I feel like I say this a lot in my personal and professional lives but it always seems to bear repeating: just because you can hire a person of color, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, a person with a disability, a cisgender woman, or anyone from a marginalized group does not mean you SHOULD hire a person of color, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, a person with a disability, a cisgender woman, or anyone from a marginalized group. Get your organizational culture, environment, and staff aligned with empathy, equity, and inclusion THEN revisit if you're even remotely ready to begin building a staff that reflects the community you serve.

If you're interviewing candidates for a position and you're still using scoring grids, point systems, or any kind of system that alludes to the "right answer" your interviewers should be seeking that earns a candidate extra points over another then your approach to interviewing is desperately in need of an overhaul. Point systems and scoring grids are rampant with bias and favoritism and leads to "comparison shopping", comparing candidates to one another based on a perceived "more bang for your buck" value to see which one you should place in your cart. These systems have also been shown to be discriminatory as well as lacking in malleability, leaving great candidates with transferable skills and/or personal and professional backgrounds that could expand the role you're looking to fill in exciting ways on the cutting room floor.

Effective interviews are built on behavioral questions, smart follow-ups for elaboration, and not comparing candidates to one another or a scoring grid but comparing candidates to the top eight to ten non-biased attributes (tangibles and intangibles) that you are looking for in someone who will excel in the role and in your organization. Don't leave candidates on the cutting room floor - leave scoring systems instead.