8 Smart Tips to Help You Win at Diversity Recruiting

Diversity does a business good—but it does not just happen. Companies need to actively seek, recruit, and engage candidates from different backgrounds to promote a more diverse workforce—which is why having a smart diversity recruiting strategy matters.

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The business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion—DE&I—is stronger than ever. Research has shown, again and again, that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially. According to research done by McKinsey, in 2019, companies in the top quartile for racial or ethnic diversity outperformed those in the bottom quartile by 36 percent profitability—up slightly from 33 percent in 2017 and 35% in 2014. Companies that have more than 30 percent female executive were found to be more likley to outperform businesses where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30 percent. And the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance.

Teams that include people of different ethnicities, genders, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and are generally more diverse produce more innovative, creative, and effective results. Here’s why: Diverse groups offer a more comprehensive range of experiences so that ideas and concepts can go beyond the same old, same old produced by folks from the same, same backgrounds. 85% of CEOs feel having a diverse workforce has improved their bottom lines.

But diversity does not just happen. Companies need to actively seek, recruit, and engage candidates from different backgrounds to promote a more diverse workforce—which is where diversity recruiting comes in.

What is Diversity Recruiting?

Diversity in the workplace is the concept that your company should reflect the makeup of the society around you—from gender, socio-economic levels, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and more. Diversity recruiting is the dedicated practice of seeking and hiring candidates using a process that is as free of bias for or against any group or individual as possible. It is merit-based recruitment that aims to find the best candidate for a role but is structured to give all applicants—regardless of race, creed, or background—an equal opportunity.

Why is a Diversity Recruiting Strategy Important?

Diversity recruiting provides clear benefits for innovation, business performance, and productivity by expanding your team’s range of skills and experience, along with increased cultural awareness. Research has shown that diverse workforces are superior problem solvers, avoid echo chamber or confirmation bias mentalities more effectively, and drive better performance, productivity, and innovation—and better decisions and results overall. And diversity begets diversity; 67% of job seekers say diversity is an important factor when considering a company.

Define Your Diversity Recruitment Goals

Without clearly laying out your goals, it can be challenging to successfully improve your recruiting strategy for diversity.

• What are our goals?
• How do we measure success?
• How should we measure diversity recruiting metrics?

Identify what you want to achieve. Discuss what diversity in recruiting looks like for your organization with your team. Do you want more women in data science roles? Do you want more ethnic diversity for your marketing team? Get specific about your goals, and then craft a plan to help you get there.

Here are eight smart ways to recruit for a more diverse workforce.

1. Diversify Where You Source Talent

If you want to hire a diverse group of people, make sure there is diversity in who is actually applying to your positions in the first place. Ensure that your applicant pool is full of diverse candidates by sourcing from various places. Relying on the same sources, again and again, will yield similar results (again and again).

Seek out opportunities to source diverse candidates by meeting them where they are. For example, there are many groups dedicated to women in tech where you can meet and connect with high-caliber prospects instead of waiting for them to come to you. Leverage professional associations and groups that cater to diverse candidates and reach out to alumni associations and networking groups that are already hubs for the kinds of candidates you seek.

2. Bake Diversity into Your Job Descriptions

A great way to recruit diverse candidates is to audit your past job ads and make changes that speak to a broader range of applicants. You may find that some of the language you had used previously is oriented toward a particular demographic or experience level.

A simple line of encouragement may make a difference and help your job description stand out. And research backs this up—for example, women will often not apply for a job unless they feel 100 percent qualified, whereas men will apply when they feel only 60 percent qualified. A Harvard Business Review study attributes this to women being concerned that not meeting all requirements means they will not be hired—making applying a waste of time.

To circumvent this, share that your company recognizes that skills and competencies can come from diverse job and life experiences. Let target candidates know you are seeking them out and share why your company would be a great fit.

3. Offer Internships

A great way to encourage diverse candidates to join your team and gain valuable experience is by starting internal diversity programs, which offer internships to candidates from specific backgrounds. Get a sense of what opportunities there are for forging connections with promising students by reaching out to school and community groups in your area.

Reach out to schools and community groups in your area and get a sense of what opportunities exist for forging connections with promising students. Establishing internships and partnering with schools is a great way to build interest and skills from specific groups and communities.

If you craft the opportunity for learning on the job, you can create a long-term pipeline of job candidates where one did not exist before. Teaming up with high school, college, and university career development programs can be a great way to open doors and benefit from new and diverse talent.

4. Use Blind Resumes

An increasingly popular method recruiters are using to remove name bias, and other forms of unconscious bias from their initial candidate screenings is to “blackout” any (and all) personally-identifying information on resumes. We are talking names, addresses, schools, which can all contribute to some degree to a biased assessment of candidates, even if it is not conscious. First impressions, even just a name on a resume, can undermine even the most earnest diversity recruitment efforts.

5. Do Blind Interviews

This tactic can be used in early conversations with a candidate and functions on the same principle as blocking out names and other personally identifying information on a resume. It is much more difficult to remove all personal signifiers and potential bias when speaking with candidates via phone, video chat, or in person, which is why blind interviews can be effective early in the interview process.

To use blind interviews, you can send candidates questions via email or text or the recruitment platforms of your choice. Candidates answer these questions anonymously—and are asked to avoid providing personal information. The goal? To remain as free of bias as possible when deciding whom you want to interview further.

6. Diversify Where You Advertise Jobs

If you continually advertise in all the usual places, you will likely get a pretty homogenous applicant pool. Instead, seek out media whose readers or viewers are from more diverse backgrounds—think different cultural, ethnic, and religious websites, publications, career resource centers—and place your career ads there.

7. Move Beyond the Siloes

If you want diverse job candidates, it is essential to un-silo your approach. Be open to candidates whose backgrounds do not fit into a cookie-cutter mold. Consider hiring someone with a compatible skillset from a different industry, for example, or someone with a slightly different skillset from within your industry. Review resumes and applications from more than one job website. Look for candidates from different universities than the ones with which you are most familiar.

8. Create a Company Culture that Supports and Nurtures Diversity

If increased diversity is your goal, craft your company culture in such a way that it attracts a diverse group of candidates. Think PTO policies with built-in flexibility to accommodate important holidays for various religions, LGBTQ+ friendly policies like health insurance for domestic partners, and parent-friendly policies like job-protected, equal paid leave for all parents, regardless of gender. Assess where diversity is less robust in your organization and start there.

Bottom line:

If you want to become a more diverse organization, communicate your diversity goals and vision so that everyone in your comnpany is clear on your DE&I objectives and why they matter. Set clear goals. Craft innovative recruiting strategies. Track successes and study missteps. Monitor your progress and optimize your strategy accordingly—it is hard to grow what you cannot measure.