“Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work”

Shari Dunn explores how race and competency checking shape the workplace.

By Shari Dunn
c.2025, Harper Business
$32; 320 pages

Check your work.

When you were in school, you probably heard that a lot. Look over that math equation. Be sure your spelling is right. Reexamine your answers. Then doing those things should result in rewards, right? Unless, as in the new business book, “Qualified” by Shari Dunn, someone’s over-checking you.

In her experience as a consultant, Dunn firmly acknowledges that being an employee is complicated and not so easy. For Black employees, though, there’s an additional level of difficulty: “competency checking,” or the constant need to prove themselves and their intelligence.

Dunn says the demand for competency checking can start before someone gets the job, sometimes merely with a name. Studies show that employers who carry stereotypes, even subconsciously, favor resumes with so-called white-sounding names.

Historically, Black workers have been fighting competency checking since they arrived on these shores 400 years ago. It shows in the words we use that sound innocent but that have dark origins. It shows in our foundational beliefs, ones that we don’t often even realize we have. It’s embedded in white supremacy. And it shows up as a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

So, what can employers do to ensure that their Black and Brown workers feel welcome? How do you make sure that the workplace works for them?

First, Dunn says, train yourself and your team to see and disrupt stereotypes, old tropes and the belief that skin color indicates competency — because it doesn’t. Acknowledge that we do not and might never live in a “colorblind” world. Read up on history to understand where biases come from and how unions and apprenticeships have factored into competency checking in the past. 

Audit and evaluate your toolkit for any racial bias on a regular basis. Make the workplace a safe place for Black employees to be authentic and to express the same emotions you’d allow white workers to display. Finally, offer support to all and create an environment where everyone, regardless of skin color, can thrive.

In her epilogue, Dunn explains that “Qualified” was written in the middle of Joe Biden’s presidency and finally edited after Kamala Harris stepped up as the Democratic nominee for president, changes which were “head-spinning.”

Sadly, history has taken things further. Dunn extensively touches upon DEI policies in this book, and we all know how that’s going.

Even so, despite the controversy, take a big-picture look: The entire basis of this book is essential reading, since it’s aimed at businesses of all sizes, including (and especially) those that can’t afford to turn away good workers. “Qualified” helps ensure that you find those workers, no matter what they look like, and that you make them happy and comfortable enough to want to stay; furthermore, easy-to-follow examples teach readers why maintaining diversity is important for growth, both personally and professionally.

A little reading between the lines will go a long way with “Qualified,” but it’s worth it. If you own a business and want it to grow, check it out.

* Editor’s Note: News is my Business earns a small commission if you click the link in this post and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.