| |
How to Recruit and Retain Diverse Candidates
By Simma Lieberman
If there is not enough diversity in your employee base or there is high turnover with certain groups of employees, your organization will not be able to leverage the power of diversity. Building diversity in a company through recruiting and retention is an important step to creating an inclusive workplace. Are your recruiting efforts doing the following? Here are some tips to help build diversity in your organization through recruitment:
- Begin to recruit from middle and high schools. Attend career days and come prepared to discuss the benefits of working for your organization and your industry.
- Identify stereotypes of people who work in your industry and develop strategies for changing perceptions i.e. Firefighting should only be a male occupation.
- Use more inclusive language and visuals in rule books, orientation, and recruiting materials.
- Create cross-cultural and cross gender mentoring programs and provide training for mentors.
- Develop relationships with associations and organizations that are geared toward underrepresented groups.
- Be aware of your own biases and stereotypes and their impact on the environment.
- Create processes to make people who are different from you feel welcome and included in your organization.
- Mentor people who are from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds or gender from you. It will help you become more comfortable with other people and will help your staff grow in their careers.
- Incorporate ideas from other cultures to solve problems and be more innovative.
- Use resources that are already in place and research what other organizations have done to be successful.
- Provide cross-cultural communication training to help staff work better together and serve the client population more effectively.
- Survey and interview staff across demographics to determine their needs in order to create a strategic plan for retention and increased recruitment under represented populations.
- Examine your definition of leadership qualities to include ways in which people who have different thought processes and communication styles can lead. If you have been hierarchical in the past, start learning that people with consensus styles can also be effective leaders.
- Conduct exit interviews and identify patterns and themes if they exist.
- Be willing to change to accommodate and use new ideas and creativity.
About the Author
Simma Lieberman helps organizations create environments where people can do their best work and be successful. She specializes in Diversity and Inclusion, Diversity Dialogues, and Eliminating Fear and Self-doubt. Simma is the co-author with Kate Berardo and George Simons of the book "Putting Diversity to Work." She can be reached at http://www.simmalieberman.com
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/20165.html
| If you wish to add the above article to your website or newsletters then please include the "Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/20165.html" as shown above and make it hyperlinked. |
| Some other articles by Simma Lieberman | Break Through Self-Doubt and Fear
Self-doubt and fear interfere with our ability to achieve or set goals. Self-doubt and fear are the voices in our head telling us, "You'll never succeed, so why try?" and "who do you think you are?" ...
Stress; Control It, Change It or Let It Go!
Have you ever tried to control other people? Who gets stressed out? Have you ever tried to control things or events over which you had no control? ...
Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training?
If you are planning to spend money on diversity training, WAIT!
You may be wasting your money if you haven't done any foundation building. If diversity and inclusion are not first integrated ...
Ten PC Tips for Communicating with a Diverse Audience
By learning to speak to a diverse audience, you can broaden your client base transfer the learning to more people. We need to be more "PC". ...
Holiday Stress Hotspots: Manage Stress with Knowledge
There are four main causes of holiday stress: gift giving obligations, expenses, a lack of time, and unrealistic expectations about creating a perfect holiday. To reduce holiday stress, arm yourself with knowledge. ...
Appreciating Diversity During the Holidays: It's about more than just a simple "Happy Holidays"
Guess who's not celebrating Christmas this year? Millions of people in the US.
That's right. Tens of millions of Americans don't celebrate Christmas religiously, either ...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
