chat
expand_more

Chat with our Pricing Wizard

clear

Advice for Employers and Recruiters

Here’s how you hire more diverse college students, recent graduates

Steven Rothberg AvatarSteven Rothberg
January 19, 2021


By Amy Hughes, Sr. Director of Customer Enablement at Jobvite

In today’s environment, a diverse workforce is more than just a nice-to-have. A diverse workforce strengthens organizational performance, drives greater innovation, and creates a more trusted employer brand.

And with the past year prompting many Americans and especially young people to reflect on what is important to them and what their values are, it is fitting that those beliefs and priorities are being brought into the job search. We know that diversity is important to organizations, but it has been discovered that it is important to job seekers too. In fact, according to the 2020 Recruiter Nation survey by Jobvite, 33% of recruiters report that job seekers today are inquiring more about an organizations’ diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives than they did last year.

Organizations are being held to a higher standard for how they source, hire, and employ people with increased D&I efforts. Below, we explore the data behind D&I initiatives, including how the role of the recruiter shapes these goals and strategies for reaching diverse college students and recent graduates using automation to share relevant content.

Know the facts

Most recruiters (57%) agree that implicit bias is a real problem in the American workforce, but only 15% ranked “increasing diversity” as a top 3 priority, according to a 2017 Jobvite survey. However, it is important to prioritize diversity and seek out talent pools that are not already represented in your candidate pipeline. Having inclusive values leads to higher employee satisfaction, which builds an engaged and productive workforce. This is key when reaching out to young people, as 86% of Millennials would take a pay cut to work for an employer that shares their values.

Some progress has been made as Appcast Research says the market as seen a 43% increase in D&I jobs and a 128% increase in candidates applying for those jobs. Many organizations also now have specific goals for diversity in hiring with respect to race/ethnicity (63%), gender (54%), age (37%), veterans (33%), LGBTQ+ (29%), immigrants (28%), and disability (25%). Fostering this type of diversity within an organization not only improves a company’s bottom line by creating a greater exchange of ideas and skills, but this also improves employee retention by promoting a healthy, supportive work environment where everyone can feel safe and like they belong.

When it comes to diversity and inclusion initiatives, organizations that recognize this transformative period are getting serious about equity and inclusion and putting strategies in place with purposeful goals to create a truly inclusive workforce.

The role of the recruiter is imperative to fostering diversity, as recruiters are the first points of contact for candidates. It takes intentional planning for recruiting teams to plan and act on targeted strategies that will prevent quality candidates from going unnoticed.

Deliver relevant content

Targeted audience planning involves creating and delivering content that directly resonates with the individuals you are attempting to reach. This is especially a factor for developing personalized content for the identified audiences you want to recruit.

Customized content for job boards and career pages is a concerted effort. Luckily, there is no shortage of opportunities to connect talent with the employment branding materials that will help sell them on your organization. Recruitment marketing efforts including organic social media and ads, texts with links to content, emails, and even print ads where appropriate, provide more ways than ever to connect with top talent candidates.

Each industry’s recruiting efforts present their own challenges. For example, healthcare might need to rely more on personalized content to stand out given the need for healthcare personnel. This could include custom website journeys by talent persona, asynchronous video interviewing, and speedy communication. Healthcare recruiters must make their talent touchpoints unique to job seekers to maintain their interest in a sea of employment options. Not to mention, clinical healthcare roles often need to interview at odd hours and require flexibility in applications as well.

Tailor your content and gift candidates with an interview experience designed for them.

Additional tips for recruiting diverse young candidates are:

  • Be explicit in your job posting, ads, and use niche job posting boards where diverse candidates are looking.
  • Proactively and publicly implement company policies that appeal to these candidates.
  • Use social media platforms where college-aged candidates congregate, such as Instagram and TikTok, to recruit. While job boards made up 69% of 2019 posted job openings, more than 73% of people ages 18-34 have found jobs via social media channels. Make yourself accessible from multiple angles. And according to Jobvite’s recent Recruiter Nation Survey, there has been a dramatic uptick in Instagram usage among employers for recruiting efforts, while a decrease in usage for LinkedIn. The use of LinkedIn has gone down 20 percentage points since 2017 (92% vs. 72% today); meanwhile, Instagram for recruiting has grown from 18% to 37% during that same time.

Utilize automation

To ensure talent is evaluated on skills and experience rather than personal biases, talent acquisition leadership should look to technology for assistance in achieving D&I goals. While the challenges of D&I cannot be solved by technology alone, technology is a fantastic way to supplement recruiting practices to be more inclusive. While imperfect, it can be beneficial to implement systems to address conscious and unconscious bias in the recruiting processes.

Recruiters should use the AI functionalities and screening/assessment tools available in their ATS to help reduce inherent bias—examples may include de-identifying resumes and chat transcripts before sharing with hiring managers.

Make D&I a strategic recruiting priority

It has never been more important to attract, engage, and convert diverse candidates. Technology is a critical part of the process, but it also takes a commitment by an entire organization to truly value diversity and create an employer brand that attracts the best talent regardless of age, race, gender identity, orientation, location, or ability.

While D&I made strides in 2020, there is still a lot of work to be done—from entry-level to senior leadership positions, everyone has a role to play in this recruiting priority. Building a balanced team should remain a vital initiative that is alive and well within organizations this year and beyond.

— Amy Hughes is the senior director of customer enablement at Jobvite. She has over 20 years of experience in the recruitment marketing and talent acquisition industry. She has worked with companies to develop recruitment marketing strategies, improve the candidate experience, and optimize talent technology. For more information on Jobvite, please visit www.jobvite.com.

Request a Demo

For prompt assistance and a quote, call 952-848-2211 or fill out the form below. We'll reply within 1 business day.

First Name
Last Name
Please do not use any free email addresses.
Submission Pending

Related Articles

No Related Posts.
View More Articles