TRU Colors Recruits Active and Former Gang Members: This Is How They Do Equity and Community
“If I hear about someone and I know that they’re transitioning home, I’ll send them a letter to the jailhouse, and then I’ll show up the day they get out with an offer letter,” said Khalilah Olokunola, chief people officer at TRU Colors, a brewery based in Wilmington, North Carolina, that recruits active and former gang members. “I’ve been in the jailhouse, the draft house, and the drug house to give people opportunity.”
For TRU, Khalilah has created a unique way of recruiting talent that includes networking, connecting candidates to a community before they’re even hired, and extensive onboarding. The candidate experience is comprehensive, but it doesn’t include the customary one-on-one interviews and postings on job boards.
“I’m extremely disruptive when it comes to people strategy,” Khalilah said. “Most HR people are really focused on compliance or policing policies, but not on caring about the people the policies were created for. I was able to create from a space of empathy and a humanized perspective.”
Uncubed asked Khalilah about TRU’s recruiting practices that are focused on equity and community. She offered this advice.
1. Write job descriptions differently
“Don’t just put out a job description, but create a candidate persona,” Khalilah said. “Don’t just look at somebody’s briefcase—their hard skills—but look at their head case and their heart case. Look at their cognitive ability and the motivating factors to get the job done.”
Place the weight on soft skills and on outlook. “It’s a great thing to get somebody that’s really good at the job, but do they have the resilience and the grit or the personality you need to sustain in that role based on where the company is and where they need to go?”
2. Change the way you interview
She recommends leveling the playing field by changing the way candidates are evaluated. “Translate your interview questions. You can ask questions that don’t just include ‘Tell me about your last job,’ because they may not have had a last job, but ‘Tell me about work that you’ve done that you’re proud of.’”
3. Recruit new hires into a community, not just into a role
When new hires can see themselves belonging to a community, they’re more likely to join, and for those with little or no work experience, it can help them feel comfortable in the workplace.
Before candidates are interviewed individually, Khalilah meets them in a group setting, “so that when you come in one-on-one, it wouldn’t be the first time you step into the building,” she said. “You can see your friends or somebody that you are familiar with in a role, and it helps give you the confidence that opportunity is available and that better is possible.”
Khalilah said the most common question she gets is, Is this real? When talent is welcomed into a community, it reinforces the support they’ll get. “For so long, communities like the ones we serve here have always been given hope, and that hope has been snatched back, or there’s always been an ulterior motive.”
4. Show candidates where and how their skills can be applied
Most recruits from gang communities come to TRU interested in marketing or media production jobs, but, according to Khalilah, that’s usually because they don’t see their own aptitude for roles like sales, HR, brew ops, or finance. Not only do recruits need to get comfortable learning new skills, they need the confidence it takes to step into a new type of career.
TRU’s eight-week onboarding course, Disrupt U, trains new hires on four things: life skills, social skills, business skills, and beer.
Some recruits stay with TRU Colors long term, but for many, it’s a jumping-off place where they gain confidence and build skills they take elsewhere.
“We have a team of people that started with us that are working with the county now. Imagine that: a group of gang members working for a government organization. Their training started here, and the confidence they needed to believe that it was possible started here and was shaped at TRU Colors.”
5. Support needs inside and outside the workplace
“A lot of our team members haven’t had experience working, so we’re helping to prepare them not just for the job, but also for real life,” Khalilah said. Helping them satisfy their basic needs enables them to be more successful employees.
Behind Is this real, Khalilah said the second most common question she gets is, When do I get paid? She laughs, but emphasizes that it’s about more than payday. Employees often ask for help transitioning back to the community. They ask questions like, “‘Will you help me understand and learn how to use the money that I make?’ Or, ‘Can you help me find housing or get reliable transportation?’”
6. Community requires trust, and patience
Khalilah was frank that friendly company culture doesn’t just happen, it’s tough, and it’s earned. “There is camaraderie here, but it takes some time. Trust is hard, especially when you have people that have come in together that are rival gang members or have had generational beef that has been going on for years.”
“I’ve been a peacekeeper, just with the title of chief people officer. I’ve been a peacekeeper. I’ve been a counselor, a coach. I’ve been a learning and development trainer,” Khalilah said.
7. Build the right hiring plan for your company
Khalilah was clear that this playbook works for TRU Colors; other companies will need different plans for equitable recruiting. “Don’t try to build from a book or build from a space that you heard about,” she said. The template Khalilah does recommend is what she calls the Kind Code: Knowledge Inspires New Directions. “You have to have data on who you’re hiring, and you have to understand who they are, and then you shape your programs and your processes from there.”
Recruiting practices need a complete reimagination. “Retrain your team,” she said. “Tell them that business as usual is long gone. It’s time for them to create a more equitable program by being innovative. The standard pipeline that we used was great—it worked for what it worked for—but how do I connect with the people that I want to bring in? How do I connect them to the culture before they’re even hired?”
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
Editor’s Note: On September 12, 2022, Uncubed Studios received confirmation from Khalilah Olokunola, Chief People Officer, TRU Colors had lost its funding and is ceasing operations.
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