We are consistently evaluating our company policies and practices to identify opportunities among our internal diversity, belonging, and inclusion (DI&B) efforts. Give this blog a read to learn about our latest endeavor to further Indeed’s accessibility as an employer by removing degree requirements for many of our job profiles.
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As the working world continues to evolve, particularly over the last few years, employees have become more deliberate about their employment decisions. Gone are the days of employers attracting top talent with minimal benefits and simple perks. Much of the world’s workforce has had to navigate working remotely while still maintaining all of their regular responsibilities, and as we live through ‘The Great Resignation’, priorities have clearly shifted. Now more than ever, workers value an employer that is flexible, socially responsible, and one that creates opportunities for a diverse range of talent.
For Indeed, we made it clear that we are committed to advancing, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging by declaring Inclusion and Belonging as one of our official company values in 2019. We believe that diversity of background, experience, and thought makes for a better workplace and a more successful company, as it directly aligns with our mission to help people get jobs.
In keeping with this commitment, we have removed university degree requirements from all eligible job profiles. This change has impacted 700+ job profiles across all of our business units and we will continue to use our degree evaluation process when creating new job profiles. Removing this barrier will allow us to engage, attract, and hire a wider pool of qualified applicants applying for jobs across Indeed.
“I loved working on the degree removal project because, yes, it took 18 months, but now that it’s finished, I am 100% sure that we’ve expanded who has a chance to apply for our roles, and I know that Indeed is better off for that.” Kathryn Koo, Senior Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Business Partner based in New York shares about working on the degree removal project.
The conversation about degree requirements began when an employee raised the question during one of our monthly Q&A sessions. Our CEO, Chris Hyams, frequently hosts these Q&A meetings alongside internal subject matter experts so that all Indeedians have an opportunity to voice their inquiries. A hot topic of this particular Q&A was our DI&B efforts, which led to a question about our degree requirements. As with many new ideas, Chris agreed that it sounded interesting and wanted to look into it.
Work to complete the project kicked off in early 2021 when our Mobility and Legal teams worked together to review each of our job profiles, ensuring degree requirements were only included for positions where a degree was truly required. Legal then partnered with DI&B to create guidelines for the removal of degrees from job profiles. These guidelines were utilized by leaders across all of our business units to aid in the identification of job profiles that qualified for degree removal. Our Mobility and Legal teams took one last look over the updated job profiles before our HR Tech and Talent Attraction (TA) teams updated all of the
necessary systems, live requisitions, and job descriptions. The project is live and all job descriptions that were eligible for degree removal have been updated.
“I was very passionate about this project. Not everyone has the privilege of attending college, and by
removing degree requirements from eligible roles, we are truly helping people get jobs. I want to reiterate that none of this would have been possible without our cross-functional team of subject matter experts, and leadership support. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to lead this initiative.” Jess Weinberg, Senior Project Manager based in New York shares her experience leading the degree removal project.
“Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.” – Chris Hyams, CEO
As one of our core values, Inclusion and Belonging was the driving force behind this project.
What does that mean?
Inclusion in the workplace is about the actions and behaviors we take to create a culture in which employees feel valued, trusted, and authentic. Belonging at work is a feeling of community with the people and environments that make us feel connected. We believe that a critical aspect of Inclusion and Belonging is embracing people of all backgrounds, and channeling our unique perspectives. Far beyond gaining access to a larger pool of applicants, the degree removal initiative signifies a meaningful step towards our vision to help close the opportunity gap by reducing bias and removing barriers from our hiring process.
“Degree requirements can present such a steep barrier for otherwise perfectly qualified candidates who bring great on-the-job experience and strong competence to the table. These job seekers are often overlooked and pushed into taking lower paying, lower titled roles all because their path didn’t involve traditional post-secondary education. It also results in missed opportunities for promotion when they look to progress their careers, which has a compounding effect on their ability to grow professionally and financially,” said LaFawn Davis, Indeed’s Senior Vice President of ESG. “Being open minded to the unique career path some job seekers take is aligned with our Inclusion & Belonging value. We embrace the fact that possessing a college degree is not always a determining factor of capability or career success.”
Team members across Talent Attraction, DI&B, Mobility, Legal, Compensation, HR, and ESG partnered on this effort, and in total, the project took nearly a year and a half to complete.
To learn more about DI&B #insideindeed, view our inclusion page.
If you want to be a part of the team and help us in our mission to help people get jobs, visit indeed.jobs to find a position that is right for you.
