Organizations often claim that there isn’t enough talent from underrepresented groups in talent pools. But the evidence shows that this just isn’t the case. More women earn college and graduate degrees than men. And, in both the US and Europe, more people of color are attaining higher levels of education than ever before. Instead, the problem seems to lie with organizations and their sourcing strategies.

You can overcome this by making job ads more inclusive, broadening your referral pool, sourcing from different talent pools, finding qualified female candidates through return-to-work programs, sponsoring networking groups, and starting a diverse internship program.

Some organizations have no problem getting diverse candidates into their recruiting process, but they just can’t keep them in long enough — they drop out before they get an offer. If your organization suffers from disproportionate numbers of underrepresented candidates leaving after being interviewed, your interviewers may likely be exhibiting bias.

You can overcome this by using data-driven assessments, structured interview guides, providing interview coaching, and getting feedback from candidates. . 

Even if your organization follows an inclusive sourcing strategy and assessment process and has diverse candidates moving through the interview stage, many of these candidates may turn your job offers down.

You can overcome this by promoting career development, publishing diversity data, showcasing diverse talent, and offering differentiated rewards and benefits.

You’ve hired talented, diverse candidates, but they don’t stay at your organization long. You can’t stop ensuring that your sourcing and hiring practices are diverse and inclusive; the rest of your organization must also change.

You can overcome this by building inclusive onboarding programs, checking in on new hires, supporting mentoring programs, and championing employee resource groups.