One Token Candidate Won’t Make a Difference in Diversity Hiring

Diversity in the workplace has become a hot-button issue in recent years, with many companies revamping their hiring processes to include more candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. But according to new research, simply adding a woman or a person of color to the applicant pool produces the same result: a non-diverse workforce.

If there is only one woman in a four-person candidate pool, statistically she has a zero percent chance of getting the job, according to research published in Harvard Business Review by academics at the University of Colorado.

The problem with corporate diversity initiatives, according to Stefanie Johnson, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, is that companies often push to include only one minority, which gives the person about the same consideration for the job as if he or she weren’t included at all.

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.