episode #1
Hiring Success TV
Diversity Recruiter Best Practices
Wanting diversity recruiting tips for diversity hiring?
Well, Diversity Recruiter Central offers diversity recruiter best practices whether you are in corporate recruiting or agency recruiting, whether you are a diversity recruiter or a recruiter, or you simply work in human resources with the responsibility to assist with diversity in the workplace or to provide diversity recruiting ideas.
This video discusses the top 10 best practices of a diversity recruiter. It will help teach you how to recruit a diverse workforce or assist in creating a diverse workforce strategy.
The best practices shared within in this video is in no particular order, but every last one is of great importance. If you truly want to master the art of diversity recruiting and be in tune with diverse populations, then you want to make sure to pay close attention to ALL of the practices discussed.
If you miss just one practice, you may just be going about your profession the incorrect way. No one practice is better than the other, so don’t think you should put all of your focus on certain ones. Every last one of the practices should have your highest attention.
Stay tuned for future videos that will break down each of the diversity recruitment best practices discussed in this video so you will get in-depth information on each one.
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Read the Transcript
Hey, recruiters, this is Jennifer Tardy, and welcome to the Diversity Recruiter Central channel on YouTube, the place where I teach you everything that you need to know about diversity recruiting, except Boolean string search code. I'm glad you're here. Today is our first video.
In today's video, we talk about diversity recruitment best practices. This is a must-see video if you're a recruiter. Make sure that when you watch this video, you watch it through to the very end, because at the end of this video I'm going to share with you some exciting things that we have on the horizon for this channel. Stay tuned.
The more I talk to recruiters, specifically diversity recruiters, I constantly hear them asking, "Am I doing this right? Am I doing diversity recruiting to the fullest of its capabilities? Am I doing it its due service?" That's why this video is here for you. If you've ever wondered if you're doing your role and your responsibilities as a diversity recruiter right, then watch this video, because we're going to share 10, yes, 10, best practices.
Now, I have three quick disclaimers for you. Disclaimer number one, these diversity recruiting best practices are not in order of importance, okay? Disclaimer number two, I am going to breeze through each of the best practices, all 10 of them, fairly quickly so we can get them all in and still make this video a reasonable video for you to watch, because I know that you are busy. However, I will be going in depth in each of these best practices in their own separate videos in the future, so make sure that you come back and check on them then. Disclaimer number three, these 10 best practices are not inclusive of all your best practices. These are just the ones that I love, that I think are awesome for you to implement in your organization. All right? Let's jump right into it.
Best practice number one, you must have a business case for diversity recruiting. Do you already know how diversity recruiting affects the bottom line at your organization? I mean, really, do you understand how diversity within your organization connects to how your company is able to be profitable, connect to its clients, and stay in business in earned dollars and cents? Even if you're a nonprofit, your company is responsible for earning a revenue. If you don't know the business case at your organization, it's important for you to learn that firsthand.
Best practice number two, in addition to focusing on active job seekers, you're going to have to focus on passive job seekers as well, too. There are people that are actively in the job market. There are people who don't even realize that they're looking for a job. Odds are, if you have a diversity recruiting program or initiative, or even it's your title, then there is a gap in your organization from the people who are applying to your job. You don't have enough underrepresented individuals applying to your job, so there's a gap in where you are and where you want to be, okay, which means that you are going to have to go out and do some networking, whether it's going out, physically going out and doing some actual in-person live networking, or it's going out online to do some networking to bring in some more passive candidates who happen to also be underrepresented.
Best practice number three, it is your responsibility to understand the market and understand it well enough to be able to communicate what the market is saying about the workforce, or the demographics of the workforce, to anyone that you're talking to, specifically leaders and specifically your hiring managers. This whole notion of underrepresentation only means that there is a lower quantity of a certain population within your workforce than is available in the market or the external workforce. You must understand this disparity before you even begin the recruiting process, because in some markets where your organization may have a footprint, it may not be underrepresented, and so the conversation looks a lot differently. But a best practice is first understanding the market.
Best practice number four, have an elevator pitch. If someone were to say to you today, "Well, what do you do," or, "What is a diversity recruiter," or, "How is your role different from a recruiter in general," will you know how to answer that question? You should know how to answer that question, so make sure that you have an elevator pitch, you understand this stuff yourself, and you're able to explain it to other people who are approaching you, especially leaders, and especially hiring managers, okay?
Best practice number five, make sure that you have a diversity recruitment budget. Your company must be willing to put their money where their mouth is. It will cost to be able to advertise, to be able to go out and do recruiting events, to have the marketing material. Odds are if you are working on this initiative, I can almost guarantee that you don't have much proof of diversity on your company's external website, and it costs dollars and cents to be able to do things like that. That's just only a part of what the budget should include, but you must have dollars and cents connected to your recruitment budget, specifically to help you to do your work. Otherwise, you will be struggling to get this work done.
Best practice number six, remove current barriers in your hiring process. When was the last time you audited your hiring process? One of the recommendations that I always share with recruiters that they should probably consider doing is looking back over the previous three years of data, not your current year. You shouldn't have any sort of access to demographic data. But if you already have a system in place where job seekers can self-identify, you can go back to a previous three years and look at the data. What does the data suggest? How far are people moving through the process, specifically as we're talking about underrepresented individuals? Or you'll oftentimes hear me just say UIs.
Oftentimes, when you look back through the recruiting process, you could see that there are people that you brought into the hiring process, and somewhere or another they've actually withdrawn from the process or they've been rejected from the process. Do you see any patterns in that data? Check those patterns. Remove those barriers, whether it means actually coming in to do some training, to do some outreach, things of that nature, so that people are able to move through the process pretty effectively.
Best practice number seven, agree on metrics. You will continue to spin your wheels unless there is an agreement among you and your department and leadership on what success looks like. Going back up to best practice number three, where we start talking about understanding the market and what a solid workforce representation would look like, use that as one metric, for example. What does a solid representation in your workforce actually look like, so that when you are doing this work, as you begin thinking about how is diversity recruiting going, you already know. But you need to define it up front. Otherwise, you'll leave it very open to other people's interpretation on whether or not you're doing a good job, and you and I both know that you don't want to leave it up to random people's interpretation on your performance as a recruiter.
Best practice number eight, get training. Okay. Now, I've seen a lot of trainings that are out there, and I'm over them. This is why I have the whole #BanTheBoolean, because most of the training that's out there for diversity recruiters focuses on doing some Boolean string search codes. Now, Boolean string search code can have its place somewhere, but it's not enough depth. You'll constantly hear me talk about depth in recruitment, depth in diversity, depth in training. That makes a solid diversity recruiter. Go out there and get training. Now, if you find that you want to work with me, because I'm starting a pilot soon to do some in-depth recruiter training for diversity recruiters, if you find that you do want to work with me, then go to jennifertardy.com and let me know. That is important.
Best practice number nine, have a solid onboarding and retention program. A lot of companies don't see that connection, and so oftentimes it's left to the recruiter to be the hero and to diversify the workplace. I have another video for that coming soon, because I will be ranting about it. However, there is a solid connection between hiring people, underrepresented individuals, and what they experience as they're onboarding into the organization and what they experience as an employee in the organization.
You don't want to have a solid diversity recruiting program that you have to keep going back and backfilling, and backfilling, and backfilling because everyone that you're bringing in is leaving the organization. It is a best practice to be just as connected to what's happening for onboarding and retention programs if you're a diversity recruiter. You should know that. Not only should you have to speak to it when you're talking to candidates, but you should know it just so that you're not constantly spinning your wheels.
Best practice number ten, make sure that you have leadership buy-in. If your leaders aren't communicating this initiative, if they aren't communicating the business case, if they aren't articulating why this is important, then you will have a tougher time doing your job. That's why I put this on here as a best practice for diversity recruiting. It is really important that you have a solid relationship with leaders and that they're spreading a really good message about the work that you're doing and the importance that it has on the company that you're working within. Okay?
Okay, okay, okay, so I know that I breezed through these 10 diversity recruiting best practices, but I promise you that I will be back with more videos that breaks down and goes more in depth with each of these, okay? Now, next week's video ... Yep, come back next Thursday. Next week's video talks about common misconceptions of diversity recruitment. I cannot wait until you see that video as well, too. Make sure that you check in for the next video.
Now, I mentioned earlier that I'm starting a pilot program for training diversity recruiters. This is a pilot program. It's going to be half the cost of the normal program. If you're interested in it, send me a message through jennifertardy.com. Please let me know.
Now, if you're not interested in it, that's okay. I'm just excited that you are a part of this tribe, and just for you being a part of this tribe, I want you to go into the details section and download a guide for you. It is a free guide, no cost to you, but it's 10 animated ways to increase workplace diversity without ridiculous Boolean string searches. Check that out. Check it out in the details section below and go and get you a copy.
As always, I'm Jennifer Tardy. This is Diversity Recruiter Central. I'll be back every Thursday for a new video. Make sure that you subscribe to the channel. Click the bell so that you get an alert when the next video comes out. I'll see you soon. Take care.
Hey, recruiters, if you like this video, we have others coming your way each Thursday, so subscribe to our channel and click the bell to be notified as new videos get posted. Don't forget, leave us your recruiter questions for a chance to be spotlighted in an upcoming video. Don't forget about our other channel for job seekers. As always, in order for our workplaces to be underrepresented no more, we all have to listen, engage, apply, repeat, now. Learn. I'll talk to you next time.