10 Ways to Attract and Hire Diverse Candidates

Diversity hiring: Employers’ top priority in 2018

Achieving workplace diversity was the top priority for employers in 2018.

The first step in building a diverse workforce is to hire more diversified candidates.

According to LinkedIn’ survey of 9,000 talent leaders and hiring managers across the globe, the number one global recruiting trend was diversity.

Diversity hiring in 2019

Diversity hiring isn’t a passing fad - it’s a smarter way to do business in the global market. A diversified workforce is more than just an item to be checked off form your employer branding list - it a real competitive advantage.

According to research, diverse companies:

Have 19% higher revenue (reported by Boston Consulting Group)
Are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market (according to Josh Bersin)
Are 70% more likely to capture a new market (statistic by Harvard Business Review).

10 ways to attract and hire diverse candidates

Here are 10 easy ways to make your recruiting process more inclusive in 2019:

1. Recruit from diverse talent pools

In order to hire diverse candidates, you need to consider widening your talent pool. Have you tried proactively sourcing and adding veterans, autistic people, ex-offenders, LGBTIQ people, people over 40, people with disabilities, etc. to your talent pool?

2. Advertise your jobs through diverse channels

Make an effort to reach diverse candidates by placing your job ads in additional magazines, websites and forums visited by underrepresented groups or dedicated to minorities.

3. Leverage diverse job boards

Post your job ads on diverse niche job boards. Here are a few examples of diversity specialized job boards you can try out:

Diversity Working (largest online diversity job board)
Hire Autism (a job board made for individuals on the autism spectrum)
Hire Purpose (a job board for veterans, service members and military spouses)
Recruit Disability (a job board for job seekers who have disabilities)
70 Million Jobs (a job board for candidates who have a criminal record)

4. Offer targeted internships and scholarships

Create and offer internships and scholarships to people from underrepresented groups. Contact minority organization on colleges and ask for their help in promoting your internships and scholarships among their members.

5. Highlight diversity on your career site

Highlight your company’s commitment to diversity on your career site by listing it as one of your company’s top values. Make sure you include photos and quotes of your diverse employees as well!

6. Highlight diversity in your job descriptions

Go beyond regular “equal employer” phrase. Find creative ways to encourage diverse employees to apply for your open job positions. A simple sentence of encouragement could mean a difference to a diverse candidate and make your job description stand out!

6. Ask for diverse referrals

Explicitly ask your existing employees for diverse referrals. Offer innovative employee referral bonuses to your employees who recommended candidates from underrepresented groups in your company

7. Introduce a diverse interview panel

One of the benefits of collaborative hiring is avoiding unconsciousness biases. Thus, make sure that your interviewing panel includes a diverse selection of your employees.

8. Teach your recruiters how to avoid biases

Train your recruiters to be more sensitive on diversity issues. Organize diversity training where your recruiters will learn how to avoid bias in recruitment.

9. Create diversity recruitment videos

Create a recruitment video dedicated to the topic of workplace diversity. Interview your CEO and employees and ask them to share what a workplace diversity means to them.