I’m incredibly fortunate to welcome Liliana Correia, a Sourcing Partner at Kandidate, as a guest blogger. I was particularly interested in having her share insights on diversity and inclusion, as well as her approach to talent search in our native country of Portugal.
Liliana Correia is currently employed as a Full-time Embedded Sourcing Partner. In this role, she is responsible for developing and executing sourcing strategies, identifying and connecting with both active and passive candidates through diverse channels and innovative search methods. Iliana collaborates closely with recruiters and hiring managers to enhance sourcing endeavors by utilizing data-driven insights.
Diversity Sourcing Strategies: Unlocking Hidden Talent
In today’s job market, fostering diversity and inclusion is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity for businesses seeking to thrive. Yet, finding diverse candidates can be a challenging endeavor, as many platforms lack obvious methods for searching by diversity categories. Instead, we often resort to “shortcuts,” techniques that are likely to uncover groups of potential diversity candidates.
Why Prioritize Diversity Sourcing?
The underrepresentation of women and people of color in executive roles, specific career fields, and entire industries persists, accompanied by lingering wage disparities. Moreover, societal injustices and systemic issues extend beyond the workplace, affecting many lives. Research underscores the advantages of a diverse workforce, such as heightened creativity and innovation.
Starting a Diverse Search
To create a more diverse talent pipeline and offer opportunities to underrepresented groups, begin with a diversity sourcing audit. Determine the specific diversity group you want to target and familiarize yourself with relevant country laws. For instance, in Portugal, adding gender or age requirements in job ads is illegal, so consider this in your outreach.
Create a boolean with the names and you can use it on LinkedIn Recruiter and add it to the “First name” field in advanced options to be able to add all of the names at the same time or use the specific Country Names and add them to your keywords.
(Abigail OR Adriana OR Adrienne OR Aimee OR Alejandra OR Alexa OR Alexandra OR Alexandria OR Alexis OR Alice OR Alicia OR Alisha OR Alison OR Allison OR Alyssa OR Amanda OR Amber OR Amy OR Ana OR Andrea OR Angel OR Angela OR Angelica OR Angie OR Anita OR Ann OR Anna OR Anne OR Annette OR Annie OR April OR Ariana OR Ariel OR Arlene OR Ashlee OR Ashley OR Audrey OR Autumn)
Pronoun Search
Use this search to pull any female candidate who has any of the pronouns listed below on their profile. Candidates who are nonbinary or transgender, for example, often tell people their correct pronouns up front to avoid being misgendered. Like pasting in “she/her/hers,” “he/him/his,” “they/them/theirs,” or “she/they” and “he/they.”
You can also try these other boolean examples:
(she OR her OR women OR woman OR lady OR ladies OR miss OR mrs OR mother OR mothers OR sister OR sisters)
(“Mrs.” OR missus OR missis OR her OR hers OR herself OR she OR female OR females OR woman OR women OR wife OR wifey OR lady OR ladies OR mom OR mum OR mommy OR mommie OR mother OR grandmother OR grandma OR aunt OR sister OR sisters OR waitress OR actress OR girl OR girls OR princess OR niece)
Effective Tactics
Traditional methods like searching for sororities, women’s colleges, or women’s groups for gender diversity recruitment often yield limited results. To enhance your approach, compile a list of popular names for the desired gender and create a boolean search string. Additionally, use pronoun-based searches to identify candidates who specify their preferred pronouns on their profiles, catering to nonbinary and transgender individuals.
Engineering Diversity
For recruiting women in engineering, explore image searches on Google to locate profiles of female engineers. Expand your search string by specifying company, education, or other keywords. Investigate top female conferences in the field, such as WITI, Grace Hopper, and ACMW, for potential candidates.
Leveraging Diversity Terms
Broaden your sourcing by including terms like “employee resource group” and “ERG” in your boolean strings. For gender and race diversity, tailor your search criteria using phrases like “women & non-binary” and “URE (underrepresented race and ethnicities).” Additionally, explore diversity groups within tech companies like Women@Google and Hispanic Googlers Network.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Search for groups, fraternities, sororities, or historically black colleges and universities when targeting racial and ethnic diversity. Adapt your approach based on the cultural context of the country you’re researching. Don’t forget to explore associations and organizations specific to the group you want to attract, such as the National Association of Asian American Professionals or the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association.
Tools for Success
Utilize specialized tools like Seekout and Amazing Hiring to streamline diversity searches. Tools like Gender Decoder and Native Current extension can help reduce bias in job ads and generate diverse talent search strings.
In Conclusion
Without a diverse pipeline, organizations risk perpetuating the status quo, hindering growth and competitiveness. Identifying the root causes of diversity gaps is crucial for addressing this issue. A diverse workforce not only fosters innovation but also expands a company’s consumer base, ultimately boosting profitability.
Building a truly diverse and inclusive workplace goes beyond sourcing a wide pool of candidates; it involves unbiased evaluation at every stage of the hiring process. Monitoring conversion rates between stages using sourcing tools can help pinpoint areas needing attention.
About the Author:
Liliana Correia is a seasoned sourcer with over 3 years of experience in human resources. She has successfully sourced talent for a wide range of roles, from tech professionals to C-level positions, and actively participates in sourcing events such as SOSU and #HRTX Virtual Hardcore Technical.
Recommended Reading:
Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT: 20+ Essential Plugin Tools for Recruiters
Unlocking the Secrets: How to Get Passive Talent to Respond to Recruiter Messages
The Evolution of Talent Sourcers: Embracing AI in the Future of Recruitment
