Diversity Outreach Primer - Where Do I Start? | OutSolve Blog

Diversity is a common topic these days, both in and outside of the corporate walls.  It can take many forms, including discussions on employee retention, boards of directors and leadership teams, or targeted recruiting and outreach.

Where to start

With so much discussion, many companies still struggle to figure out where to START.  The simple advice is start SOMEPLACE; try one thing then keep adding.  To learn more about where to start, keep reading.

Think of your diversity recruiting and outreach, similar to your sales strategy; consider your targeted audience and customize that approach.  In addition, you want to make sure you plan your strategy, think about what you want to accomplish, identify some metrics to measure your results and document your efforts.

Consider college recruiting

For those of you who use college recruiting to hire new talent, where are you going and why?  Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have a diverse group of employees recruiting for you on/off campus?
• Have you established relationships with diverse organizations to do presentations, offer scholarships and recruit interns?
• Does your social media show diverse new hires/employees and include testimonials (either written or video)?
• Have you created a good working relationship with the disability services office and veteran services office on campus?
• Do you want to establish an early identification program, targeting diverse freshman or sophomore students?

Diversity branding

You also want to make sure you have a diversity brand that accurately represents your company.  This should be evident across your:

• Career and company websites,

• Social media platforms,

• Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and

• In your CEO's diversity statement. 

Building that brand will help you with strategic sponsorship with diverse organizations, planning events to target specific groups, providing scholarships to attract underserved populations and allowing you to cast a wider net.

And don’t forget

Take some time to plan your strategy, across those various groups and platforms; communications professionals can help with this effort.  Make sure your messaging is consistent, you use diverse images (think beyond race and gender, to include religion, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, etc), you include testimonials and videos from employees, and you list any diversity recognition you have received.  Some companies even include their demographic information about their employee base and any stretch targets; this has become an increasingly public way to broadcast the company's diversity commitment to a broader audience.  

Need a booster shot to get you started?

Many organizations can help you with these efforts or allow you to do this via a virtual platform.  Some examples include:

• Virtual career fairs like Bender Virtual Career Fair, Veteran Recruiter, Fairygodboss, or Getting Hired.
• Internship or mentoring programs like INROADS, Next Gen with Disability:IN or Veterati and American Corporate Partners for veterans.
• Or set up your own event through Microsoft Teams or Zoom, where you can either highlight specific jobs, diverse groups or the company in general.  Many companies have successfully pivoted to hosting these either weekly or monthly!

So what are you waiting for? 

Pick one or two of these ideas and start now!  

And as a reminder, remember to start with your strategy, think about what you want to accomplish, identify some metrics to measure your results and document your efforts.

Mary Leone is a talent acquisition professional that has a passion for diversity recruiting.  She has partnered with Alan Klapman to form Diversity Outreach Partners, which can help your business build, grow and document your diversity outreach efforts.  You can find her on LinkedIn, writing about diversity recruiting, transitioning veterans or people with disabilities or volunteering as Vice Chair for Disability:IN North Texas and as a Networking Facilitator/Career Coach at Vets2Industry.