It’s a new year, but many of us are still struggling with the same talent acquisition challenges. It’s harder than ever to find and attract the best candidates, making it more important than ever to talent acquisition teams to ensure they can reach and engage the widest and most diverse talent pool.
Diversity recruiting is also becoming more of a focus as Gen Z continues to enter the workplace.
Gen Z is the most diverse generation yet and are more socially aware and progressive than their predecessors. As they enter the workforce, they’re not only the largest generation ever, Gen Z are also the most cause-driven. And the number one cause that Gen Z wants to see their employers support is equality.
As the benefits of diversity in the workplace only become clearer, 2023 must be the year we get it right. Here are three strategies you can prioritise this year to keep your diversity recruiting resolutions.
1. Get Creative to Tap into New Talent Pools
To discover diverse talent, companies must expand their talent sources. Not just for candidates of diverse racial backgrounds, talent attraction pros must tap into new talent pools with varying experience, specialisms and skills in order to fill new roles emerging as a result of AI and technological advancements.
When you’re competing with every other employer for cyber security experts and UX designers, your usual job listings aren’t going to cut it. Stand out from the noise and show candidates that you “get them” by meeting them where they are.
Attending industry meet-ups for programmers, embracing new recruitment channels like Snapchat and creating recruitment marketing content that speaks their language, will all help show that your organisation understands and values their unique talents.
2. Attract Diverse Candidates with the Right Content
In today’s hyper-competitive hiring landscape, organisations cannot afford to miss out on the untapped talent pool sitting within diverse candidate groups. While there is no shortage of diverse talent, career websites are failing to convert diverse candidates into applicants. According to our research report, Diversity Recruiting: What’s on Candidates’ Minds, 57% of talent attraction and employer branding professionals surveyed believe they lose diverse candidates after visiting the careers site — but before applying.
It’s clear that career web page content is not addressing the concerns of diverse candidates. Candidates are sceptical of what employers say about themselves. Templated testimonials and stock photography will no longer cut it. Authentic stories are one of the most powerful ways to increase the emotional connection that a diverse candidate feels toward your brand.
By deploying your employee advocates to share their experiences, you create highly specific and personal stories that your candidates value and relate to. This could be content specific to a niche role, the diverse talent group that they align with or a specific area of the business.
3. Tie Storytelling into Your Larger Diversity Recruiting Strategy
In our research, we found that 54% of candidates valued real-life stories from employees, whilst only 34% want statistics about representation. Go beyond the diversity stats and start using your diverse employee advocates in your recruitment marketing campaigns. Storytelling is the most powerful means of communicating your organisation’s values, goals and mission.
Once you’ve gotten your diverse team members to tell their stories, scale those experiences by sharing them across your social media profiles, job adverts and other recruitment marketing channels so your candidates can see themselves at your company.
Proving that your diverse workforce is actively valued and encouraged to participate in your employer brand is necessary to ensure that diverse candidates see that your company regards diversity as more than a box ticking activity.
By leveraging the latest recruiting technology and providing highly relevant content, delivered by real diverse employees, candidates of all kinds can better picture themselves at your company. By giving your diverse employee advocates a platform to share their real-life experiences working at your company, candidates are more likely to become applicants, and you’ll be on your way to achieving your 2020 diversity recruiting goals.
