The Competitive Advantage of Diversity Recruiting

If there's one thing business has learned since the economic meltdown of 2008, it's this: In a tough market, the key to success is innovation. Businesses who do nothing but imitate competitors not only don't get ahead, but start falling further and further behind.

And guess what? Having a diverse workforce is no exception. For many companies, diversity recruiting programs have taken a back seat in the past couple of years. That's a mistake, and here's why:

1. Diversity innovators have a huge opportunity right now
In a sluggish employment market, companies that take the initiative in diversity recruiting have a better chance of standing out from the competition. Not only can they attract the best and brightest of a diverse talent pool, but they can reap other benefits, like an improved employment brand and better media opportunities.

In other words, a little bit of effort can go a long way in the current market.

2. The market may be slow, but it hasn't stopped
The talent pool may be a little less competitive than it was 3 or 4 years ago, but there are still all kinds of roles and industries which are suffering from chronic talent shortages. Diverse talent pools are still the best 'untapped' source of talent for many of these hard-to-fill roles. Ignoring diversity recruiting strategies now will increase your time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and quality of hire in the next 12 months.

3. You're letting your competitors gain the advantage
When your competitors are tapping into the full talent pool - including diverse candidates - they're giving themselves the best opportunity to get the A-list candidates before you do.

What's more, your competitors are setting themselves up for long-term success: When the market improves (and it always does), they'll already be well-established in the diversity talent market, while you're still playing catch-up.

Don't think of diversity recruiting as a 'mandate' that you have to adhere to. Think of it as an opportunity to get ahead of the competition - and set yourself up for success in the long term.

Your Recruitment Brand is Undermining Your Consumer Brand

Your sales and marketing department is working overtime to reach a diverse target market: They're creating advertising in different languages, making sure a wide variety of cultures and lifestyles are reflected in your marketing initiatives, and doing their best to make sure your consumer brand is appealing to a diverse community.

So how come your recruitment efforts aren't reflecting the same commitment to diversity?

These days, the average consumer is more sophisticated than ever. When they see that your company wants to sell them something, but doesn't want to hire them, they notice.

Consumers like to buy brands with which they have relationships. Relationships are created when consumers feel that a brand is speaking to or connecting with them as an individual - it's not unusual for consumers to say they like a brand because it "understands" them. That's why marketing departments work so hard to create communications which speak to different diverse populations.

When your recruitment brand continues to focus solely on the 'mainstream' market, it undermines your consumer brand - and both end up suffering as a result.

The best way to get the most out of your marketing and recruitment dollars? Synchronize your efforts. Schedule a meeting with your sales and marketing team, and put your heads together:

• What diverse populations are most crucial for your business right now?
  
• How can you leverage consumer and candidate data to reach both groups?
  
• What channels can you use to communicate to both customers and candidates?
  
• What messages are most important to different diversity groups?
  

Remember, the more consistent your brand across all target groups and media, the better - and more cost-effective - the results for both recruiting and marketing.