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My question is why get so fancy? Why not just use a racial/gender quota system? Just say "we want X% from demographics A, B, and C" and then hire the best you can from those groups and call it a day?

That way you can just dial in the exact amount and types of diversity you want.

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Because that sort of hiring produces less-qualified diversity hires. If you're running a for-profit business you're better off hiring from the largest pool possible.

If you want to avoid the less-qualified you can either try harder to hire better, which is slow and expensive, or you can offer more, which is expensive but works.

Hiring without regard for quality but paying the same seems like it would cement racist (or at best anti-diversity) feelings in the rest of the workforce and leave minorities without an available sense of accomplishment.

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