Increasing Minority Applicant Flow and impacting Candidates Slates

Recommending a Strategy (Revised May 29th 2013)

Author: Johnny Torrance-Nesbitt, MBA

Getting Started Here are some ideas to consider for creating more Diverse

candidate flow--some are immediate and tactical while others are strategic and long range.

You might begin your efforts by reviewing what your are currently doing in Diversity and Diversity Recruiting outreach activity and proudly display these Diversity efforts on your Firm’s career page; for instance you might want to highlight your firm’s:

Diversity vision and statement Diversity Training for Senior Management and employees

Getting Started (continued)

Diversity Recruiting efforts Diversity Supplier programs And Diversity Employee Affinity Groups, etc Diverse Organization And Associations your are

partnered with

Getting Started (continued) However a word of caution is in order in the

beginning here. Before you start a serious Diversity Recruiting effort, you need to do the following. A Diversity Brand review should be undertaken to assess how “Diversity friendly” your firm actually is. Ask yourself the following:

Getting Started (continued) Is your firm a Diversity Champion? Has your firm created a work experience for Employees

revolving around Diversity and its concepts? Does your Firm have a set of messages and actions which

convey a set of behavior patterns to Employees and Applicants on Diversity?

Is your Employer Brand communicating everything you want it to around Diversity? Are you sending a consistent picture of your firm as a Diversity-driven place to work?

Are your diverse Employees enthusiastic about recommending your firm as a “great place to work” for all?

Are you sending a consistent picture of your firm as a Diversity-driven place to work?

Getting Started (continued)

Also, are you fully versed in the benefits of a strong Diversity Brand? Do you understand that when expertly managed, your “Diversity Employment Brand” will give you the tools to communicate with Employees and Applicants at every turn?

Have all Recruiters trained by “AIRS” to become Certified Diversity Trainers. This is critical to establishing Diversity recruitment as a full team approach and effort. This training leverages and maximizes the Diversity effect across all Recruiters and aids in building a recruitment culture permeated with a Diversity approach. In addition, these learned skills ensure that Diversity is not an “add-on” but rather an important and integral part of your overall recruiting strategy.

For example, some of the things Recruiters will learn include: steps to source Diverse candidate, etc.;

Training

Use of Facebook Facebook can help you recruit more Diverse candidates

and also help leverage your Diversity Brand message. In a word, it can be used to create a Talent Community of Diverse candidates.

You can showcase your current on-going Diversity efforts and Programs on your company’s Facebook page or (as I would highly recommend) create a “Diversity Careers” Facebook page. This page should be as inclusive as positive and should have inclusive imagery from all “walk of life”—all groups should be represented.

Use of Facebook

This page could also list the various Diverse group and associations and organizations you have partnerships with for Talent Acquisition purposes, such as, (to name only a few) Women in Technology, Hire Heroes USA (Veterans), HRC advocates on behalf of LGBT Americans, NBMBAs; NSHMBAs, and AsianMBA.org.

Run specific commercial spots on Minority radio stations with high ethnic demographics (African-American, Hispanic and Asian).

More use of Diverse images on the Career Page website. Post Testimonials on the Career website from Minority &

Women Employees, Interns, etc., from all levels. Seek volunteers from line areas to serve as “Diversity

Recruiting Champions” Use New Employee orientation as a recruiting mechanism:

Ask all new hires (Minority and non-Minority) for referrals of top performers at their former companies.

Conduct an Open House and target specific Minority Organizations for attendees.

Build a talent database for Diverse candidates: Recruiters create a database of Diverse candidates at every

opportunity (for example, Diverse candidates who Recruiters: meet at conferences; meet at networking events, or read about in the Industry press; or hear about via word-of-mouth, etc.)

Create a Professional Recruiting Event: (e.g., a 1/2 day Conference --panel presentations, breakout

sessions, seminars, etc. --activity on a Saturday morning for Minority Professionals interested in your Industry). Invite Senior Executives to “kick-off” the Event. Have Recruiters present to conduct interviews.

Create a Web page with the unique title of “Minorities in Your Industry”, with a unique url. When this phrase is typed in to Google for a search (by a Minority job seeker), up pops a page with this title and information about Career Opportunities at your firm. It would then have an embedded link back to your main Career page.

Leverage the In-house Employee Affinity/Network Groups for Minority/Women Professional and College recruiting purposes:

Conduct a Summit with the Leaders of the Groups Develop (shared) recruitment goals/targets for Minority Hires.

Conduct a Training session for members of the Network on “How to sell to Minority/Women candidates”.

If there are no Employee internal networks, create a Minority/Women “Recruiting Council” of volunteers. This Council could be composed of Minority/Women employees who have at least 5 years service.

Council would recommend recruiting tactics for targeting diverse groups of people as well as act as a “clearing house for resume dissemination” and “the selling of your Company”, once an offer was made. This resume dissemination & “selling” would have to be completely coordinated with the Staffing organization.

Conduct feedback sessions/focus group with Minority and Women Employees in order to learn more about: “How to Attract more Minority/Women Employees”. Focus groups to be held periodically to generate new ideas for contests and promotions and to gather feedback on our current process.

Develop a special referral program for Minority/Women candidates who are hired (this would be an increased amount more than the normal employee referral award).

Consider “revising” how your job offer is “sold” to Diverse candidates.

Namely, research from the Recruiting Roundtable suggests that minorities placed more importance on the company’s brand, work-life balance, and commitment to diversity when mulling over a job offer. These highlighted items must be stressed by all Recruiters to successfully close the Minority candidate

Build an Alumni page on your website. For tracking high performers (in general) who left and For tracking high performing Minority/Women alumni as well

Reach out to these individuals and try to recruit them back Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Company Career

website page. Making the Great Place to Work Institute®/Fortune Magazine

100 Best Companies to Work for Award®. Making the “Diversity Inc‘s Top 50 Companies for Diversity”.

Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Career website page.

Making Black Enterprise’s list of: “40 Best Companies for Diversity” Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Career website page.

Making Diversity Inc’s Top Ten Companies for Asian Americans to Work for list.

Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Career website page. Making the Professional Woman's magazine Award as one of the

"Top Diversity Employers for Women". Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Career website page.

Making some of the Top Employer Awards for Female and Minority College Students, for example: the Black Collegian Magazine’s Top 100 Employers for College Students.

Placement of the Award logo (if won) on the main Career website page

Metrics Naturally, when a firm begins a Diversity effort, it

will need some metrics. These metrics should be used to evaluate how well the organization is doing on their diversity and inclusion program. These proposed metrics are for the US only. Keep in mind, rolling out a Global metrics program is challenging-- given regional variations in the demographics of the populace in other countries. For example, metrics typically around race and ethnicity tend to be much used in the US

Metrics

Increase in minority representation overall Percentage of minorities, EEO targets Increased representation of minorities at different levels of

firm Better retention of underrepresented staff – Decrease in pay disparities – More positive responses on exit interviews – Higher ranking of the organization in terms of best places

to work

Metrics

Savings in recruitment costs from achieving higher retention rates for 'minority' employees through building a more inclusive culture

– Reductions in absenteeism for underrepresented affinity groups when effort is put into fostering an inclusive culture for everyone

– Engagement ratings for employees from different affinity groups in annual engagement surveys.

– Fulfillment of an affirmative action plan, if any

Addendum: Some History of my Results in Diversity

Recruiting using these Strategies Global Staffing’s Diversity Metrics: Minority Applicant

Flow increased 79% in 2004 over 2003; and in 2005, the flow increased 70%. Minority Applicants interviewed surged above 30+% for several years, reaching 37% (of total Applicants) in FY 2006.

Moreover, for FY 2007 POC Hires reached 36% of US Professional Hires—surpassing internal benchmark of 20%.