Accessibility in our hiring process

Last May silverorange celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a series of lightning talks, in large part thanks to the efforts of Lead Front-End Web Developer and blogger extraordinaire Maureen Holland. When the event was first announced I thought “Great! I look forward to attending”, not really thinking that as an HR person I’d have anything to contribute to talks focused on digital accessibility. When Maureen reached out and asked if I might be interested in talking about how we integrate accessibility into our hiring process, I was 1) impressed with her outside-the-box thinking, and 2) immediately in.

Here’s some of what I shared with our team.

Before Candidates Apply

If we want candidates from diverse backgrounds to be attracted to our company (and we do!), we need to tell them so. We try to let diverse candidates know they are welcome and wanted via our job advertisements in the following ways:

We start by sharing a statement of values

People with different backgrounds and experiences make us stronger, and we’re always looking for ways to improve. Our team is getting more diverse across many dimensions of diversity, but we’re still missing perspectives that could make our work better. We highly encourage people from traditionally underrepresented groups in our industry to apply—we’d love to hear from you.

We extend an explicit invitation

If you require accommodations at any phase of the application or interview process, please let us know by email. We would be happy to support you and discuss accommodations as required.

We advertise flexibility

Flexible work days, approached collaboratively with you to allow for the realities of appointments, family minding, and your everyday life.

We avoid arbitrary requirements

We don’t have any statements about needing to be able to sit for X number of hours per day, or lift X number of pounds, because these things aren’t truly necessary to do our jobs. If someone wants or needs to change positions while working, for example, we’re happy to provide them with a standing desk. All accommodations are on the table to make sure a diverse group of great people can comfortably work with us.

After Candidates Apply

We try to provide as much transparency as possible about what to expect throughout the hiring process. At minimum, each applicant receives an auto-reply that outlines each step in our hiring process and an expected timeline for next steps. If expected timelines change substantially, we send an email to all active candidates to let them know.

Our auto-reply could be set up to come from a ‘no reply’ account, but I intentionally have it sent from my email address so candidates are able to reply and ask me questions if they have them. I believe this is an important factor in making sure our hiring process is accessible — I may think I’ve provided all the information necessary to assure candidates we can accommodate them, but I would never want a candidate to self-select out because they couldn’t find information they needed and couldn’t reach anyone to ask.

Multiple ways to shine

Some people struggle to articulate their skills but are really great at demonstrating them. That’s why all of our hiring processes have at least two steps (in varying orders depending on the role):

an exercise where candidates can show us what they know and can do
an interview where candidates can tell us what they know and can do

Both are important, but we tend to put more weight in a candidate’s ability to show their skills than a candidate’s ability to talk about their skills.

The exercise (show us!)

Our exercises are completed on the candidate’s own time (and compensated). We won’t make candidates sit on Zoom and work in front of us.
We have negotiable time windows for completing exercises to allow for the realities of individuals’ lives and commitments.
Our exercises focus on real job skills. They are meant to be a representation of the type of work we’d actually expect someone to do in the role at silverorange. We’re looking for insight into the way people approach problems and work through tasks as opposed to a perfect bit of code or answer.

The interview (tell us!)

As a remote-first company, all of our interviews are virtual — no need to live in a particular area, navigate traffic, or try to access potentially inaccessible buildings.
Again, we have negotiable times for interviews to allow for the realities of individuals’ lives and commitments.
We ask straightforward questions that focus on abilities — we promise not to ask anyone what their spirit animal is!

Before an interview

When inviting a candidate for an interview, we tell them the names and roles of each person on the interview panel, the format of the interview, and the expected length of the interview. Questions are always welcome.

During an interview

We start by sharing as much information as possible to set expectations and put the candidate at ease. Things we share include:

Who will be asking questions.
We will be taking notes to help us remember what they say, so if they notice us pausing between questions or seemingly looking away, it is because we are catching up on our notes, not because something has gone ‘wrong’.
Our questions are not meant to be ‘gotchas’ - if they’re confused by anything, we are happy to re-word or clarify.
We are more than happy to give them time to pause and think as needed.
Candidates are welcome to ask questions as they come to them, and we will hold space for questions at the end of the interview as well.

I don’t share this post to brag — I’m certain there are still ways we could and should improve accessibility in our hiring process. Improving accessibility helps everyone, regardless of their particular needs or challenges. We all benefit from clarity, transparency, and flexibility.

I figure if one person gets an idea of how to improve accessibility in their hiring process, one person feels a bit more comfortable with going through our process as a candidate, or one person reaches out to me with ideas of how we could do better, this post will be worthwhile.