Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. As recruiters, the same can be said for how we source diverse talent.
Using the same sources and expecting different candidates is a recipe for disaster. If you want different candidates, source in different places. Not convinced?
Read these 5 reasons to rethink how you source to get more diverse talent.
- Be intentional. If recruiting more diverse talent is your priority, hoping more diverse talent happens to apply through one of your existing sourcing databases is a shot in the dark. If diversity is a priority, be intentional about it when you begin to source talent. One new strategic diverse talent source acquisition could make the difference between two qualified diverse candidates and twenty. To get started, check out this top Diversity Recruiting Tool.
- Get Noticed. When you start sourcing candidates through more traditionally diverse venues, you build a reputation that your company values diversity. Getting noticed as a diversity-friendly company may help you build a reputation as a company that values diverse employees, and you may start having applicants apply directly. The key here is not only attracting them, but also proving to them as a recruiter that the company values diversity. Getting noticed is the easy part, keeping them (and attracting additional candidates) requires that the company prioritizes diversity internally.
- Diverse Candidates Require A Variety of Sourcing. Diversity is not a monolith. It literally takes many different faces, beliefs, and experiences. It can be racially-oriented, sexually-oriented, experience-specific, or age-specific. For instance, if you’re looking for recent grads, college campuses and college career fairs are a great place to look. Diversifying your sourcing to target the unique experiences of your ideal candidate is just good sense. It’s wise to have a recruitment strategy for diverse groups within your organization. Contrary to mainstream beliefs, this doesn’t require recruiters and organizations to fall within the trap of stereotypes but it does require recruiters to get to know each segment of their ideal employee population and to target professional areas where each group may have representation.
- Save Time, Money, and Frustration. At the end of the day, if you’re looking for diverse talent, save yourself the time, money, and frustration and use your recruiting sources to target the specific experiences you’re seeking in your candidate. You will find you save yourself considerable time, money, and frustration by being intentional with your recruiting efforts to make sure you target exactly the type of candidate you’re seeking.
There’s something to be said about meeting people where they are. In this industry, it’s easy to restrict ourselves to proven tracks of sourcing and sure, we’re guaranteed to get qualified candidates. But if you want to continue to attract top talent AND you want to create space for a more diversity, you have to adjust your sourcing and be willing to, in some cases, be a bit uncomfortable and vary where and how you source your candidates.
It’s not easy to change our approaches, especially when we’ve been successful, but it’s been proven that having a variety of cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and religious and political beliefs makes teams more effective and encourages more innovation and creativity than homogeneous groups, which can often be blind to their own blind spots. So diversity recruitment is here to stay.