There are very concerning patterns developing at the moment in the DEI space. DEI efforts, and often those leading them, are increasingly the most biased and close minded parts of the organization. Spreading selected stereotypes and often solving concerns about “discrimination” by being very biased and inequitable. For example at my last company a report showed that slightly fewer of a certain minority were promoted.…
I think DEI efforts can greatly vary. I know that we've worked really hard to ensure that we don't disadvantage anyone -- but it's harder than it sounds. DEI is often dealing in zero sum spaces. For example, most of the staff is white males. We try hard to hire the best person for the role, but we've instituted a policy where we mandate interviewing underrepresented groups. Not that we will hire them, but that we wil…
to the extent that the policy causes you to interview people that are obviously less qualified and won't get hired... damn, that's really bad news for the candidate.
Can you imagine that you're a Star-bellied Sneetch and waste day after valuable day of time interviewing for jobs that you won't get hired for, brought in because you happened to have a star-belly and not because you were among the most obvious fits for the job? Talk about being disadvantaged by systematic racism.
In the aggregate, sure, its still probably better for them to be extended the interview... but the wasted time chews up a chunk of that benefit.
Since your post expresses the view that you go through more interviews due to your laudably-motivated-diversity program than you would otherwise, which means you're also wasting more applicatints time than you would otherwise... perhaps you should suggest that you company pay a reasonable wage to ever person that makes it to an in person interview as a way of offsetting the negative externality?
I don't think it would be all that unreasonable once you consider the man-hour cost you're already putting in to interview the candidate, ... paying the candidate would have a similar cost to having one more person on the panel and would go a long way to make sure you're not burdening job hunters with your interviewing practices.