Your PLN and Inclusion

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Many companies have embraced diversity in opening-up opportunities to those of different cultures and beliefs, however, the effects of intergenerational poverty on access to opportunities are still overlooked, meaning that many still do not have an equal chance at achieving career success compared to those from more affluent backgrounds. I believe that more can still be done in education and in creating hiring practices that can better address this fundamental inequity.
From my experience, many workplaces are still relatively homogeneous. Even when we hire people from a variety of backgrounds, we still tend to end up with many people coming from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, who attended the same schools, with the same hobbies, and so forth.
I think that we need to begin to consider how a more disprivileged background can affect career prospects beginning from a child’s first exposure to education. Supports in school (as a piece of a child’s PLN) need to be available for children who start out with fewer resources or have unique learning needs perhaps due to ADHD or Autism. In addition, I believe that as much as possible that children should be kept ‘together’ (Moore, 2018) in order to remain a part of one another’s PLNs and to enable children to learn from one another.
A relevant example to how a diverse PLN and set of resources can make a difference in a person’s career prospects lie in the common ask for ‘good communication skills’. In other words, this can be understood to mean a person who is confident, well-spoken and is effective at written communication. What this ask fails to consider, however, is that such skills can only really be developed if one has had the privilege to allow for these skills to be nurtured.
With respect to recruitment, even when candidates come from relatively privileged middle-class backgrounds which would have allowed relatively equitable access to education, attaining a point of entry into one’s field of interest can still be a challenge.
This came to be exemplified in the attitude of a recruiter at a networking event that I recently attended.
On a surface level, she explained that she loved to match suitable applicants to roles and to create opportunities for people. However, she gave many subtle signs that she had an underlying belief that none of the students in attendance were qualified to be suitable for relevant work within the industry she was hiring within. For example, she opened by saying ‘I’m sure many of you have applied to us and have heard nothing back”. She then began to plug her ‘talent on demand’ program that effectively asked individuals to welcome the idea of temporary work that would not provide individuals with a reliable income because of perceived inexperience. I thought this was an interesting thing to say to a room full of students with extremely relevant degrees and experience without knowing a single thing about anyone in attendance. She then went on to relay an anecdote about how a candidate with an ‘unusual background’ in Philosophy whom she did not think would be successful as a Project Manager ended up being ‘fantastic’ in the role. This seemed proof to me that traditional hiring practices DO NOT guarantee us the best candidate and that our strategies around recruitment could use an overhaul. There is an extreme amount of pressure to following graduation to land ‘the right job’ in markets that are competitive and oversaturated, and the challenge is even greater in times of economic downturn.
I think that one’s resources growing up and one’s PLN and supports or connections can make all the difference in who is ultimately chosen to be given a chance in the business place.
I think that having a diverse PLN in school and in the workplace is the only way to learn. If we are not exposed to different ideas, if our ideas, realities, and perceptions are never challenged, then we will never grow or learn. We can learn so much from one another. In addition, we often fear what we do not understand, and this can often act to divide us as people. I think that diversifying our PLNs is an absolutely necessary way to further our learning and to better understand and appreciate those around us. And in order for others to feel comfortable enough to welcome us into their truth and to share their knowledge with us, inclusion is paramount.

In terms of my existing PLN, I would say that it’s fairly diverse. Since Health Informatics is multidisciplinary in nature, I find I am following accounts that relate to Health, Technology, and Business. I am connected to a lot of my peers on LinkedIn and on Facebook messenger who come from similar backgrounds and to a few professionals in my industry. I used to tend to participate in a silo of information sharing, but I have lately been trying to expand my horizons by following a variety of different accounts and individuals and making an effort to hear their stories. Out of personal interest, I follow accounts related to mental health, art, science, environmental issues, politics, comedy, etc.
A diverse PLN certainly can broaden one’s view of inclusion. I still think there is more room in all of our PLNs to expand to include the voices of those whose realities we know little about. Something in addition to this that I would still like to change is my lack of participation on a lot of online platforms.

References
Moore, Shelley. “The Evolution of Inclusion“. YouTube, uploaded by Five Moore Minutes, 1 October 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgXBhPh5Zo&feature=youtu.be.(02:12-02:18).