The Foreign Service Journal, December 2022

20 DECEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL SPEAKING OUT “Winning the Competition for Talent”— The Case for Expanding the Diplomat in Residence Program BY BRENDAN R I VAGE- SEUL Brendan Rivage-Seul, a former recruitment director at Teach For America, is a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service. He has served in Mexico, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and France, with multiple assignments in Washington, D.C. This is his second article for The Foreign Service Journal. I read with interest Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon’s email blast to all State Department personnel earlier this year that carried the subject line: “Winning the Competition for Talent. ” In it, “D-MR” touted the department’s numerous reforms in the past 12 months aimed at workforce retention and recruit- ing the next generation of U.S. foreign policy professionals. State’s latest initiatives focused on retention (e.g., expanded remote work eligibility, more flexible options for leave without pay, tracking data from exit inter- views) are promising—and long overdue. And the expansion of Pickering, Rangel, and Payne (USAID) Fellowship programs focused on diversity recruitment are welcome. However, if our goal is to have a workforce that truly reflects the American people—and includes “talented people from all walks of life”—there is a com- pelling case for expanding and revamp- ing the Diplomat in Residence (DIR) program, as well. Organizational diversity starts with recruitment and selection— and is solidified through retention: The two go hand in hand. Consider that no matter how well State does with retention, it will not fundamentally change the current For- eign Service demographics. According to the latest figures from AFSA, Foreign Service ranks—white men excluded— consist of women (37 percent), African Americans (8 percent), Asian Americans (7 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (8 percent). A Foreign Service that “looks like America” would, by contrast, track more closely with our nation’s demograph- ics, which per the latest U.S. census data break down as follows: women (50.5 percent), African Americans (13.6 per- cent), Asian Americans (6.1 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (18.9 percent). These figures signal that, with the exception of one non–white male cat- egory, we clearly need more diversity in our pool of successful Foreign Service applicants (i.e., those who ultimately become U.S. diplomats). Expanding and rethinking our recruitment strategies would seem an obvious place to start. After speaking with several colleagues who have served recently as DIRs, I am convinced that to attract the most tal- ented and diverse group of Foreign Ser- vice candidates who can make it through the rigorous selection process, our DIR teammust become much bigger, more strategic, proactive, and data-driven. We must also equip DIRs with better resources, recruitment tools and technol- ogy, metrics, and accountability mecha- nisms to track their success in boosting the numbers of successful candidates from underrepresented groups. Here I should add that my conversa- tions with former DIRs left no question that they are doing well-intentioned, admirable work—and naturally trying to focus on diversity recruitment. But there is so much more the department could be doing to set them up for success. The good news is we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, the depart- ment can take a page from the recruit- ment playbooks of other successful nonprofit and government organizations that have made huge diversity gains in recent years, including Peace Corps, City Year, Teach For America, and even the U.S. military. Recruit Like a Nonprofit Before I joined the Foreign Service, I worked as a recruitment director at Teach For America (TFA). TFA invested heavily in its professional recruitment operations (including training), and many parts of its model seem applicable to the State Department and worth emulating. At TFA we had 50 regional recruitment directors, 50 recruitment associates, and hundreds of paid interns spread across