How to recruit a diverse candidate pool and promote an inclusive company culture

Recruiting a diverse candidate pool isn’t just a nice thing to do. It has real bottom-line benefits. These recruiting efforts can help you make new business contacts and attract top talent to your organization, which can in turn help you build a stronger company culture by bringing fresh viewpoints to the table. This will also help you expand into new markets and make you a stronger business leader. But remember, it’s not just about recruiting talented diverse candidates—it’s about hiring the most qualified candidate and then keeping them by creating a positive, inclusive company culture that celebrates differences.

Diversity goes beyond race and gender: it also encompasses ethnicity, lifestyle, age, culture, education, religion, and many other primary and secondary dimensions that make each of us unique as individuals. An inclusive company culture maximizes the use of employees’ diverse talents and fosters a sense of connectedness and trust that is important for engagement.

Businesses with diverse workforces and inclusive cultures benefit from varying viewpoints, a wide range of skillsets, and the ability to relate to a larger pool of potential customers. It can help you improve your product or service offering, grow your business, and avoid the dangerous repercussions of groupthink. Diversity in the workplace also fosters creativity and helps with retention, as employees tend to appreciate the inclusive, positive atmosphere.

How to recruit a diverse candidate pool

To recruit a diverse candidate pool, you might want to consider recruiting at diverse high schools, trade schools, colleges and universities.

• Partner with industry groups, professional societies, student organizations, and community education agencies and programs.
• Post open positions on diversity online recruiting boards
• Contact state employment service offices to see if you can post open positions on their websites or job banks. These state offices help both job seekers and private employers with recruiting and job placement efforts.
• Establish ongoing partnerships with other recruiting sources like organizations that assist individuals with disabilities, faith-based organizations, veteran organizations, placement services, women’s groups, and ethnic or multicultural centers.

But don’t make these efforts only when you have jobs available – maintain relationships and create partnerships even when you don’t have an open position. Your efforts to network will pay off in the form of a diverse candidate pool when you do have an opening and will put you in a better position to attract top talent to your organization.

And make sure that you take steps to convey an inclusive work environment during your interview process. “Demonstrate that you have a culture where people can have realistic expectations of authentic inclusion, development, and career success,” says Kit Tennis, a Boulder, Colorado-based business consultant with more than 35 years of experience. “Companies that cannot offer an attractive workplace climate tend to recruit weaker candidates and foster disappointing turnover.”

How to promote an inclusive company culture

Just as important as recruiting a diverse candidate pool and hiring top talent is creating a positive company culture that champions people’s differences. It’s important to engage with management to clarify their role and responsibilities in championing an inclusive environment. To encourage an open exchange of ideas among employees, try to show them they are valued “as a person, as well as for their skills and contributions,” says Tennis. Ask all of your employees for feedback regularly. Your team will appreciate the transparency and the chance to have their voices heard. Ask not only about company culture, but also their views on the business, your product offering, and growth opportunities. Their insights just might surprise you.