8 Tips for Attracting More Diverse Candidates
When looking at a picture of your entire team, do you all seem a bit Homogenous?
The term is defined as “being of the same kind” and unfortunately, a number of companies fall victim to hiring and building a workforce filled with people that all virtually look and act the same.
Why is Diversity so Important and what does it do for me?
Having a more diverse workplace means having people with different talents, skills, and experiences needed to help solve your organization’s problems.
An example would be having someone who is great at creative problem solving on the same team as someone who is good at taking those creative ideas and building them into a concrete plan.
Also, having different types of personalities and backgrounds in the office helps foster a culture of innovation in your office that can only be brought from these types bouncing ideas and concepts off one another.
I’m Sold! But how exactly do I go about finding and recruiting more Diverse Candidates?
Sit tight because I’m about to give you 8 tips for Attracting More Diverse Candidates.
- Use Social Media to Its Fullest to find Diverse Talent
I know that you’ve already been using LinkedIn to source candidates for some time now, but have you been using it to its full potential?
There are many professional groups on LinkedIn around for the sole reason of promoting diversity and having a place for diverse professionals to congregate.
An example of which is The Society of Woman Engineers group on LinkedIn which would be a great avenue for sourcing female engineers.
It doesn’t stop there, there are plenty of groups for African-Americans, Latinos, Veterans, etc.
Similar to the structure of LinkedIn groups, Facebook also offers groups for professionals of similar backgrounds.
It also gives you an avenue of showing off your company’s Facebook page which should be filled with pictures detailing the positive aspects of your company’s culture.
- Attend more Diverse Networking Events and Career Fairs
Networking is always best done in person, so do some research on events happening in your area that are likely to attract diverse talent to its meetings.
Along with being able to find a promising candidate, attending these events shows everyone in the area that your employer brand truly is all-inclusive and that you all are putting real effort into sourcing these candidates.
This message goes a long way and leaves a lasting impression on those that may be able to help you in the future.
- Have an Attractive Company Culture
In order to attract diverse candidates, you first need to have a company that people want to work for.
This means going into detail describing all of the perks that the position provides its employees.
This includes but is not limited to: work outings, vacation time, work from home days, insurance plans, free coffee, gym memberships, etc.
You should also make sure to have plenty of pictures on your company website and on your social media pages of your employees having a good time as well as what the office looks like.
Before you’re able to attract more diverse candidates, you first need to make sure that you’re building a company culture that people actually want to be a part of.
- Specify in Job Description that you all are all-inclusive and promote diversity in the workplace
This doesn’t mean that you put “all-inclusive” in your title.
It just means that you should stray from using terminology that could alienate entire groups of candidates.
For example, many women may deem a sales job as unappealing due to masculine terminology being used throughout the job description.
Make yourself aware of these terms that could scare away perfectly able candidates.
- Showoff Diverse Client Base
When a candidate visits your company site with the intent of researching your brand, you can bet that they’ll be clicking on your “companies we’ve worked with” button and will be judging your company by your clientele.
Make sure to do your best in providing a varied representation of the companies you work with so that potential employees know that diversity isn’t only practiced to strengthen their employer brand but is also woven into your business practices.
- Use Software Tools that Tackle bias in Recruiting
Thankfully we’re in 2017, which means that there is software out there that helps facilitate diversity in the workplace by using AI to replace manual resume screening with a system that objectively applies screening criteria to all candidates.
Taking human biases out of the recruitment process goes a long way when you’re trying to increase diversity, do some research on software that you think will come in handy then give it a shot!
- Be more Open With Your Interview Avenues
By this, I mean you should consider using strategies other than the typical in-person interview where some candidates may not be able to accurately convey their strengths.
An example would be utilizing video interviews to help make candidates more comfortable by giving them the ability to record the interview anywhere and at any time.
- Don’t Look at Names
I know that this one isn’t as fancy as the others but hear me out for a second.
It’s pretty easy to guess someone’s gender and often times their race just by looking at their names.
Which means that the second you see a name on a resume, you already made a mental image of what you think the candidate looks like.
By blanking out the names, you are going completely by what matters most…the candidate’s credentials.
Closing Thoughts
Having a diverse team doesn’t just make your company look good, it goes a long way in promoting an environment of innovation and out of the box thinking among your workplace.
Although building a diverse team may be difficult at first, stick to the tips above and you’ll be on your way to a room filled with valuable perspectives in no time!