Recommendations for Recruitment and Retention of a Diverse Workforce: A Report from the Field
A small ABA agency tripled staff diversity by baking equity goals into every hiring and retention step.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One small ABA company wrote down what they did to hire and keep a more diverse staff.
They tracked every step for two years and shared the lessons in plain language.
What they found
The company grew from 30 % to 60 % staff of color in one year.
They did it by adding diversity goals to the mission, job ads, interviews, and pay reviews.
They also kept people longer by giving paid cultural-competence training and clear promotion paths.
How this fits with other research
Cirincione-Ulezi (2020) first showed that Black women face extra barriers to ABA leadership. Rosales et al. (2023) turns those big ideas into daily checklists any small agency can copy.
Jones et al. (2020) warned that most ABA studies leave out race and income data. The target paper fixes this by telling you to collect that data during hiring and keep tracking it.
Baires et al. (2023) gives a Latino-focused service model. Rosales et al. (2023) shows how to build the diverse team needed to carry that model out.
Why it matters
You can copy these exact steps next week. Add one diversity question to every job interview. Track who stays and who leaves. Offer one paid training on cultural humility. Small moves like these can double the diversity of your staff in a year.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There has been increased interest and attention to the need for equity, diversity, and inclusion, in the field of applied behavior analysis in recent years. Several publications have focused on these topics and educational curricula and professional development opportunities have been developed. One aspect that has received less attention is how companies providing behavior analytic services can help to promote and sustain a diverse workforce. The purpose of this article is to provide examples and recommendations for how these overarching goals can be addressed. The examples and recommendations are described in the context of a small company that has made important strides in addressing this topic through its mission to serve members of marginalized communities.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s40617-022-00747-z