The unfortunate events of May 2020 that lead to George Floyd’s death served as a catalyst for companies to either create or ignite existing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within their organizations. These programs range from supplier diversity to employee resource groups and diversity recruitment efforts. A strong DEI strategy helps organizations attract top talent and drive innovative results. There is a significant correlation between diversity within the workforce and increased profitability and value creation. As you process the last sentence ask yourself, how well does the demographics of current workforce represent the community it serves? Can my organization do a better job at attracting diverse candidates? What can we do to attract diverse candidates? Well, this article will give you a few ideas on how you can do just that. Let’s jump into it.
JOB DESCRIPTION/ADS
The first place to start is with your job description. A job description summarizes the essential job duties, responsibilities, skills, and qualifications for a role. Instead of recycling the same job that has been used to deter diverse candidates to your job ads, take some time to assess the current state of your descriptions. Your job descriptions should go beyond the standard equal employment opportunity statement. Make sure that the language in your descriptions is inclusive and not discriminatory in nature. For example, check if your descriptions contain gender specific wording or references. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, for instance, in male-dominated positions, such words as competitive, enforcement, fearless, and leader are often used, while words like understand, transparent, catalyst, supportive, and interpersonal may be used in female-dominated roles.
SOURCING
Evaluating your current sourcing strategy should be a priority when seeking to influence diversity in your candidate pool. One approach is to consider moving beyond mainstream job boards such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Monster and the like. Instead, post your ads on diverse niche job boards such as Diversity Working, Hire Autism, Hire Purpose and Recruit Disability. Another tactic is to establish relationships with organizations that will lead you to diverse candidates and increase diversity within your talent pipeline. National organizations and their local chapters are a great place to start. These include well known groups such as NAACP, NOW, National Council of Aging, the National LBGTQ Task Force and various Chambers of Commerce. You can also target professional groups specific to your industry or the roles that you recruit within your organization. Examples of these include NSBE, AWIS, Accessibility Professional Association and Women in Trucking. For an expanded list of diverse professional organizations click here.
UNIVERSITY RELATIONS PROGRAM
Leveraging your existing university relations program to fuel diversity hiring is a great strategy. College recruiting is an effective way to meet prospective candidates who are first generation college students, women, immigrants, students with disabilities and students from underrepresented racial groups. College campuses are packed with student organizations that represent varying diverse communities, hobbies, interests, etc. It is essential to strategically engage and develop relationships with these organizations. Start out by contacting them about speaking at one of their meetings or sponsoring an event they are hosting. Invite them to tour your facility and learn about your organization. As much as you are interested in tapping into their network, they are equally interested in connecting with their potential employer.
Supporting internships and cooperative education programs gives you incredible exposure on college campuses and allows you to test out talent to see if they are the right fit for your organization, technically and culturally. Interns can serve as your organization’s brand ambassador on campus both during and after their internship. Get in contact with the university’s career center for information on how to recruit an intern or co-op student.
EMPLOYER BRAND
Website, career page and social media outlets are essential pieces of your employer brand. It is critical that these channels are aligned with and emphasize your commitment to DEI. Candidates want to be able to see themselves in your current employees. Remember, diversity attracts diversity. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Encourage employees to write testimonials about your organization and its inclusive environment. Share those testimonials on social media or on your website.
Highlight your organization’s employee resource groups (ERG) on your website’s career page.
Clearly display your diversity mission on your website.
Reinforce your commitment to DEI by creating a recruitment video dedicated to the topic of workplace diversity. Place it on your company website or feature it on your YouTube channel.
Publish blog content featuring diversity-focused topics and employee spotlights that represent your diverse workforce.
BENEFITS OFFERED
A company’s benefits offerings can be tailored to demonstrate support of an inclusive workplace and can be used to attract diverse candidates. Conduct external benchmarking to assess if your benefits are truly inclusive and attractive to diverse candidates. You can also carry out internal surveys and look at data collected in exit interviews to improve your benefit offerings. Below are a few low hanging fruits that can be adjusted to immediately address any inadequacies in effectively attracting diverse candidates to your organization.
Flexible Work Schedules: Flexible work schedules can help you attract and retain working parents, older workers, and some disabled professionals. This perk is a great way to attract a wide range of talent. For instance, offering parents the option to begin work at 6am means they can be finished with work in time for school pickups. Also, those with frequent medical appointments may be attracted to joining an organization who offers flexibility in their work schedule.
Remote Work: Although most of the US workforce would prefer to work remotely, this benefit is especially enticing for candidates in underrepresented groups. For example, disabled and semi-retired professionals may prefer to work from home to reduce workplace challenges and eliminate an unnecessary commute. Remote working is also helpful when it comes to working parents. They will get enough time to spend with their children while working. A remote work benefit allows you to expand your recruitment territory and can create the diverse talent pool needed to improve diversity recruitment for your organization.
Childcare Benefits (back up daycare or subsidy): One of the biggest challenges for working parents is lack of access to affordable childcare. For an individual earning an income around the national average, paying daycare for one or two children can slice an income by a third or more. Offering a childcare subsidy will be particularly enticing to women, who are still bearing the brunt of family caregiving responsibilities. Another way to attract workers with children is to offer back-up childcare assistance. This gives employees a safeguard for when children fall sick, schools close, and other unexpected issues arise. Offering back-up childcare is highly effective in attracting and retaining a diverse workforce and relatively inexpensive to an employer.
Tuition Assistance: Attaining and developing skills is key to growing within your career and company. Yet, individuals in underrepresented groups are experiencing challenges in gaining access to higher education opportunities. Additionally, it has been noted that student loan repayments disproportionately impact women and communities of color. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, black college graduates owe, on average, $7400 more in student loan debt that their white peer. Offering a tuition assistance benefit that can increase access to education will certainly help attract and retain talented, diverse team members.
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