Employers are more and more interested in creating a culture that benefits from cultural representation and diverse voices. Whether it’s gender-balanced or ethnocentric, businesses with a more balanced approach to hiring and staffing create advantages over businesses that do not.
Nowadays, the question has moved from “should we have diverse hiring practices” to “how to recruit” because the interest in being diverse and cross-cultural is high. Let’s look at some answers to the recruiting question. Hopefully, these suggestions assist you in resourcing your company.
Recruit Across the Entire Spectrum
In order to establish diversity at your company, you need to broaden your vision and search spectrum. Think outside the hiring box and consider hiring military veterans, autistic and other disabled individuals, ex-convicts, LGBTQ, older people, non-whites, etc. Think like an outlier and be intentional about your interview process.
Place Employment Opportunities in Diverse Publications
Do some research and see what publications and websites various groups of people are reading, then put your employment ad in those sources. There are even websites and media designed to target women, minorities, and specific ethnic groups. Utilize them.
Publish your employment ads on niche pages like:
Consider Diverse Internships and Programs
Scholarships are a great way to entice recruits from all backgrounds, so intentionally create programs, scholarships, and onboarding procedures with a cross-cultural purpose. Utilize colleges and universities to market and get the word out about these opportunities.
Spotlight Your Values
Make it known on your own company media (website, publications) that you value diversity and want to partner with like-minded individuals. People from various cultures will want to know, from a glance, what your values are about cross-cultural voices, so be open about it on your own material!
Make It Clear in Job Descriptions
This might be somewhat controversial, but if you’re trying to hire across cultures, you should make it very clear in the job description that you value diversity and even work hard to provide opportunities to minorities. This will attract more qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds.
Ask Your Team
Phone a friend! Well, maybe not a friend. But you should absolutely reach out to your staff and especially any of your staff that is considered a minority and ask them for referrals. You could even offer a bonus for any tips that lead to a hire. Including your team in the search also communicates how highly you value cross-cultural inclusion in the company.
Collaborate
One more step beyond asking your staff for assistance would be to include them in your interview and hiring protocols. Create a cross-cultural team to help you interview candidates. This will help you avoid any internal biases that exist in the process while also giving a much-needed voice to any minorities already on your team.
Create a Desirable Environment
You do not want the word on the street to be that your company is not inclusive, kind, and diverse. Furthermore, you should take steps to ensure that your staff understand and live by your values.
Utilize diversity training and coaching to make sure your office space is a place where anyone, from anywhere, would want to work. The best way to recruit across cultures is to be a company that all cultures would love to work with.
