Inclo
Inclo is a website and browser extension designed to make hiring more accessible for disabled/diverse talent.
Role
UX Designer, User Researcher
Duration
4 weeks
Tools
Figma
The Challenge
Hiring disabled/neurodiverse talent is difficult both as a job seeker and a recruiter.
For job seekers who require reasonable accommodations, it can be a struggle to find accessible work. Conventional job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed don’t provide a method for job seekers to include their accessibility needs beyond the publicly visible profile page, and publishing that information risks being unfairly dismissed by potential employers. Although there are several inclusive hiring job boards, they only offer jobs listed by their partner organizations. This results in a very limited selection of jobs, and often the jobs available can reveal a stigmatized view of disability (positions targeted at autistic job seekers are either manual labor positions or software engineers, for example).
For recruiters who want to hire disabled and diverse people, it’s challenging to find talent. There aren’t currently any tools that allow recruiters to search by disability/diversity, which means recruiters often have to guess based on appearance.
The Problem
There is no current tool that allows job seekers to advocate for their accommodation needs, and be hired with transparency.
The Outcome
I designed a browser extension that allows job seekers to create an “accessibility profile” that syncs with their profiles on major job boards, and, allows recruiters to both search by self-declared diversity and download the accessibility profiles of diverse candidates.
Research
User Survey: What Accommodations do Job Seekers Need?
To learn what accommodations are most needed I surveyed a group of 11 job seekers. The survey compiled the most common workplace accommodations listed in the Job Accommodation Network and asked if people identified as disabled, neurodivergent, or neither.
The results showed that both users who identified as disabled/neurodivergent and those who didn’t, desired accommodations at roughly equal rates.
I compiled the accommodations that scored most highly into the content of Inclo, and decided to frame the language of Inclo to be inclusive of both disabled and non-disabled people.
“There are currently no tools to help recruiters hire diverse talent.”
User Interview: What’s it Like to Recruit for Diversity?
I interviewed Caroline Rockey about her experience hiring for diversity as a technical recruiter. She said recruiters often get monetary incentives if they help companies meet their diversity quotas. Unfortunately, most companies only include diversity as an afterthought.
Hiring diverse talent is also challenging because there aren’t any tools that allow recruiters to search for diverse candidates (of any kind: gender, race, ability, etc.). So recruiters often resort to superficial markers of diversity, which doesn’t feel good or respectful to anyone involved.
Key Takeaways
There is an incentive for companies and recruiters to hire diverse talent.
Recruiters need tools that help them search for diverse candidates.
This tool needs to work with any CRM because many recruiters work gig-to-gig.
Defining the Users & Jobs To Be Done
To ensure I keep the needs of my users central to my design process, I've created two barebones user personas and identified a primary job to be done for each user.
User 1: Job Seeker
They identify as neurodivergent and/or disabled and require accommodations to thrive in the workplace. They’re looking for work, and want their need for accommodations to be easily understood and respected.
Job to be done: to feel understood and supported.
User 2: Recruiter
They freelance as a recruiter, and they want to help their company meet its diversity quota. They also want to make sure they’re supporting their disabled candidates, but they don’t know where to start.
Job to be done: to feel confident in recruiting diverse candidates.
Ah Ha! Moment: Designing for a Usable Platform
Oops, You Can’t Embed Anything Into LinkedIn
My original idea was for Inclo to display on a job seeker’s LinkedIn profile. But LinkedIn doesn’t have any flexibility for inserting custom content. Also several of my usability testers voiced concern over displaying their disability and accommodation needs publicly.
Browser Extensions are What Recruiters Really Use
My research revealed that the most used recruiting tools gather candidates’ contact information from major job boards (a CRM) and that they are almost always available as Chrome Extensions. I also discovered that if users elect to share their diversity a browser extension could search for candidates based on that information.
Inclo as a Browser Extension
I stopped designing an (impossible) plugin for LinkedIn, and started on a browser extension that would allow recruiters to search for diverse candidates who had elected to self-identify (and thus take the guessing game out of recruiting diverse candidates) and download contact and accessibility information at once.
User Flow: Job Seeker
Onboarding
The job seeker onboarding experience allows users to select the workplace accommodations they need and sync their accessibility profile with their profiles on major job boards.
Step 1: Accommodation Questionnaire
The accommodations included in the questionnaire section of the onboarding experience aim to accommodate a wide variety of disabilities.
In each panel, there is space provided for users to write their answers in their own words.
Step 2: Review Accessibility Profile
After completing the accommodation questionnaire, job seekers are shown their accessibility profile as it will appear to recruiters, to make sure everything is right.
Step 3: Sync with Job Boards
By syncing to their accounts on other job boards, recruiters who are searching those databases will now be able to download their accessibility profile when using any CRM.
User Flow: Recruiter
Onboarding
The recruiter user flow is designed to be as seamless as possible, so recruiters can start using it to find diverse talent right away.
Step 1: Search for Diverse Talent
Recruiters searching major job databases like LinkedIn (pictured here), can use the Inclo browser extension to search for candidates who have self-declared their diversity.
Step 2: Download Accessibility Profile
Once a recruiter has selected a person they’d like to add to their CRM, they can use the browser extension to download the candidate’s accessibility profile.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project came from my experience navigating the murky waters of job searching as an autistic adult. My experience has often been that hiring processes prioritize a particular type of social performance over skill, and job environments, no matter how they advertise themselves, rarely welcome the accommodations I need to perform well at work.
I know my experience isn’t unique, and this project explored how design could help improve job seeking for divergent and disabled people.
The feedback I’ve received from recruiters and job seekers confirmed that not only would they like to use this product, they’d be thrilled if it existed, which I think is its biggest success.
If I were to move forward with Inclo, I would further build out how the browser extension partnered with the most popular CRMs, and refine the visual design.