This document provides recommendations for increasing minority applicant flow and impacting candidate slates. It begins by suggesting reviewing current diversity efforts and proudly displaying them. However, it cautions that a diversity brand review should be done first to assess how diversity friendly the firm truly is. It then provides many specific tactics to consider such as training all recruiters in diversity, leveraging social media like Facebook, targeting minority organizations and media, highlighting diversity on websites and in materials, and establishing metrics to track progress. In an addendum, the author notes their past success implementing these strategies led to significant increases in minority applicant flow and hires exceeding benchmarks.

1. Increasing Minority Applicant Flow
and impacting Candidates Slates

Recommending a Strategy
(Revised May 29th
2013)
Author: Johnny Torrance-Nesbitt, MBA

2. 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

3. Getting Started (continued)

Diversity Recruiting efforts

Diversity Supplier programs

And Diversity Employee Affinity Groups, etc

Diverse Organization And Associations your are
partnered with

4. 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:

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 
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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 
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.

11. 
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.

12. 
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.

13. 
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.

14. 
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

15. 
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.

16. 
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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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%.