming out into our profession. It is simply like that. I'm involved with a couple of laboratories. It is always staffing, staffing. I do quite a bit of CAP surveys and CAP inspections. Every hospital I go to, and I'm the one that always does the lab general portion. I'm looking at the personnel. Always it's staffing, staffing, and staffing, and they're doing some pressling to make it work. They're bending, they're pushing the envelope to get these people in here. And we know staffing is an issue because we have this crazy proposal up there to let nurses start doing high-complexity testing. Right? We know that. I don't want to be a nurse. I can't be a nurse. It's a different mindset to be a nurse than doing high-complexity testing. But think about that. We're at this point now that we are actually seriously considering this, at least the federal government is, to make this happen because there are no staffing. We don't have enough staffing. We don't have enough staffing in the city. Can you imagine what's happening in the rural parts to those rural laboratories? They already have challenges to get those people out there, get qualified people out there. And I just did a cap inspection like three weeks ago. They brought the laboratory administrator, a director from retirement because they had nobody. There was no one there over six months except for two people. And they're running a pretty healthy 200, 300-bed hospital. It is real. I am not, it's not hyperbole. I'm not overemphasizing it. It is real. The struggle is real for getting laboratories into the lab. And so we need to start in the high school. We need to get this train rolling. We need to get those, you know, the high school, those teenagers that, I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what I want to do. And what many of them do, they go, the military is the easier route. And not to take anything from the military, but we need to be giving them another choice, another option. Two, develop relationships with high schools and academic institutions serving individuals from underrepresented communities. We're talking about HBCU. I graduated from HBCU. I went to, I was the first one, I did my medical technology rotation at Baylor College of Medicine in Harris County Hospital District in Houston. So I was one of the first ones to go there, those who, because the relationship that one of my advisors had with a person that worked there. Those are the types of relationships you need to build. You need to build a relationship with guidance counselors in high schools. You need to get to know those people. You need to put some literature there. So when those students go in there and say, I don't know what I want to do. You got students who are smart in math and the science and the biology. Here's this, that's the seed you need to plant today. It needs to be ongoing. It's not a one-shot deal. It needs to be ongoing. You need to send your ambassadors and no greater ambassador if you are to have sent someone there that already works in your lab that can talk that language. Develop those relationships. Also, and same thing for the college. Develop those relationships with those career counselors to help these people on what they want to do and get them started early when they're a freshman and a sophomore and they're just taking those general courses. Well, then we can start leading them to science courses. So advertising minority professional magazines, National Coalition of LGBT Health, National Association of Asian American Professionals, Association of Minority Health Professionals Schools. There are many more minority publications. And that's the thing that's happening all across the country. You know, those are media and social media that are connecting to those populations that you want to get into your laboratory. Advertising them. Share some of your advertising knowledge with those outlets. And then ask a professional organization for names, contact info, potential candidates. As I say, I'm director of CLMA. That's Clinical Laboratory Management Association. We know people, especially at that level, you know, we have managers, administrators. Those are people you need those. That is a wealth of knowledge there. Those people come and help you run your lab. Get in touch with some of those organizations and say, hey, we have a need here. You know anybody looking for a job? We have great benefits. Some more recruiting ideas. Diversity attracts diversity. We know that. That is, we know that. Review the pictures and videos of your workplace and social profile. Ensure that they show the diversity of your organization and spouses. Social media, that's what we do. Internet search. You look at the pictures. We're visual creatures. You go on vacation, and you may not notice minorities. And I can tell you this. You go on vacation, and you're looking for a place to go, especially where you're going to stay at. You see pictures. Oh, we are looking for that black person in that picture. And I'm telling you the truth. That tells us it's OK. You know, it's going to be an OK place. This is truth that I'm sharing with you. It makes a difference when I see that. It makes a difference when we see that. OK. That is very important. It's very powerful. I know many of you use LinkedIn. It's very important. And they'll tell you, professional people tell you, those pictures, those videos are powerful. Why TikTok took off? Because we as human beings, we like a show. We like a show. So that tells us a story. It tells us a story about your organization. So put some energy and some resource into looking into that. Offer workplace flexibility. Flexible hours attract more diverse candidates. And I know that is happening without us even pushing that. The COVID pandemic, one of the outcomes is that it has changed the power dynamic of the employee-employee relationship. The employer dictated everything. But because the power dynamics change, it's a market theory, supply and demand. So when that changes, well, the power changes. So now the employee has more power. So I can say that, hey, you need me in here. Well, I can't work that. Well, I can only work this. You need to be open to that, flexibility. And then you need to look at yourself as administrators and managers. Can I work with something different? We get used to being comfortable with it being the same way all the time. Because we don't have to put any energy into that. It keeps the same. But it can change. You can still serve your patients. Take a look at that. Offer on-site child care. And as I say, this attracts almost everyone. Especially if you're going to start back in high school getting to that 20 to 40 range or having families, people making life change choices, especially for nurses. I mean, on-site child care, there was a time in our history where companies were offering that. And then they went away from that. But also, how much money is spent on child care? Gobs of money. And then only that, you're spending that expense on child care. And then also, it's inconvenient that you have to drop them way off way over there. Just think how much time that you save if that child care is on-site. Think how that right there in itself strengthens a bond between the employee and the employer. It starts right there because your children, that you feel safe. It's right there on-site. Those of us who have big companies and who have relationships with colleges and universities, especially community colleges, you can have such that you can offer a program. Those who are going into pre-K and teaching, so that you have those types of interns to staff there. You can offer that on a sliding scale. There's so much you can do with that. And that starts a family relationship because, hey, I've worked there. My child started child care. I gave him child care there. They start a relationship, a family relationship. Offering on-site child care, if possible, is a strong motivator for someone to select your laboratory to work there. It's about money. It's about convenience. And it's about time. Encourage referrals from underrepresented employees. People's social and professional networks often share the same demographics. A current employee's recommendation is a strong selection motivator. And we know that. I want to work with my friends, especially in that 20 bracket. You're just coming out of college. You're following each other. These are your friends. And for a minority, thank you. And for a minority, I'm going to tell you, just like before when I was selecting my vacation places, I see a picture, oh, OK, it's good. It's the same way when you're looking for a job because that is a power. If you're having someone come work on your house, what's a powerful selection motivator for you? A referral from your neighbor. This person came and did this for me. Fixed my car. Well, this dude fixed my car. That's a strong motivator. That's the best advertising dollar in the world is word of mouth. It's the same dynamic. It works the same way with jobs. Another MOT, another MT, we went to school together. Come work here. They may not stay there forever. And because that individual is going to be a great employee, they're going to probably go somewhere else, too. And usually what happens, though, because they felt that they belong there, it was an inclusive environment, it's funny how they always come back. If they do, they travel, they come back. It happens time and time again. If you have that inclusive environment, if people felt like they belong there, they may work there. They may start a journey there. Then they may leave and get knowledge elsewhere. It's funny how life sometimes, many times, brings them back to you. So I'm going to speed through. So the second part of that, we need to reduce our pre-hiring screening bias. So here's some tools to reduce the bias. Pre-hire assessments, personality scores are not significantly different from minority members. I'm a great big fan. I have my staff, the Myers-Briggs type indicator. And I'm going to tell you, I look at them all the time. Nope, I can't tell you who, what race, culture, what it's from. That's about the personality. But you have to be careful with that, because that's just only one part of that, when you use personality assessment. Let me just tell you, personality. Most people tell you a lot of laboratories are introverts. And that's fine. It's great for the work that they do. I don't need that extrovert, that bubbly personality to do a diff. You know? I mean, it helps in the laboratory, but we know. It doesn't matter. I need you qualified. And what I need you to do, I need you to be able to get along with other people, your other staff, co-workers. So a personality assessment is a way So a personality assessment is a good way to get a good picture, if you're a manager or administrator, to get a good picture of the individual you're working with. And they're great if you want to figure out how to motivate someone to do better, or go somewhere, or be a mentor to them. If you understand who they are, and their tendencies and their preferences. Blind hiring. Analyze personal information. And be honest with that implicit bias. That way that pops up. Seeing what school they went to, names. We can't help it. It comes with the territory. So if you strip all that away, and just have that work history, and have that they're qualified to gather degrees, that's all you need to know. To get that person in there to have a talk with them. And that's where we want to get in. Get them into the office. And so that that person there can shine, and you can see what they are about. Intelligent shortlisting. Using software wisely to reduce unconscious bias. A lot of people use software now. That's a give and take on that. Why is that a give and take? The shortlisting software objectively and consistently applies the criteria across all candidates, which reduces problems related to unconscious bias and accidental discrimination. But then we have that problem. Who writes the algorithms? Right? If you remember, when we talked about facial recognition software, you know how many mistakes are happening? And then they find out, well, who wrote the algorithm for that? Well, it was all the same demographic. So it makes errors. So you can use software. It's a tool. But I tell you, do not completely depend upon it. It's just one more line item on that picture that you're developing, or part of your tools to reduce bias. And then interview teams composed of at least one minority employee. I know this isn't always possible. But if you can, diversify your interview teams. Have a minority or unrepresented individual on the interview team. I know many times it doesn't happen like that. Usually, it's just one person if you can. But if you can do your interviews with two people, a minimum of two people, that gives you another perspective. It helps you. It is not saying that you are lacking anywhere. It just helps you make a better decision. So finally, I'm going to leave you with some diversity hiring toolkits. And these are things you can do on your own. This is not all-inclusive what I've shared with you today. I've just tried to provide you a story. Please use the internet. I know you know how to use the internet. And use it wisely. We've got Duke University, BridgeStar, University of Michigan, University of California. All four of you have some great tools to help you, to help you come together, to help you develop a program, to increase the diversity, to help you take a look at yourself. Because that's what you're going to have to do. As an organization, as a laboratory, you're going to have to take a look at yourself and be honest with yourself. Not judge yourself. Be honest with yourself. Say, hey, I need to work on this. Or, hey, yeah, I kind of do act like this. Or, hey, I need to challenge myself. Or, hey, I get a little bit uncomfortable here. Or, hey, we need to do a little bit better. You need to be able to take that to your administrator and those in the C-suite and say, we need to get on board. This is what's happening. Can we do this? We're not talking it's not going to be taking a flip of the switch. It's just going to just take them, you're just going to have to work there. That's OK. So I'll leave this with you. The goal of diversity hiring is to identify and reduce potential biases, and sourcing, screening, or accidentally discriminating against qualified and diverse candidates. And I want to make sure you see that word, accidentally discriminating. And I want to say, this is what I truly believe, that we do not actively discriminate, especially here in the laboratory. We don't. But we are creatures. We are human creatures. And we have our biases. We were raised in different environments. We had a lot of history inputted into us by our parents. When they were parents, they were our gods. So we believe everything that they say. But it kind of carries on some bad habits. So we have to challenge those. So I want to make sure, accidentally discriminating, because I believe in laboratorians, being scientists, we just want some qualified people in our laboratories. We want those MTs and MLTs. We want to make sure they can do a diff, they can run that roast analyzer. You know what I'm saying? They can go do those microplates, and work in transfusion medicine. That's what we want, because that's what we're here for. We are caregivers. We are a part, as we said earlier in a session with Dr. Holloway, we're in the background. But we are important in the background. COVID brought us to the forefront. Everybody's just talking about lab tests. That never happened in the country. Everyone was talking about the lab and lab tests. And now we need to use this momentum of being in the spotlight to get people back into the laboratory. It's a change. We had a great resignation. Many people have changed jobs. We don't have that many people coming in. So we need to do these things. We need to go to these high schools. We need to meet those guidance counselors. We need to leave some literature there. We need to talk there, an ongoing process to get those people into the laboratories. So do we have any questions? Before we go on, we got about two minutes. Okay, I just wanted to thank you for this presentation and the people who talked about their idea of diversity, because most times people only think about it as hiring minorities or women. I know now we have a lot of women in the lab, but that wasn't always the case, especially for me. There were times I was the only black person. There were times that I was the only woman. But what makes my history, oh, I'm so nervous. I hate talking in front of people, I'm sorry. But my experience was also different because I come from a forensics background. So coming into the clinical chemistry and clinical toxicology, they're like, well, you didn't get a BS in medical technology. So that was something that was new, but I had to prove that I can bring a lot to the lab with my different background. And another thing is now that I'm 38, most of the people coming in the lab are like 20, 25. So, you know, there are other ways to diversify a lab, you know, not just hiring people of different colors or different ages and things, you know. So, yeah, that's it. All right, thank you. Any more or are we out of time yet? Anybody? Oh, we got one. I have an interesting question. Yes. How do you hire people without falling victim to tokenism? You know, and that tokenism, that's a matter of perspective, right? You know, somebody has to be the first, right? Somebody had to be the first. So that's a matter of perspective. It can't be tokenism if you want that person there and they belong and you give them a voice. Now you're part of my team. You're not the token. You're a part of my team. So, and you're gonna be there. I'm gonna hope you're gonna go out and go into your community where I may not go and feel comfortable with and bring somebody else. So now I got two. So, and that's how it starts. So we don't wanna get caught up in that rhetoric or get caught up in those labels, those negative labels, because someone has to be first and take pride. I'm the first and I have a voice and I'm gonna depend upon you. If you're my first, well, then I need you to teach me how to do better so you are no longer the first. You just, you started it, but there's a whole line come behind you. So that's a matter of perspective and you don't have to use that word token. You're just first. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes. Thank you. So thank you. We're out of time. We had a hard stop. So thanks everybody for coming. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening. Thank you.

diversity

equity

inclusion

laboratories

best practices

recruitment strategies

hiring process

employee retention

innovation