In addition to broadening your company’s demographic profile, diversity is key to bringing in new business and new employees. Nearly 70% of job seekers say that a company’s diversity portfolio influences their decision about whether or not to work there. A diverse workplace reaches a wider consumer base, which gives you more opportunities to sell your products and services. If the candidate pool in your applicant tracking system is looking a bit monotonous, here’s how to add variety. As with any change you make to your recruiting strategy, adding diversity can be accomplished in increments. Starting with small changes is a good way to diversify your organization and see if your strategies are working. To start, pick one metric at a time to improve. Considering that only 4.2% of women held CEO-level positions in 2016, and African Americans are 16% less likely to get called in for an interview, improving on one of these statistics may be a good place to start.
Branding or Rebranding?
Ultimately, you’ll want candidates to “see themselves” in your company. If you’re starting to make your company more diverse, you’ll want everyone — namely, customers and prospective hires — to know it. If your company has had an established image before, it’s not too late to change. Experts say that starting with research is a good way to begin. Ideally, your new branding should reflect the image your company wants to project in the future instead of focusing on its current image. Rebranding your image or posting job advertisements on more recruiting sites geared toward certain demographics can be quite beneficial. To get everyone excited about rebranding, host parties or informal gatherings where employees can weigh in with their opinions.
Add Diversity Strategies to Your Recruiting Process
It’s also important to remember that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work when you’re diversifying your workplace. Where many businesses go wrong, experts say, is in failing to align their diversity goals with their business goals. While making your workplace more inclusive and diverse is a good goal to aspire to, it won’t get you anywhere if it doesn’t drive business growth. As you’re contemplating a diversity goal, look at your future hiring goals, too, so that you can add diversity to your recruiting software as you fill positions.
Have a Buy-In Period
Ultimately, you’ll want management to be on board with your diversity plan. There are several ways to win support from leadership for your game plan. Once you’ve had a chance to successfully integrate diversity into your recruitment system, it’s time to start collecting data. Having evidence that your diversity strategy has increased ROI, improved employee satisfaction, or gained more customers goes a long way in building your case. Teams that are more racially diverse perform about 35% better than those that are not. If your company is lacking in diversity, now is the time to change that. Starting small, getting feedback about your diversity initiatives, and tracking how diversity has helped the business are keys to success.
