Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Candidates
If there is not enough diversity in your employee base or there is high turnover with certain groups of employees, your organization will not be able to leverage the power of diversity. Building diversity in a company through recruiting and retention is an important step to creating an inclusive workplace. Are your recruiting efforts doing the following? Here are some tips to help build diversity in your organization through recruitment:
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Begin to recruit from middle and high schools. Attend career days and
come prepared to discuss the benefits of working for your organization
and your industry.
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Identify stereotypes of people who work in your industry and develop
strategies for changing perceptions i.e. Firefighting should only be a
male occupation.
Use more inclusive language and visuals in rule books, orientation, and
recruiting materials.
Create cross-cultural and cross gender mentoring programs and provide
training for mentors.
Develop relationships with associations and organizations that are
geared toward underrepresented groups.
Be aware of your own biases and stereotypes and their impact on the
environment.
Create processes to make people who are different from you feel welcome
and included in your organization.
Mentor people who are from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds or
gender from you. It will help you become more comfortable with other
people and will help your staff grow in their careers.
Incorporate ideas from other cultures to solve problems and be more
innovative.
Use resources that are already in place and research what other
organizations have done to be successful.
Provide cross-cultural communication training to help staff work better
together and serve the client population more effectively.
Survey and interview staff across demographics to determine their needs
in order to create a strategic plan for retention and increased
recruitment under represented populations.
Examine your definition of leadership qualities to include ways in which
people who have different thought processes and communication styles can
lead. If you have been hierarchical in the past, start learning that
people with consensus styles can also be effective leaders.
Conduct exit interviews and identify patterns and themes if they exist.
Be willing to change to accommodate and use new ideas and creativity.
Too many people who own or run restaurants do not know enough about
conducting interviewing potential employees. Whether you define your
restaurant as fast food, casual dining, or upscale, hiring the wrong
person for the job can be expensive. Consider the costs of advertising
for candidates, interviewing time, disrupted customer service, training,
and severance pay. Select a position in your restaurant, and estimate
how much each step of the hiring process costs in terms of time and
money. You'll see how important having an interviewing and hiring system
is.
Simma Lieberman works with people and organizations to create environments where
people can do their best work. She specializes in diversity, gender communications,
life-work balance and stress, and acquiring and retaining new customers.
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her to let her know.
Call Simma at 510.527.0700 or Email simma@simmalieberman.com
Visit her website at www.simmalieberman.com
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