The last few years have made it clear that there is a need for improved focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in staffing at cities and local governments everywhere. Many cities have started to (or are continuing to) hire staff whose focus is on managing that change in city DEI practices, including how to create diverse, equitable, and inclusive local government workforces. The goal behind these efforts is to ensure that Washingtonians have local governments they trust and that understand how to best respond to diverse community needs.

AWC is working to provide a forum for these city equity officers to discuss their ideas and challenges and share information about their efforts during quarterly roundtable meetings. The group includes more than 40 DEI staff “officers” who have a role in their cities to work on internal and external DEI programs and initiatives. If you would like to join the group, please email AWC’s Communications Manager, Emma Shepard.

Renton is one example of a city that has been working hard to improve its diversity in hiring in recent years, largely by identifying and removing barriers to hiring that have little or no impact on actual job performance. In 2018, the city implemented an anonymous application process. Applications are reviewed by a hiring manager with personally identifying information (like names, addresses, and similar information) removed to avoid unintentional bias in application screening. Other recent strategies Renton is incorporating in its recruitment efforts include:

• Removing unnecessary credentials and experience requirements from job descriptions;
• Including job description language emphasizing teamwork, respect in the workplace, and fostering a work culture of equity and inclusion;
• Providing candidates a list of interview questions in advance of interviews;
• Allowing remote interviews; and
• Eliminating requirements for candidates to produce (and thus pay for) their own driving records.

Renton also regularly measures current staff’s feelings on inclusion in the workplace with internal surveys and ensure that current staff can access city workforce demographics data, including for their own or other departments.

Many of these efforts are still in their beginning stages, so clear trends (and the success of particular DEI efforts) are hard to measure with limited data. However, the city has seen an increase in the number of women hired between 2017 (34%) and 2021 (45%), corresponding with similar increases in female job applicants at the city overall. For overall hiring people of color, the city has also seen hiring increases between 2017 (22%) and 2021 (40%), though some individual demographic groups saw larger increases while others saw declines. Renton Senior HR Analyst Brian Sandler emphasizes that it is still too early to tell if groups that saw declines in hiring were due to the changes to the city’s hiring system or other factors outside the city’s control like the overall economy or the pandemic.

AWC included Renton’s hiring program, as well as other local governments’ DEI efforts, as case studies in our AWC Equity Resource Guide released in 2021.