Navigating Political Challenges: Why Inclusive Workforce Strategies Are Essential in Today’s Climate

What does it take to build an inclusive, high-performing workforce? Today’s socio-political landscape requires that leaders navigate complex socio-political paradigms and various psychological challenges to build a diverse, progressive, and safe workplace. Northwest Talent Solutions, the acclaimed pioneer in this space, is helping companies adapt and thrive by transforming how they approach talent acquisition. 

Founded by Nikita Steals, a revered industry visionary and the recipient of the Best of the Best’s Visionary of the Year award in 2024, this global talent acquisition and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) consulting firm works with both private and public sector clients to create inclusive, high-performing teams. Northwest Talent Solutions has disrupted status quo perceptions of traditional recruiting by helping organizations develop brands that not only attract but engage and retain the best talent, particularly in the healthcare, technology, and finance sectors. “The impactful way to mitigate against disparity in the recruiting process is to mechanize against it,” says Steals. 

Steals is a revered corporate executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of leadership experience in human capital strategy. Before founding her firm, Nikita held executive leadership roles at global companies like Amazon, Capital One, and Conduent, and in each role, delivered unprecedented hiring volumes while also significantly increasing diverse representation and revenues for her employers. Her expertise includes talent acquisition, DEI strategy, performance management and OKR  execution. Due to her deep business acumen and naturally inspirational energy, Steals has become a sought after keynote speaker.  Simultaneously, Northwest Talent Solutions is quickly rising as a go-to partner for companies that want to build inclusive, diverse teams to drive innovation and success.

The Core Mission and Values

Northwest Talent Solutions’ mission is to empower clients to capture significant moments in the talent acquisition process and to help them mitigate disparities in hiring. The firm enables organizations to build recruitment strategies that maintain fairness and exceptional performance by adopting the latest technologies and focusing on inclusivity. With an emphasis on using ethical AI to ensure bias-free candidate engagement, Northwest Talent Solutions has helped clients diversify their talent pools by at least 25% while reducing time-to-hire by an average of 44%.

The firm, with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, partners with companies and candidates regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other defining characteristic. This dedication to DEI is complemented by heart-centered leadership, ensuring that every partnership is grounded in doing the right things for the right reasons.

DEI training programs have been adopted by Northwest Talent Solutions to help it identify, engage, and retain diverse talent. Through industry-compliant and effective strategies, disparities in hiring have been eliminated, which paves the way for more equitable and high-performing teams.

The core values of Northwest Talent Solutions—transparency, inclusion, integrity, accountability, and innovation—serve as the foundation of its operations. These values guide everything from communication with clients to the development of recruitment strategies that are both inclusive and performance-driven.

Northwest Talent Solutions’ Services

Northwest Talent Solutions recognizes that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work, hence, it provides custom-made talent acquisition services to the public and private sectors. Thorough requisition analyses are conducted, and customized search strategies are designed to connect businesses with diverse and highly qualified senior and executive-level candidates. This personalized approach ensures that each client receives talent perfectly aligned with their organizational goals and culture.

It provides staff augmentation services to companies facing short- or long-term project demands. Utilizing a data-driven, AI-based consultant delivery engine, talent is sourced, screened, and evaluated effectively and at scale, delivering candidates on time and within project parameters. This solution allows organizations to focus on their core objectives while the complexities of talent acquisition are handled. Candidate generation, screening, interview scheduling, offer negotiation, and onboarding are managed with simplicity and efficiency. The best technologies, predictive analytics, and professional networks are utilized to deliver the best talent at scale, meeting hiring needs without compromising quality of hire. 

Executive Coaching is also provided, which empowers leaders to navigate complex areas such as compensation, performance management, and DEI training. This holistic approach has made success at the individual, team, and organizational levels possible, enabling companies to build healthy, inclusive, and high-performance work environments.

In sum, Northwest Talent Solutions is redefining how companies build and manage their workforces. By combining advanced recruiting technologies with a strong ethical commitment to diversity and inclusion, they help organizations create teams that are not only diverse but high-performing. Under Nikita Steals’ visionary leadership, the firm has become a trusted partner for clients looking to recognize and retain talent, ensuring long-term success and resilience in an increasingly competitive market.  “We assist our clients in moving beyond conversations about representation, perse, and into the hows and whys of  creating systemically inclusive talent funnels.”  Steals’ metrics-driven approach has proven that focusing on inclusion does not compromise the talent bar within companies and that in fact, helps organizations to scale beyond the talent bar.  Organizations focused on building high inclusion indexes are an average of 2.5 times more profitable.