Excerpted from hngnews.com, by Jennifer Fetterly

The City of Sun Prairie wants more people of color, different ethnic backgrounds and women to apply for city jobs to diversify its workforce.

To do that city officials want to stop “unconscious bias” on age, racial, ethnic and gender background by not allowing initial hiring screeners to see that applicant’s information. Questions on criminal convictions would also be eliminated from city employment applications, and would not be considered until the final hiring background check.

District 1 Alder Emily Lindsey and City of Sun Prairie Human Resources Director Brenda Sukenik crafted the changes to the city recruitment and selection policy and introduced them at the Feb. 13 Personnel Committee meeting.

In the last two years, 13 of 63 new hires were racial or ethnic minorities but Lindsey says the city needs to do more.

“It’s not just enough to say that we want to have a diverse workforce, we need to set some benchmarks and figure out a plan to achieve our goals,” Lindsey said at the Feb. 13 Personnel Committee meeting.

She says the changes could attract a more diverse pool of applicants to mirror the make-up of the community. An ad-hoc city diversity committee, a group of citizens, business owners and city officials that reviewed city policies, also recommended diversifying the city workforce.

You can read the full story here.