Lila Kelly Associates, LLC Information

LILA KELLY ASSOCIATES, LLC works with organizations to manage the challenges of a changing workforce by strategically integrating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into their hiring, interviewing, recruiting, and retention practices. Lila’s combined background over the last 25+ years in the fields of DEI, human resources management, and career transition gives her a unique perspective on social inequities that exist in the hiring process. She now guides organizations through the complex and often cloudy challenges of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and retaining a diverse workforce in a rapidly changing workplace. She started Lila Kelly Associates in 1992 and DiversityIntegration.com in 2015. We provide DEI and human resources management consulting to K-12 and higher education, government, healthcare, non-profit and private organizations. Lila has authored and provides online training courses, books, and blended learning workshops on this topic (see DiversityIntegration.com). IDENTIFYING THE MISSING LINK AND BRIDGING THE GAP Back in the early 1990s, after seeing good applicants fall through the cracks numerous times, particularly diverse applicants, Lila realized that there was a missing link in the ongoing topic of “recruitment and retention.” That missing link was the interview and hiring process. This realization led her to do research on diversity hiring, particularly in the interview process. Her research involved interviewing hundreds of people of diverse backgrounds and careers. These individuals shared their experiences as job applicants going through the interview and hiring process, unconscious bias they encountered, and their suggestions for improvement. Since then, Lila continues to have discussions with people of all backgrounds who are applicants, interviewers and hiring managers about ways to bridge the gap between employers and an increasingly diverse workforce.