How to Find Diverse Job Candidates

How can recruiters find diverse job candidates?

We asked HR professionals and business leaders for their insights. From building internship programs to conducting blind resume reviews, here are 11 tips on how to find diverse job candidates.

1. Offer Internships and Apprenticeships

Offering internships and apprenticeships opens your recruitment process to people from all walks of life with diverse educational backgrounds or experiences. This creates a rich pipeline of talent and gives people from underrepresented backgrounds a chance to gain valuable experience and hone their skills. It can also help build relationships with organizations that focus on promoting diversity and inclusion and is an effective way for recruiters to make their recruitment process more inclusive and find the best-suited candidates for their organization.

Ann Young, CEO, Fix the Photo

2. Go Beyond Traditional Recruiting Methods

Building relationships with community organizations, associations, and diversity-focused job boards can help create a pipeline of potential candidates. Examining recruitment processes and job postings to ensure inclusivity is crucial. Using inclusive language, removing barriers to underrepresented groups, and implementing blind recruitment techniques can reduce the potential for bias. Leveraging social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter can help connect with potential candidates, showcase company culture, and highlight a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Providing a positive candidate experience, including feedback and resources, ensures that candidates feel valued throughout the recruitment process.

Lekeshia Hicks, CEO, Lekeshia Angelique

3. Partner With Universities

Recruiters can partner with universities and colleges that have diverse student populations to attract diverse candidates. Recruiters can also use university resources, like attending university job fairs, speaking to student groups, and posting job openings on university job boards.

Bryor Mosley, Career Coach, Southern New Hampshire University

4. Build a Magnetic Company Culture

The culture of a firm is more than its ideals or how its workers dress. It encompasses all the company’s values, procedures, and norms. Culture is one of the most significant considerations when hiring new personnel. Cultural fit is a strong determinant of job happiness and performance. Applicants who share the company’s values and are at ease with how things are done are more likely to be engaged and productive workers. That is why organizations must take the time during the hiring process to examine a candidate’s cultural fit. By doing so, they can ensure that they are hiring people who will be a good match for the firm and contribute to a pleasant work environment.

Daniel Foley, Founder, Daniel Foley

5. Create a Referral Program

Referral programs encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates to their personal and professional networks, which can expand the pool of potential candidates and increase the chances of finding diverse candidates with unique experiences and backgrounds. How can you make sure your referral program is a success? First, communicate the importance of diversity and inclusion to your employees. Clarify that you’re looking for candidates from all walks of life and highlight the benefits of having a diverse workforce, such as increased innovation and creativity. And don’t forget to set clear guidelines for the program, including which positions are eligible for referrals and the reward structure for successful referrals.

Piotrek Sosnowski, Chief People & Culture Officer, hiJunior

6. Invest in Artificial Intelligence

The hiring process is primed for automation. Many processes in recruiting, such as finding individuals, assessing resumes, and conducting first interviews, can be automated using AI. By automating these procedures, you may increase the efficiency of the recruitment process while also gaining useful insights through data analysis. For example, by analyzing interview data to determine which questions are most predictive of success in a post, AI can find trends in resumes that signal a strong fit for a specific position. By automating the recruitment process and employing AI, organizations can increase their capacity to locate the best candidates for open positions.

Frederic Linfjärd, Director of Growth Marketing, Planday

7. Employ a Recruitment Process Outsourcing Firm

Many businesses are at a disadvantage in attracting excellent personnel. They may lack the time or money to conduct an exhaustive search, so they settle for substandard prospects. There is, however, a solution: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). RPO firms specialize in locating and vetting applicants, and they may assist you in identifying the best prospects even if you don’t have an internal HR department. RPO firms also frequently have access to a larger pool of candidates than you might find on your own. As a result, working with an RPO firm is a suitable method to ensure you gain the top candidates for your open roles.

Andrew Dale, Technical Director, CloudTech24

8. Join Diverse Job Boards and Websites

Recruiters can find diverse candidates by including websites and job boards that specifically cater to diverse candidates in their hiring strategy. Partnering with organizations that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can help recruiters connect with a wider pool of candidates. Some examples of such organizations include the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and the National Association of Asian American Professionals. When writing job descriptions, use inclusive language that is neutral and not gendered, and consider including a statement about your company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Kristina Ramos, Reverse Recruiter, Find My Profession

9. Eliminate Biases and Application Barriers

Examine your hiring procedure, including testing and documentation. This might assist you in figuring out whether any part of your selection process is disproportionately affecting candidates from protected groups. In some circumstances, you might desire a system that strips names from resumes so you can evaluate candidates based only on their talents. It all comes down to ensuring that competent applicants can show their strengths with no obstacles on the road.

Dayna Carlin, Director of Marketing & Sales, NovoPath

10. Connect With Diverse Talent Networks

Try connecting with professional networks and resource groups for those with specific characteristics or life experiences. These groups exist across almost all industries, providing career support and community. Partnering with these networks can help build trust and provide access to diverse talent pools. For instance, recruiters looking for graduate candidates can contact university societies for those who identify as an ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, or have a disability. Many similar industry-specific professional networks can be found across social media and are often actively seeking partnerships.

Alex Taylor, DEI & Belonging Researcher, University of Sussex

11. Conduct Blind Resume Reviews

Unconscious bias can occur as recruiters make quick judgments based on things like an applicant’s school, address, or name. To avoid this when searching for diverse candidates, remove all non-essential information from resumes before you start the screening process. Unconsciously making recruiting decisions based on bias is detrimental to an organization by creating a workplace that lacks diversity, so recruiters should be conscious of this while reviewing a candidate’s resume.

Andrew Chen, Chief Product Officer, Videeo

How JobsInTheUS Can Help

Since 1999, JobsInTheUS has helped employers find the top local talent they need to grow their business — through our network of state-specific job sites, including JobsInME, JobsInNH, JobsInVT, JobsInMA, JobsInRI, JobsInCT, and more.

With our popular Career Fairs, we also provide employers the opportunity to meet face-to-face with job seekers, present a company overview, discuss available positions, and respond to questions.