Finding Safe Workplaces for the LGBTQIA+ Community With Equality Careers

Since starting Redtree back in 2015, we’ve worked with countless incredible companies. But we’re especially excited about Equality Careers, an LGBT+ Job Board—a project that truly stands out during Pride Month.

Equality Careers is a job site specifically built for the LGBTQIA+ community, connecting LGBTQIA+ individuals with employers who foster forward-thinking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives to create safe, welcoming work environments.

Equality Careers was envisioned by Jessica Eberley, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and the owner and CEO of HRT Solutions, a Talent Acquisition and Human Resources company.

That was a big deal for us, as Redtree is also LGBTQIA+ owned!

Working together was a natural fit, especially since Redtree owner Meesha Gerhart and Jessica Eberley have been close friends for years. In fact, Meesha recently interviewed Jessica on the W.E. Talk podcast to learn more about Equality Careers:

Building A Site for Inclusivity

Here’s how we navigated building Equality Careers:

Controlling Costs

For Jessica Eberley and HRT Solutions, Equality Careers started as a passion project. Because of this, Jessica and her team initially decided to follow the minimum viable product (MVP) framework by keeping costs low through simplicity, strategic decision making, and a clear vision proof of concept.

On our end, that meant pushing forward as efficiently as possible.

After our team researched countless job boards to determine what made each one successful, and after numerous deep conversations with Jessica and her team to understand what Equality Careers should look and feel like, we picked a robust framework as our starting skeleton essential features for the website.

This gave us an excellent foundation for focusing on the Equality Careers mission and the community it serves instead of sinking valuable time into reinventing the backend code for job boards. At the same time, this starting point allowed us to maintain customization flexibility and keep our costs manageable so Equality Careers could achieve a proof of concept.

Building Out Functionality

Equality Careers is essentially a marketplace connecting employers and job seekers. To that end, we aimed to strike a careful balance in UX for both of those demographics.

For job seekers, we recognized the overwhelming nature of navigating employment—so we worked to create an easy-to-use platform featuring:

• Easily recognizable filters for keywords, location, and more
• The ability to hide filters
• An option to build an Equality Careers resume (that stays on the site to simplify the application process)
• Quick apply options that allows users to apply for jobs with only a few clicks

The ultimate goal, of course, is to present as many great jobs to candidates as possible—without a ton of clicking.

For hiring managers, we’ve focused on building a rich, easy-to-use backend to post jobs and sort through applicants.

In addition, we’ve made the intentional decision to keep all applicants within Equality Careers so that they rarely get pushed to applying on the company website. This helps keep all of the Equality Careers-generated applicants in one place—simplifying the hiring process from the employer side.

Emphasizing Design and Inclusivity

Equality Careers was intended to be as inclusive as it is professional, so we wanted to strike a careful balance between celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community while still creating a productive, helpful job board.

With rainbows being the predominant symbol of pride within the LGBTQIA+ community, we worked to seamlessly blend them into the overall design without becoming overwhelming or a focal point. You’ll find rainbows worked in subtly, like in the design for the header on the homepage, or in the hearts for the “Favorite” option.

In addition, we’ve also built the site to allow people to present themselves as they are. While building a profile as a user, for example, there’s are separate lines for:

• Your chosen name (so that hiring managers know exactly how you prefer to be addressed)
• Your legal name (so that hiring managers can pull additional details about your background)
• Your pronouns, if you choose to add them (again, so hiring managers understand how to refer to you before connecting for an interview)

Of course, all hiring managers and their companies are also carefully vetted before they’re allowed to post new jobs. Employers must prove they prioritize inclusion by sharing their DEI initiatives and downloading the Equality Careers DEI toolkit. From there, the Equality Careers team researches the company to ensure they align with the Equality Careers mission!

Building A Better Community

Though we’ve played such a small role in the overall creation of Equality Careers, we’re honored to have played a part.

It’s wonderful to see business owners so passionate about supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, they’re willing to invest in building a website that connects safe workplaces with people who are still being victimized in 2023.

Check out Equality Careers today, or read HRT Solution’s blog on Equality Careers to learn about the project from their side!