People-Centered Recruitment and Hiring Philosophy & Practices
About Powerhouse engaged Yancey Consulting in 2019 to help design people-centered Human Resources recruitment and employment strategies that model the organization’s values.
Out of this work grew a new hiring process that centers and reinforces that every individual who interfaces with Powerhouse is multidimensional with desires, beliefs, fears, cultural practices, rituals, biases, loves, heartaches, and a host of other attributes that make them unique and human. We actively hold ourselves accountable to ensuring that job descriptions, interviewing and evaluation processes minimize biases and are approachable. We invite staff from across the organization to have input in growing our team and shaping the organization’s culture, and we commit to staying vigilant about gendered language and other behaviors that might cause unintended harm to people.
Understanding that people are our most valuable resource, this reflection with Yancey Consulting underscores the importance of creating structures and policies that welcome our staff’s artistic practice, well-being, and professional development goals. The value that encourages candidates to choose Powerhouse over another goes beyond compensation and resides in opportunities for growth, benefits, company culture, mission, and impact.
“Why would someone want to come work for us and stay?” is an important question to be continuously interrogated at the organization.

This work also spurred anti-bias conversations, facilitated by the Yancey Consulting team. In response to these conversations about race and privilege, the Powerhouse Library was established to house books available for check-out by Powerhouse staff. An internal reading group was established and dedicated sessions were held to discuss Crucial Conversations by Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny, and Ron McMillan and Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Our work to fully embrace and operationalize the ideas and organizational culture defined during this engagement is only just beginning. It is our hope that sharing this work here will continue to keep us accountable to these commitments. We hope that other workplaces may benefit from our learning as well.

Thank you to Lisa Yancey and Jolita Crosland of Yancey Consulting for your collaboration and leadership on this work. Read more about their practice at www.yanceyconsulting.com

Please download the full People-Centered Recruitment and Hiring Philosophy and Practices report below:

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