Diversity Recruiting 101 Explained

July 16, 2021 Jonathan Kidder 1 comment

Diversity Recruiting has always played a key role in the success of a business. From a personal standpoint, we learn early on the benefits of having diverse sources of income, diverse skills, and a diverse knowledge of topics, views, and so on. When diversity is practiced in business, an array of opportunities is made available. Hiring people from various backgrounds based on their qualifications and talents essentially builds a team of individuals that bring a lot to the table and work together to produce outstanding results.

 

Now, more than ever before it is crucial that businesses not only support diversity from a performance and profit aspect, but as a way of supporting workplace equality and making all forms of discrimination a thing of the past.

 

Keep reading to learn how you can tweak your hiring strategies when recruiting the best candidates.

 

Defining Diversity Recruiting (BIPOC):

As a recruiter, undoubtedly, you’re well-versed in screening candidates, searching for those who display the best skillset to get the job done. However, diversity recruiting goes beyond that. For instance, diversity in the workplace can oftentimes be separated into two categories: inherent and acquired.

 

Inherent diversity is associated with demographics such as gender, race, religion, and age. Acquired diversity focuses on aspects that an individual as “acquired” over time, and consists of education, skills, previous experience, and so on.

 

With diversity recruiting, the goal is to expand your outreach to search for candidates in a variety of places and dismissing automatic stereotypes, whether intentional or not. Of course, the primary focus is still based on merit and top talent, but by broadening that search, you’re more likely to find new talent that before may have gone unnoticed.

 

The Importance of Diversity Recruiting Strategies:

Businesses are being much more intentional about workforce diversity. Although it promotes good morals, diversity recruiting enhances business in many other ways as well.

 

Advantages of Diversity Recruiting include:

  • Build a more competitive and adaptive team.
  • Building a team with a wide range of experience, knowledge, and skills.
  • Raising awareness of new languages and beliefs.
  • Finding untapped talent.

 

Taking extra steps that will make talent acquisition an all-inclusive process that ensures equality is key.

 

Studies reveal that when businesses support workplace diversity, everyone benefits. According to Boston Consulting Group, such companies experience increased revenues by as much as 19%. A publication from Glassdoor states that 67% of job seekers consider diversity protocols within a company impact what companies they’ll consider working for. Finally, McKinsey & Company, businesses that embrace diversity in the workplace are “25% more likely to have above-average profitability.”

 

Basically, diversity recruiting consists of looking outside of the box and finding new ways to expand your candidate search criteria. This process is easier than ever before with a multitude of online recruiting tools available and more job searchers relying on the internet to further their career. No longer are we bound by state and country borders, rather we can contact people around the world in the pursuit of fulfilling the needs of our clients while implementing diversity recruiting.

 

[5] Recruiting Strategies That Support Employee Diversity:

Undoubtedly, when tweaking your recruiting strategies, you determine a desired outcome. The same concept applies to diversity recruiting. Set your goal(s) and develop a plan that monitors your success along the way. For example, if your goal is to increase age or gender diversity within the technical field, you’ll need to include such criteria in your searches.

 

1. Review Existing Job Ads

Begin by assessing previous job postings and decide how they can be updated to attract new candidates. Just as you’ve researched a target audience and phrased recruiting ads in a style that resonated with them, you’ll need to do the same process to attract the newly targeted candidate pool. I wrote a post about job description optimization tools (here). 

 

2. Advertising on Different Platforms

The next step is posting on new and different platforms where said target audience congregates. It’s also a good idea to focus on offline hang out locations as well. Again, practice thinking outside of the box and take new initiatives. Basically, go where you target demographic communicates online – like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. 

 

3. Inviting Referrals from Team Members

Perhaps your own team of employees consists of individuals who meet the criteria you’re trying to hire. By creating a referral program, you’ll be strengthening the relationships with your team as well as finding highly qualified candidates that may have slipped under your radar. I wrote a post about creating a referral “Talent Sourcing Jam” event to help drive referrals (here).

 

4. Offer Training Opportunities

Internships and on-the-job training opportunities aren’t as prevalent as they once were. However, this setup can benefit businesses and individuals alike. What better way to increase workplace diversity while connecting with highly motivated people willing and ready to learn and take on necessary job responsibilities? Oftentimes, such programs encourage persistence, loyalty, and long-term employment.

 

5. Create Attractive Policies and Benefits

From a financial and productive standpoint, it’s always better to keep employee turnover at a minimum, especially quality employees. Job seekers are much more selective in what companies they’re willing to work for, placing a higher value on finding a healthy balance between work and family.

 

When attracting people from different walks of life, it’s important that businesses offer perks, benefits, and procedures that acknowledge and respect individual beliefs and activities, religious practices, and so on. By offering flexible hours and additional paid time off in order to accommodate these factors, employees will feel valued and will likely be more productive and happier at work.

 

Diversify and Grow Your Profits:

Ultimately, diversity recruiting combines current sourcing strategies with finding new ways to attract talent, online, offline, and perhaps even through old-school face to face connections. The goal focuses on finding the best talent for the job while letting presumptuous stereotypes fall by the wayside in an effort to promote broader thinking and bigger profits for all.

 

In order to recruit and source diverse candidates you will need to understand the best Boolean String and sourcing tools available in the market. Thankfully, I’ve well versed in this topic have included a guide below:

 

Resources Include: 

Native Current – Uncover New Talent Pools

Diversity Sourcing on LinkedIn using Boolean Strings

Top Diversity Recruiting Tools to Find Talent

How to Create a Diversity Sourcing Strategy

How to Support your BIPOC Coworkers During this Time

 

Finally, advance your skills to the next level by reading my published book!!

 


Want to go more advanced? I give over 100+ Boolean String suggestions in this book:

 

You can purchase a digital or paperback copy on Amazon (here)


Recommended Reading:

Review of Manatal – AI Recruitment Software

Sourcers Experience a Tidal Wave of Job Opportunities & Requests Post-Covid

Advanced Boolean Strings Examples for Recruiters

Jonathan Kidder
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1 Comment on “Diversity Recruiting 101 Explained

  1. Thank you for such a great article! Recruiters are trying to adopt diversity hiring practices as it it opens room for plenty of smart, capable, and diverse candidates ready for the job.

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