If you want to attract a broad base of workers with talent, you must be more proactive in your recruiting efforts, says employment lawyer and diversity consultant Natalie Holder-Winfield, author of Recruiting & Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation.
Holder-Winfield, president and chief strategic officer of Quest Diversity Initiatives, offers these three tips for getting started with recruiting talent with diversity:
- Create opportunities for candidates to learn more about what they deem is important about your corporation. “Assuming that a candidate wants to meet with other diverse employees stereotypes that candidate,” she says. “However, by asking the candidate which areas of the firm they are most interested in learning about — the affinity groups, practice areas, etc. — the candidate is treated as an individual instead of as a member of a monolithic group.”
- Go to where the action is. Research events hosted by organizations that support and celebrate the accomplishments of diverse communities (such as historically black colleges and universities or women’s trade organizations). “Recruiters need to support these event with their attendance and active participation,” Holder-Winfield says, adding that “buying a table at an awards function and not sending anyone from the corporation to the function sends a clear message when there is an empty table.” Also, the recruiter who stands around a diversity event like a wallflower misses out on opportunities to get to potential candidates, she says.
- Create the action. To truly show a commitment to developing and investing in the careers of candidates who have been historically underrepresented in the workplace, corporations should consider hosting skills training and development seminars — everything from business development and rainmaking workshops to resume writing classes — for their potential recruits.