Hiring processes often have racial biases that affect people of color and people from minority groups. Rhett Lindsey has acknowledged this problem in the workplace and decided to work on it. With his background in hiring for technology roles, he understood the change that needed to happen in the recruitment industry. He has launched Siimee,  a mission-driven platform that aims to reduce biases when it comes to hiring employees.

Rhett Lindsey is a recruitment professional who has recently given up his six-figure salary job after realizing the problems in the hiring processes of the company. He has had enough of seeing large companies depriving job opportunities to racialized groups. Even when they are great candidates for the role, the racial prejudices of the hiring companies get in the way and deny opportunities. Rhett is working hard to help eradicate this corrupt system in hiring employees.

Rhett wanted to work at Facebook and applied three times before being accepted as a recruiter. After being appointed as the social media giant’s recruiter for engineers, he made sure to deliver his best work. Passionate in giving people equal opportunities, Rhett used his position to push for more extensive employee diversity at Facebook.

Several months after Rhett’s employment, a virtual meeting was held to discuss Facebook’s objective to hire more black engineers. However, during the discussion, a white manager was playing a Drake song that had a lot of N-word in the background. Rhett was extremely disappointed by this and left his job. He wanted to launch a platform that focuses on starting unbiased connections between job seekers and employers.

He named his recruitment platform, Siimee, pronounced as “see-me”. This new company aims to have job seekers and employers have a one-on-one match without the need for any human biases. Moreover, the purpose of Siimee is for employers to be more focused on the job seeker’s qualifications rather than other characteristics. Rhett believes that removing the biases in the hiring process will give people equal opportunities.

As a black queer man, Rhett felt like inclusion and diversity are the least prioritized by large companies. To combat this, he launched Siimee to be a recruitment platform that allows job seekers to share the most significant details about themselves, the information that matters the most.

According to Rhett, the platform highlights the individuals’ backgrounds, ambitions, and interests. What makes the app unique is that it allows job seekers to hide their photos before sharing their resumes. It also provided recruiters the power to either swipe left to ignore a candidates profile, or swipe right to make connections. Moreover, the app will offer employers data to evaluate their diversity and inclusion status.

Rhett acknowledged the fact that the application can be similar to a dating app, but exclusively for professional endeavors. The team at Siimee monitors the activity on their platform and sees if companies are involved in discrimination and biases.

Rhett wants Siimee to be the platform that influences other recruitment platforms to consider inclusivity and diversity when it comes to connecting job seekers and employers.

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