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White Paper

Improve Your Diversity RecruitmentAnd Why It Really Does Matter


How diverse are the people you work with?Most employers have always paid attention to

the answer to this question, in part because they

recognize that a diverse workforce is a sign of

fair hiring practices, and in part because they’ve

always had to due to federal compliance laws.

But in addition to equality and compliance,

today’s progressive employers are prioritizing

diversity because research finds it drives better

outcomes for the business and all involved.

They’re realizing that the more initiative they take

to proactively seek out qualified professionals

from different walks of life—as opposed to just

reactively ensuring all job seekers have equal

opportunity—the more the company, job seekers,

employees, and end-consumers benefit.

First, let’s remember that hiring for diversity isn’t

the same as hiring for cultural fit; though the

terms may sound as though they’re related.

Hiring for cultural fit generally refers to the alignment between employee and employer values; hiring for diversity is about engaging with groups of people traditionally underrepresented or marginalized.

Groups that contribute to a company’s diversity

typically include those from underrepresented

races, genders, ethnicities, ages, disabilities,

sexual orientations, religions, or socio-

economic backgrounds. They’re individuals

belonging to groups that, for a myriad of reasons,

have not reaped as many opportunities as

others over time.

So back to the benefits of maintaining a diverse workforce—the research really says it all.

Gender-diverse companies are 15 percent more likely to perform better than their peers and ethnically-diverse companies are 35 percent more likely to outperform peers.1

For every one percent increase in racial diversity, there’s a nine percent increase in sales revenue.2

Workplaces perceived as diverse have the highest levels of employee engagement.3

Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely have financial returns above their national industry peers.4

Findings from the Harvard Business Review suggest that companies that create inclusive environments have employees that are 3.5 times more likely to offer up original ideas and insights.5

While these points demonstrate that employers

have incentives to be more proactively involved

in diversity hiring, not all have invested the effort

or have been successful. Forty-one percent of

managers say they are “too busy” to implement

diversity initiatives,6 while just fifty-seven percent

of recruiters say their talent acquisition strategies

are designed to attract diverse candidates.7 There

are clear opportunities for employers to make

diversifying their talent pools a top priority—it’s

a matter of finding effective ways to do it.

1. McKinsey | 2. Science Daily | 3. Gallup | 4. McKinsey

5. Harvard Business Review | 6–7. SHRM

White Paper | Improve Your Diversity Recruitment And Why It Really Does Matter


The Starting Line: What’s the Goal?An achievable diversity hiring goal is not to simply

“become more diverse”. To craft a strategy that

has a real chance at delivering results, recruiters

need to know how to channel their efforts.

That’s why a hiring goal should be based on an

understanding of what types of diversity is missing,

and where. That means taking a look at your

hiring and employee data from multiple angles.

For example, you might find that collectively you

have an ethnically-diverse workforce, but that

the accounting department individually doesn’t

contribute to any of that diversity. With a specific

goal in mind, like increasing ethnic diversity in

accounting by end of year, determine the metric

you’ll use to measure the success of your efforts.

What will success look like, and how exactly

will you use your applicant tracking system to

measure progress over time? Consider what

types of ongoing monitoring and reporting

will be needed and how to use your applicant

tracking system to carry out.

Meet Job Seekers Where They AreWith goals and metrics identified, recruiters can

begin the work of building more diverse talent

pools. Job boards can be a good place to start,

because they remain one of the most popular

ways job seekers learn about opportunities.

Expanding the number of high-performance

job boards you post to can be instrumental to

amplifying your reach. Keep in mind that even

if job boards are not your top sourcing channel

(maybe you find most candidates come through

your corporate website or social sites), it doesn’t

mean job seekers aren’t looking at job boards.

Sixty-seven percent of professionals said they

actually use job boards to research jobs, so

being present in this arena still matters.

Relying on an applicant tracking system that lets

you post to hundreds of different job boards

without extra expense can be helpful, as can

targeting on niche job boards (such as, women

in technology, military veterans, or international

job seekers). By changing up the channels you’re

currently using and becoming more active on

those that have a specific job seeker focus,

the chances that a qualified job seeker from

an underrepresented background sees your

posts can increase.

In the postings that you share on these niche

job boards, you may also want to give candidates

the ability to just “connect”, rather than just

apply. If you have the right candidate relationship

management (CRM) tool, this type of engagement

with passive candidates can be possible.

When job seekers click your “connect with us” link, rather than apply right at that moment, their information is imported into the CRM’s talent pools.

This opens up two opportunities: one is that the

recruiter now has a way to stay in touch with

the candidate over time, so they can share more

information about why their company is a great



place to work and what opportunities are on the

horizon. Recruiters can use their CRM to search

from within, and effectively manage, their various

talent pools of passive candidates. The second

is that the job seeker now has an opportunity to

learn more about the company, so that if they do

decide to apply, they’re more confident they’re

pursuing something that aligns with their values

and interests.

Meeting job seekers where they are doesn’t

have to start with digital sourcing. Aligning with

community groups can also be a simple, but

effective way to build a presence among groups

of job seekers that might not know about your

company or may not organically seek out your

job opportunities. Connect with local and global

professional organizations that represent diverse

groups to determine if there are opportunities

to hold, or participate in, recruiting events their

members would attend. CRM tools built to

support event management with things like

mobile kiosks can be helpful to deploy in

these contexts, too.

Deliver Messages That ResonateUsing your CRM, you have the power to

customize how you connect with job seekers.

This can be valuable when reaching out to

job seekers from underrepresented groups,

because it gives you the latitude to create email

templates, write job descriptions, or frame

unique career portals with content that addresses

specific needs and interests. CRM software

like iCIMS Connect lets recruiters deploy

different recruitment marketing campaigns to

different groups within their talent pool, making

customized communication seamless.

In addition to customizing content for different

talent pools, ensuring all recruiting remarketing

materials represent an inclusive point of view is

an important part of attracting diverse applicants.

Be sure that a job post doesn’t insinuate that

assumptions are being made about applicants.

For example, striking a balance between the

use of words with a masculine connotation (like

competitive, decisive, outspoken) and words

with a feminine connotation (like responsible,

dependable, team player) can help ensure that

job seekers don’t feel the job is best suited for

a specific gender.

Understanding how recruitment marketing

materials and even the screening questions within

your application may or may not be biased can

be difficult, but taking a look at resources like

Harvard’s Project Implicit website can be a place

to start, as can using your software’s reporting

features to monitor how language changes

impact applicant demographic over time.

Focusing on what the job itself will require an

employee to do, rather than the qualifications an

employee needs to possess, can also encourage

more diverse applicants. This becomes relevant

in light of research that finds that men will apply

for jobs when they feel they are sixty percent

qualified, while women will apply when they

feel they are one hundred percent qualified.8

iCIMS’ mobile-optimized career portal

8. Hewlett Packard



Beyond the words you write, think about overall

branding, and how that comes through in the

corporate images you share. Can applicants

visualize themselves on your career portal,

or your company’s social profiles? If you’re

tackling a diversity issue you may not have the

representation you’d like to feature; however,

work with what you have and be clear about

your aims for inclusivity. If the C-Suite doesn’t

necessarily reflect needed diversity, feature the

high-performing employees that do and tell

the story of how your company emphasizes

internal advancement. On your corporate social

sites, consider sharing posts that feature bios of

underrepresented employees, or share third-party

articles that focus on topics of business diversity

or whichever underrepresented group the

company wants to reach.

Champion an Employee Referral ProgramAsking current employees to refer associates in

their professional networks for jobs is another

way to support diversity. It’s a means of getting

in front of those that may not have otherwise

considered learning more about your company

but who may be inclined after learning someone

in their network is not only employed there, but

is encouraging others to apply. Employee referral

programs save both recruiters and employees

time when they fold in an element of automation,

so that sharing each new opening at the company

isn’t a manual task.

A solution like iCIMS’ Social Distribution tool can

automatically post job openings to participating

employees’ social networks, like LinkedIn and

Facebook. If someone in their network clicks

on the post and applies, the application is then

automatically tracked to the employee, so they

can receive proper recognition and reward.

A strong employee referral program can be a

pillar of long-term diversity hiring, too; consider

that nearly two-thirds of referred employees

have referred at least one person to an open

position at their current company.9 Those you

hire through referrals today may help attract

more diverse hires in the future.

You can also work with your company’s

leadership to find ways to communicate

your diversity hiring initiatives. Let employees

know that the company strives to continually

improve the diversity of its workforce, and

that submitting referrals is one way current

employees can help the company reach that

goal. Employees want the companies they

work for to be diverse: fifty-seven percent of

employees think their companies should be

diverse.10 In addition to operating in a spirit

of general transparency, talking about your

diversity hiring goals is an important message

for hiring managers to hear. They are partners

in the hiring process and should be cognizant

of how their hiring selections impact the

company’s overall demographics that can

in turn influence company success.

The Finish Line: There Isn’t OneIf after taking a look at the metrics and finding

that the goal you identified at the outset has been

accomplished, remember that maintaining a

diverse workforce is an ongoing process; there is

no finish line to be crossed. In addition to pursuing

sourcing strategies that proactively engage with

diverse job seekers, a commitment to new hire

onboarding and talent management practices that

9. Hiring Insights | 10. Glassdoor



make employees want to stay will be necessary. In

other words, successfully hiring diverse employees

won’t be impactful if those employees don’t end

up staying. Make diversity hiring a priority today

and every day to build the dynamic workforce

your company needs to stay competitive.

How iCIMS Can Help iCIMS is the leading provider of talent acquisition

solutions that help businesses win the war for top

talent. iCIMS empowers companies to manage

their entire hiring process within the industry’s

most robust Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Built

on the foundation of a best-to-market talent

acquisition software suite, iCIMS’ PaaS framework,

UNIFi, allows employers to expand the capabilities

of their core talent acquisition technology by

integrating with the largest partner ecosystem

in talent acquisition to help them attract, find,

screen, and manage candidates. Offering scalable,

easy-to-use solutions that are backed by award-

winning customer service, iCIMS supports more

than 3,500 contracted customers and is one of

the largest and fastest-growing talent acquisition

solution providers.

Connect with iCIMS on social media!


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White Paper Improve Your Diversity Recruitment - iCIMS · White Paper Improve Your Diversity Recruitment ... ensuring all recruiting remarketing ... White Paper | Improve Your Diversity