Recruiting Strategies to Bolster Diversity and Expand Beyond Core Schools
Increasing diversity isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a business one, as well. Companies with a diverse workforce see higher revenues and are more likely to be measured as innovative leaders in their industries. Showing a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion is also essential to attracting the talent that leads to innovative and standout results, with 67% of job seekers citing diversity is an important factor when considering a company.
In order to bolster diversity at your organization, it’s important to expand beyond partnerships with core schools. Kate Beckman, Executive Manager of Community & Insights at RippleMatch, and Hansford Johnson, Human Resources Director of Talent Acquisition at Travelers Insurance, recently shared their best strategies for expanding diversity in a SHRM webinar. Here are the top takeaways from their discussion.
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Expand Your Reach
For a long time, recruiting from a specific set of core schools that tended to rank in the US News Top 20 or 50 was the status quo of campus recruiting. Virtual recruiting has made it easier than ever to reach students at a wide range of institutions, including HBCUs, HSIs, Public Universities, and Women’s Colleges.
It’s logical that expanding your reach to include schools with higher shares of individuals who tend to be underrepresented in the workplace would lead to more diverse pipelines. This assumption is also supported by data collected through the RippleMatch platform. When analyzing data collected on teams that have used our platform, we found that employers who chose to prioritize school prestige when forming their unique algorithms to surface candidates had less diverse pipelines than employers who disregarded school prestige and focused more on candidate qualifications themselves.
Travelers Insurance has effectively expanded their reach by moving beyond a school-centric model of recruiting. Instead of only recruiting from a handful of colleges, they evaluate universities on their specific strengths to help them fill representation gaps in certain areas. For example, if they wanted to increase representation on their software engineering team, they might reach out to HBCUs or Women’s Colleges with strong computer science departments.
Build a Brand That Showcases Your Real Commitment to D&I
In order to attract and retain the talent that makes up strong teams, you need to have the initiatives and frameworks in place to authentically illustrate to candidates how diverse identities are valued and supported in the workplace. Here are five tips on how to do this:
- Ensure your brand speaks to how you value people and opinions from all backgrounds.
- Diversity values must be part of your company culture.
- Regularly discuss the benefits and importance of diversity with employees.
- Encourage employees to talk about how your company values diversity.
- Record employee stories and incorporate this into how you promote your brand.
Travelers invests in real initiatives that foster a diverse and inclusive workforce. They also make sure to communicate these efforts to candidates throughout the hiring process and feature them in their public-facing recruitment materials. For their efforts to be truly impactful, they make sure to not only walk the walk, but to let candidates know about and understand their commitment to D&I.
Utilize Targeted Partnerships To Connect With Diverse Talent
Strategic partnerships with national, regional, and local organizations can be a great way to reach an expanded pool of targeted candidates. Crafting a partnerships strategy will allow you to diversify the channels in which you’re connecting with students, surfacing a wider range of talent while still being targeted in your approach. With so many niche organizations established for different academic disciplines and underrepresented groups, like the National Society of Black Engineers or Management Leadership for Tomorrow, you’re sure to find an organization that fits the goals and vision of your company.
Leverage Technology to Bolster Your Recruitment Funnel
Utilizing technology efficiently can expand your reach and increase representation while also allowing you to prioritize candidate experience. RippleMatch, for example, is an intelligent and comprehensive platform designed to prioritize diversity at the entry-level. With students hailing from more than 1,200 schools, our platform empowers campus recruiting teams to connect with the best candidates at every university in a way that is scalable and measurable. By leveraging technology like RippleMatch, you can reach diverse students more easily, allowing you to spend your time and effort on ensuring candidates have a positive experience.
Travelers leverages RippleMatch to reach diverse candidates attending thousands of schools across the country. The platform saves their recruiters time by surfacing top talent effortlessly, allowing them to connect directly with students who fit their roles.
Retaining Underrepresented Talent
It’s not enough to simply hire diverse talent. It’s just as important to put structures in place to develop and grow these employees who choose to begin their careers with your company. It’s critical that your company’s values and operations match what your underrepresented employees value. RippleMatch data shows that underrepresented Gen Z candidates value opportunities for professional development, job security and compensation, and a supportive and inclusive culture.
Travelers has done a lot to ensure their inclusive culture extends beyond recruitment. Three specific ways they do this are:
- Learning & Development - Travelers has established intentional paths for career growth, development programs, and mentorship initiatives to support underrepresented talent and advance employees into leadership roles.
- Job Security & Compensation - Travelers ensures young employees understand what they need to do in order to progress in their careers and pay scale, building off their learning and development initiatives and investments in growth.
- Supportive & Inclusive Culture - Travelers provides executive support for Employee Resource Groups, offers inclusive health benefits, a flexible work culture, dedicated D&I initiatives, and is committed to giving back to the community.
In order to recruit and retain diverse talent, it’s clear that companies must move beyond the status quo. By expanding your reach, building an inclusive culture and brand, leveraging partnerships, and utilizing technology, you can improve your diversity recruitment pipelines.
To dive deeper into these strategies and learn more, check out our full guide, BEYOND CORE SCHOOLS: Diversity recruiting strategies to expand your reach and increase representation at the entry-level.
