Recruiting Diversity Strategy: Complete Guide

Diversity in business is a hot topic right now. There are various awards and reviews in this field, and many governments have introduced or strengthened inclusion-related legislation to promote equal opportunity in the workplace. Many organizations already try to implement a recruiting diversity strategy.

Let’s find out more information on how to recruit diverse candidates!

What is diversity recruitment?

“Diversity means variety of people and ways of life. Diversity aims to recognize and appreciate all people regardless of their social, ethnic, etc. origin, their gender, their sexual orientation, their religious affiliation or world view, their age, their physical or mental abilities or other characteristics.
It's not just about the differences between people and their life plans, but always about discovering similarities. People can be of different ethnic origins or religions and beliefs, but be the same age, be lesbian, have children, or have the same physical abilities or disabilities.”

Diversity recruitment means a company hires a wide variety of people. It is often misunderstood as a purely multicultural issue. However, this also applies to diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, age, language, education, origin, etc.

Now the concept of DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) extends not only to hiring people who are different from each other but also to ensuring the equal participation of these employees. At the same time, modern companies are realizing the tremendous value that recruiting diversity candidates can add to their business. 

Inclusion depends on how well the presence, ideas and input of people from different groups of people are respected and integrated into the organization, projects and culture. There is a big difference between just employing people from different groups in your company and actually valuing their views and integrating them into the company. So, if you want to make your organization really more diverse, work on a recruiting diversity strategy not formally but with maximum dedication.

Why diversity recruiting strategy is so important?

According to McKinsey, DEIB-friendly organizations win the market competition 35% more successfully. However, a recruiting diversity strategy brings many versatile benefits.

• Increased engagement and better retention. Employees are much more likely to perform well in an environment where diversity and inclusion are top priorities. This helps boost morale and employee engagement across the entire team. So, employees who feel welcome will be more motivated to perform well. In turn, a more active team often produces better results.
• Varied points of view and ideas. A team with a wide range of cultural backgrounds, experiences, and thoughts can bring many innovative ideas and solve a wide range of challenges. According to The Wall Street Journal research, a diverse and inclusive workforce is more resourceful and efficient than a homogeneous workforce.
• Company reputation and employer branding. Diversity recruitment plan will help build a great company reputation. This is especially important when you want to hire and retain talented employees. Also, such a strategy may be essential in attracting candidates, especially in terms of graduate recruitment. As reported by Deloitte, 83% of millennials are more engaged when they think their company is promoting an inclusive culture.
• Reducing conflicts. In a DEIB-friendly workplace, employees can understand each other's differences deeper. Recruiting diversity candidates often helps to minimize disputes even between very contrasting team members. Also, such a diverse strategy unites individuals with a common goal and does not separate them.

Tips for recruiting diverse candidates

If you want to make your organization more DEIB-friendly but don’t know how to hire diverse employees, we have gathered some tips that will be a perfect start for your efforts.

1. Review your vacancies ads

Job advertisements are one of the first things applicants come into contact with your company. Evidence shows that men and women read job descriptions differently and are therefore either more or less likely to apply. Auditing your past job announcements is the best way to determine whether your recruitment strategy is diverse enough. Look at them thoroughly to understand if they are unbiased.

Words that seem normal to you may be discriminatory to someone else. For example, the pronouns "he/she" in job descriptions could be discriminatory for non-binary gender identities.

Also, your vacancies must not contain any discrimination by gender, race, ethnicity, age, language, education, origin, etc. However, this “rule” has the other side - sometimes recruiters are afraid to add any questionable details to the job description, which leads to blurry ads. 

Don’t hesitate to indicate in the job ad that you are unbiased in hiring: add a specific “less popular” region from which your company welcomes candidates. Let your candidates know that you are looking for them!

2. Use channels where diverse candidates are concentrated

We are sure there is a list of the usual recruitment methods you use for each new vacancy. However, how to recruit more diverse candidates? If your goal is to increase diversity, you can accelerate this process by using special platforms where targeted candidates congregate, for example:

AbilityLinks: This job board gathers many talented candidates with disabilities. 

70 Million Jobs: Here, you can employ reliable job candidates with criminal records who want to find a job in any industry.

RetirementJob: Use this portal for sourcing diverse candidates, in particular retired candidates aged 50+ with extensive backgrounds and varied experience.

Female Executive Search: This platform aims to increase the share of women in the top management allowing employers to search specifically for C-suite level female professionals.

Out & Equal: This job board allows organizations to boost their diversity and inclusion recruitment strategy by hiring specialists from LGBTQ+.

3. Provide internship programs to targeted groups

You can start with internship programs if you want to introduce a diversity policy in small steps. They are a way for organizations to strengthen their job pipeline for future staff and an excellent opportunity to focus on improving the diverse talent pool.

Implementing such programs will give you more insights on how to encourage diverse candidates, what benefits will interest them the most, and how you can improve your diversity recruitment strategy.

4. Develop an employer brand to highlight your diversity

Now employer brand is more essential than ever before. Well-planned diversity recruitment strategy is an excellent way to demonstrate the company's awareness and corporate responsibility and boost its employer brand.

When all the companies realize how to increase diversity in recruitment, employees realize that differences are welcome in the organization and are likely to be more confident in their unique qualities.

5. Track your diversity

If you've found out already how to recruit diverse candidates, do your best to retain them.

Apply a data-driven approach within your organization instead of implementing chaotic ideas on how to hire diverse employees. For example, you can track the male/female ratio (or any other DEIB criteria) of newly hired employees monthly or quarterly. This will help to determine whether the recruiters in your team stay unbiased. Also, you’ll see the gaps in diverse recruiting strategies or skews to the side of particular staff categories. This will give you insights for further improvements.

Get inspired by our latest blog post - 15 Best Metrics And KPIs For HR!

Conclusion

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is not a policy but a way of thinking and the value of an organization. To get long-term benefits, a company must adopt a systematic approach of continual diversity promotion and develop a comprehensive diversity recruitment strategy.

Of course, this isn’t easy, especially when the organization has a high turnover requiring permanent recruitment efforts and focus. However, this is where Axterior recruitment platform can help! 

Axterior recruitment software automates the whole recruitment and interview process, keeps all the candidates in one place, and frees recruiters’ and HRs’ time for strategic planning. Build a long-term relationship with candidates and hire the best talents while Axterior automates the entire hiring process at your company.

Ready to find out how Axterior can help HR with recruitment optimization? Try a free trial today!