“CEOs have powerful leverage to drive organizational change — if they choose to use it. On the issue of workplace diversity and inclusion, corporate leadership so far has been a mixed bag. Despite the right words and intentions, progress has been slow,” according to Eddy Ng.
With younger generations of employees claiming more job opportunities for diverse communities, this subject is on every HR manager’s agenda. Learning where the problems are in the recruitment process will help us develop suitable solutions to overcome this issue. According to Korn Ferry, these are the four most common challenges when recruiting diverse talent and how to overcome them.
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Sourcing
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.
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Selection
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. .
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Attraction
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.
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Retention
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.
Which measures do you take to ensure recruiting diverse talent? Let us know in the comments section below.
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