HireTalent founder and CEO Ashish Kaushal has made it his mission not only to put diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of his business, but to make sure other businesses have the education, resources and tools they need to make it the heart of their businesses as well. Kaushal also founded a grassroots movement, Consciously Unbiased, to disrupt the way corporations look at diversity and inclusion. “Growing up as a minority in Connecticut, I think diversity, equity and inclusion has always been on my mind because of my own personal experiences,” Kaushal shares.
Due to his efforts, HireTalent has one of the largest diverse talent pools in the US, with 82% of its placements being diverse candidates. Meanwhile, Consciously Unbiased in the last 12 months has released a playbook on the Great Resignation and workers’ changing values. Additionally, the organization has expanded its training programs for companies to include more than 15 offerings customized for the organizations that they work with. A highlight of his year was when a Fortune 100 company had a 27% increase in diverse hiring after delivering Consciously Unbiased’s “Unconscious Bias in Hiring” training to 3,500 hiring managers. “Diversity is a business necessity. The bottom line is that if you want to win the talent war, you have to be intentional about outreach to diverse talent sources,” Kaushal says.
For companies that want to expand their DE&I initiatives but aren’t sure where to start, Kaushal’s advice is to take some time to internally understand where you are and where you want to go, and then build your strategic plan on how you want to get there.
Kaushal’s work is breaking down barriers and bringing awareness to the importance of diversity in the workplace. Through Consciously Unbiased’s interactive learning experiences, to the Breaking the Bias podcast, to Consciously Unbiased LinkedIn Lives, Kaushal taps into the power of storytelling by amplifying diverse voices and perspectives to spark empathy that leads to behavior change and greater inclusion.
Kaushal himself has been awarded a Mogul 2021 Top DEI Leader award and has advanced awareness about key DE&I topics as a thought leader quoted in more than a dozen media outlets ranging from Newsweek to Reuters to Foreign Policy to Forbes.
2023 DE&I Influencers List