The Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling Could Impact the Pipeline of Diverse Candidates. Here’s How to Adjust.

At the end of June, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at two universities. The ruling could impact the diversity of future college graduates and, by extension, the college-educated workforce coming up the pipeline.

The decision is a step in the wrong direction, says Jennifer Toole, president of the Silver Spring, Maryland-based engineering firm Toole Design. “It’s been hard enough for us to get diverse candidates,” Toole says. Now, she worries that the issue will only intensify.

Recruiting experts concur that the decision could jeopardize efforts to build diverse teams, but hope isn’t lost, says Ryan Whitacre, partner at the executive search firm Bridge Partners, which specializes in inclusive searches. He points to the aftermath of last year’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, when some companies said they would pay for employees’ abortion travel.

Companies that truly care about diversity will take similar initiative to find workarounds, he says, as diverse talent still abounds. It just takes a “little bit of homework” to figure out new ways to reach them.

Here’s what business leaders and recruiting experts say companies can do:

Colleges are just one resource for companies to connect with diverse, qualified candidates. Some job boards and recruiting platforms exist specifically to connect diverse candidates with companies, including PowerToFly, a New York City-based platform.

In addition, companies should meet diverse candidates where they are, says PowerToFly co-founder and CEO Milena Berry. Leaders can, for instance, attend conferences and events specifically geared towards diverse groups, she says, adding: “Find communities of LGBTQI folks or Black engineers or Latinas in tech, etc., and make sure that you’re spending marketing dollars there.”

Companies can also support and partner with professional associations and organizations, which span industries, from the National Association of Black Accountants to the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. But companies need to carefully avoid “window dressing” and superficial support to “build long-term, meaningful relationships for the students and professionals,” says Tory Clarke, co-founder and partner at Bridge Partners.

Healr Solutions, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had already started reaching out to organizations — including the National Society of Black Engineers, the National Society of Hispanics MBAs, or the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers — before the Supreme Court’s ruling, says founder and CEO Guadalupe Hayes-Mota. Since the ruling, the company is doubling down on building those relationships.

With the affirmative action precedent undone, some company leaders are looking to forge connections with students on their own — even as early as high school.

Christopher Hunsberger, co-founder and chief operating officer of the startup hotel company Appellation in Healdsburg, California, says that his company is in the early stages of forming recruiting relationships with a handful of Northern California high schools, in addition to a standing relationship with their local junior college, Santa Rosa Junior College.

“Because they’re a junior college, the price of entry isn’t quite as high, and they’re much more accessible to a lot more people of diverse backgrounds,” Hunsberger says.

And at the college level, companies can form relationships with student organizations that represent Black or LGBTQ+ or otherwise diverse students and career offices, Whitacre says, but they need to know that this kind of relationship requires going beyond the annual career-day appearance. Companies can also reevaluate what colleges they generally recruit from and expand their reach to include other schools, including, perhaps, historically Black colleges and universities, Whitacre adds.

Or companies can take the “radical” approach, he says, and reconsider the need for a college degree altogether for certain positions. Skills-based hiring is growing more and more popular: 75 percent of recruiting professionals expect that their company will prioritize skills-first hiring in the next 18 months, according to a recent LinkedIn report.

“You have to think differently, because otherwise you’re stuck in that trap of doing the same thing and hoping for change — which is, of course, insanity,” Whitacre says.

“Inclusion leads to diversity. It’s not the other way around,” Whitacre tells clients and “anybody else who will listen.” Companies have the power to create an inclusive culture that then attracts, welcomes, and retains more diverse candidates.

Specifically, company leaders can make sure interview panels are diverse, encourage internal referrals through company employee resource groups, and offer opportunities for internal mentorship, says Jina Krause-Viilmar, CEO and president of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit organization that helps immigrant and refugee professionals enter the U.S. workforce.

Then, they can project those values outward. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Hunsberger shared his disappointment publicly on LinkedIn, proclaiming that Appellation would still be “committed to nurturing and supporting diversity in the hospitality industry.”

Berry adds that through branding materials and storytelling, companies can show how diversity already thrives in their organizations, “thereby inspiring other folks who look like them to be a part of your application journey.”

This could be particularly helpful to attract younger employees. For instance, 83 percent of Gen-Z respondents in a 2020 survey from the recruiting platform Monster said that a company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is an important consideration when they choose an employer.

“Millennials and Gen-Z are so supportive of these programs and really are demanding that we become a more diverse company,” Toole says. “That’s what gives me hope for the future.” And despite the challenges that losing affirmative action policies may bring, she says that Toole Design has no plans to diminish diversity efforts as it plots next steps.