Hiring a diverse workforce is more essential than ever. Your team should be made up of different genders, ages, experiences, knowledge, values, skills, socio-economic levels, races, religions, sexual orientations, and other characteristics. This lets you gather different perspectives and backgrounds to develop ideas and solve problems. A diverse team increases innovation, business decisions, and company performance.
With so many benefits that diversity brings, here’s how you can implement it in your recruiting strategy.
1. Narrow Down What You Want to Achieve
Determine your recruiting goal, how you will know when you attain it, and how you will measure success. For instance, you may want to hire more women for accounting & finance roles. Determine how many women in your organization currently work in these roles. Then, set a goal of how many more women you want to place in these positions.
2. Talk with Diverse Employees About Their Hiring Experiences
Ask diverse employees what their hiring experiences have been like. Find out what they were looking for in a role and employer and which actions caused them not to want to work for a company. Discuss how interviewers can encourage candidates to share their work experiences. Ask how staff may be unintentionally disrespectful or offensive to diverse candidates. Find out what made them want to work for your company. Use this information to improve your hiring process.
3. Enhance Your Sourcing Process
Promote diversity in the places and methods you use to advertise job openings. Use language geared toward the demographics you seek in your job postings. Explain why your company is targeting specific candidates and why they would enjoy working for you. Source candidates from places they congregate in, such as online and in-person groups dedicated to a demographic in your hiring area.
4. Screen Candidates with a Blind Method
Use a blind method to review resumes and conduct preliminary interviews. Program your applicant tracking system to filter for specific skills and experiences to create a shortlist of candidates. Send candidates preliminary questions through a recruitment platform that conceals personal information. This significantly reduces the bias about which candidates are chosen to advance in the interview process.
5. Measure and Report Your Progress
Define and monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) that show whether you are making progress in your diversity recruiting strategy. Common KPIs include a change in talent pipeline diversity and diversity representation in senior leadership, management, and organization. Report your progress each month or quarter along with your business results.
6. Partner with a Staffing Firm Focused on Diversity
Work with a recruitment partner specializing in finding the diverse talent you need to fill open positions. A recruiter has a broad network of highly skilled candidates from different backgrounds with the knowledge and abilities needed to promote business success. Remember, if you do not interview diverse candidates, you will not have a diverse workforce. Make sure your recruiting partner will provide a diverse slate of candidates.
Increase Your Diversity Recruiting Strategy with Corps Team
Include Corps Team in your strategy to increase diversity in your recruiting process. We have a private talent network of over 300,000 professionals to turn to when matching qualified candidates to your business needs. Find out more today.