Prioritizing diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) is essential when creating a world-class workplace. In fact, 39% of new candidates have declined to work at an organization due to a lack of inclusion.
How to Recruit and Hire for Diverse Talent Pool
Read this article and discover actionable tips to help you attract top candidates.
- Make your recruiting process more inclusive
- Write job posts that attract diverse candidates
- Learn how to tell your DIB story authentically
An inclusive work culture promotes innovation, agility, and better business outcomes. Learn how to improve your DIB strategy now.
Table of Contents
Table of contents
Introduction: Why diversity, inclusion, and belonging matter
Best practices for an inclusive recruiting process
How to write more inclusive job posts
How to tell your DIB story authentically
How to use LinkedIn to find diverse talent
Conclusion: Drive positive change, one step at a time
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) are now business imperatives. Studies have shown a 36% profitability differential between the most and the least ethnically and culturally diverse companies. Inclusive work cultures also promote innovation, agility, and better business outcomes.
This article will help you enhance your DIB strategy while leveraging LinkedIn Talent Solutions to find employees with diverse backgrounds. You’ll learn:
- Best practices for an inclusive recruiting process
- Tips for writing inclusive job posts
- Authentic ways to tell your DIB story
Introduction: Why diversity, inclusion, and belonging matter
Diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) aren’t just a trend — they’re business imperatives that lead to progress and tangible results.
More diverse organizations tend to see higher profitability. Studies show a 36% profitability differential between the most and least ethnically and culturally diverse companies. This can be partially attributed to the fact that a diverse workforce encourages innovation, increasing profitability and performance.
Diversity and inclusion are also priorities for new candidates. In fact, 39% have declined to work at an organization due to a lack of inclusion.
The bottom line? Creating a diverse and inclusive company is the right thing to do — and positively impacts your business, your employees, and your community. In this ebook, you’ll learn how to use LinkedIn to enhance your DIB strategy and take your organization to the next level.
Organizations with inclusive cultures are:
- 2x as likely to meet or exceed financial targets
- 3x more likely to be high performing
- 6x more likely to be innovative or agile
- 8x more likely to achieve better business outcomes
Best practices for an inclusive recruiting process
Change takes time and intentional action from business leaders and talent professionals. Use these five steps to shape your strategy.
- Understand your current representation: Make sure all HR representatives know what representation data is available. Then, evaluate your current diversity status at every level. With these metrics, build your business case, identify opportunities for improvement, and track progress.
- Make data-driven decisions: Use representation data to learn how your company’s gender and racial diversity compare to the industry and your specific market. These benchmarks can help inform your recruiting goals and strategic initiatives.
- Expand your network — and your talent pipeline: Explore candidates from new campuses and tap into different or parallel industries. Actively search in locations with greater gender, ethnic, or racial representation — especially if you’re hiring for remote roles.
- Lead by example: Incorporating DIB is about changing behaviors and addressing institutionalized practices — and it’s a responsibility shared by the whole company. Have your leadership team model inclusive behaviors from the top to inspire others to follow. If you need support, reach out to your HR department or diversity and inclusion leaders.
- Help diverse candidates develop: Show that your company supports growth through career development pathways. During onboarding, new hires should receive what they need to perform their roles. Offer training on an ongoing basis to help employees build skills and competencies that are essential to upward mobility — and make sure employees have access to employee resource groups (ERGs).
How to write more inclusive job posts
Job posts may be a candidate’s introduction to your organization. Use them to highlight your commitment to DIB and show people from all backgrounds that they can belong at your company.
Use inclusive language: This free, online Gender Decoder tool can help you spot gender-coded language, while assistive writing tools like Textio, TapRecruit, and Talvista can suggest more neutral phrasing, such as “salesperson” instead of “salesman.” For considerations around race, some companies have also stopped using terms like “blacklist” and “whitelist.”
Mention DIB upfront: In the United Kingdom, 56% of LinkedIn job posts that mention DIB only do so at the end. Considering that candidates spend an average of just 14 seconds deciding whether or not to apply, this approach reduces the likelihood of your DIB message being seen.
Go beyond the legalese: DIB statements typically express that a company is committed to inclusive hiring, but few explain why it’s important. Set your brand apart by authentically and thoughtfully discussing how diversity strengthens your organization and what you’re doing to improve it.
How to tell your DIB story authentically
Practice what you preach.
To attract and engage underrepresented candidates, you need to show them your commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Build a DIB plan internally and put it into action before talking about your efforts externally. And even then, be transparent about what you’re still working on. Candidates know that it’s a journey, so set appropriate expectations.
Candidates want to know what you’re doing to support DIB. Companies that posted about diversity in June 2020 saw a 24% increase in engagement.
Tell your story on LinkedIn.
When candidates research your company on LinkedIn, use LinkedIn Career Pages to clearly communicate your DIB efforts.
- Highlight diversity in leadership. Show inclusion at all levels of your organization.
- Showcase employee resource groups and testimonials. Let diverse candidates hear from people like them.
- Share thought leadership. Emphasize why diversity is important to your team.
How to use LinkedIn to find diverse talent
LinkedIn’s profile data can help you build a more diverse talent pool. Here are four sourcing strategies you can use to hone in on underrepresented candidates.
Filter by gender: Quickly identify qualified women to balance the gender diversity of the candidates you present to your hiring manager.
Filter by location: LinkedIn Talent Insights can help you identify new and more diverse talent pools. Use the Talent Pool Reports feature to find locations that have a large number of diverse candidates with the skills you need, then filter by location.
Search members by skills: Remember, a college degree isn’t always required to do a job well. If you limit your talent searches to university-based backgrounds only, you may miss out on exceptional candidates. Removing degree requirements can create more equitable and inclusive pathways to opportunity.
If you do search by the university, consider looking for candidates who attended women’s colleges or historically Black colleges and universities.
Search members of specific LinkedIn Groups: There are hundreds of LinkedIn Groups dedicated to helping underrepresented talent — often with thousands of members — so look for qualified candidates within those groups. Here are a few examples:
- Black in Technology
- Black Executives Network
- The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
- Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE)
- Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology
- Women in Technology International (WITI)
Conclusion: Drive positive change, one step at a time
Moving the needle takes time. But by taking thoughtful, intentional steps, you can make your organization a more diverse and inclusive place to work.
Lead with empathy, be authentic in everything you do, and get employees involved whenever possible.
Source: Linkedin Talent Solutions