These 5 Tips Will Help You Recruit More Women/Diverse Candidates

5 min read | Kelly Primus

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In parts 1-5 of our “Gender + Diversity Playbook: Setting and Achieving Your Goals for 2021 and Beyond,” we covered setting new goals for diversity, what CEOs need to do to get results, how to engage & retain more women, how to change your company’s culture to be more inclusive, and how to make your company policies inclusive

Part 6 focuses on how to recruit more women to help achieve your diversity goals. Read ON!  

Create A Company Policy

If you don’t have one, The CEO should immediately institute a company policy which requires Human Resources and any outside recruiting firms MUST offer up a slate of diverse candidates to interview for ALL OPEN POSITIONS. Having a policy in place that requires a diverse slate of qualified candidates helps mitigate similarity bias, and helps companies improve gender and race/ethnic representation among the ranks. This popular article from Harvard Business Review states, “if you only have one woman candidate in your pool of applicants, there’s statistically no chance she’ll be hired.” Enough said.

Recruiting more women and diverse candidates means tweaking your traditional recruitment process. 

These 5 Tips Will Help You Recruit More Women/Diverse Candidates

  1. Expand where you recruit.

    Utilize diverse recruiting sites, job boards and online/offline groups dedicated to women in tech, stem, etc. to target diverse candidates where they congregate. If you have an internship program, offer internships to women/targeted groups at different colleges–this is a good way to encourage up and coming talent in your industry to join your team and get experience.

  2. Audit your open job ads & application systems.

    Take a look at past ads and make sure the language used speaks to a broader range of candidates. Instead of using language geared toward a specific demographic of experience level, use more inclusive language that appeals to candidates from different backgrounds. Eliminate any gender-bias language, but let your target candidates know that you’re seeking them out and why your company would be a good fit for them. 

  3. Conduct Blind Interviews.

    Use an online technology platform that enables hiring managers to hold blind interviews in early conversations with candidates. Questions are sent via the platform or by text so candidates answer the questions anonymously and are asked to avoid providing personal information, which eliminates potential bias when choosing who to advance in the interview process.

  4. Have diverse recruitment & interview teams.

    Candidates want to be able to see people like themselves represented in the company they choose to work for. It’s important to make sure the candidate is interviewed by a diverse panel of senior level women, either on the panel itself, or as a separate opportunity. Having a diverse interview/recruitment team means your organization will benefit from different perspectives throughout the recruitment process, as everyone looks for something different in candidates–and sees potential where others may not. 

  5. Develop your company brand to showcase diversity.

    It’s important to embrace your company’s commitment to gender parity in visible ways to attract more women and diverse candidates who want to work in an inclusive environment. You can do this in a variety of ways through gender awareness initiatives, career development, partnerships with orgs that champion parity, etc. Internally, talk about the benefits and importance of diversity with your team and engrain those values into your company culture to organically boost diversity in candidate sourcing. Also, be sure your career website and LinkedIn job pages showcase a diverse population of company employees.

These tips will put you on the right path to hiring more women. And, if you want to learn how to fill your pipeline with diverse nominees from within your organization for senior leadership positions, and learn more about engaging male allies to build an inclusive culture, contact us today. #WeCanHelp.

 

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Gender + Diversity Playbook:
Setting and Achieving Your Goals for 2021 and Beyond

Part 1: 2020’s Miss is Now a “New” 2030 Promise – But Will Orgs Break This Promise Too?

Part 2: From One CEO to Another—It’s Time to Get Focused

Part 3: How to Engage & Retain More Women - Top 5 Things You Can Do!

Part 4: How To Change Your Company’s Culture To Be More Inclusive

Part 5: Make Your Company Policies Inclusive by Looking at these 3 HR Tools

Part 6: These 5 Tips Will Help You Recruit More Women/Diverse Candidates

Part 7: 10 Strategies for 2021 to Help Engage & Retain Women