Diversity Recruitment and Retention for the Coming Millennium: Strategies for Improving Diversity Recruitment & Retention From The Multicultural Advantage http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com Diversity Recruitment Suggestions & Tips Emphasize competence-based credentials rather than past experience. Encourage the placement of interns and co-op students who are members of diverse groups. Establish formal relationships with schools that have great diversity in their student body. This measure will ensure that you are always cultivating talent for your future talent pool. Make sure that all levels of management have received diversity training or they might not be in a position to give a fair evaluation during the hiring process. Cultivate organization partnerships with groups catering to the needs and interests of people of color, women and the disabled. When using an interview panel, make sure that it is culturally diverse to minimize potential bias. Be sure that the qualifications defined for a given position are really ones needed to do the job, and not ones based simply on historical assumptions. Understand your own beliefs and attitudes about the positions that you are filling and the populations that you are targeting. Be aware of how this could affect both the way you write job descriptions, as well as how you screen and interview. Incorporate nontraditional networking channels to produce a diverse applicant pool. A strong diverse, informal network is a critical part of any successful diversity recruitment effort. Encourage senior people of color, women and people with disabilities in your organization to assist in providing names of possible recruits. Diversity Retention Suggestions & Tips One of the most important factors needed to increase diversity retention in an organization is a demonstration of senior management's commitment to recruiting, promoting and retaining employees from diverse backgrounds. Senior management should set policies and actively promote diversity. Establish a formal mentoring program. It can help alleviate turnover problems by providing l employees from diverse backgrounds with information on organizational norms and career opportunities, as well as access to networks they might be excluded from under normal circumstances. Make sure that diversity is included in all strategic plans and that line managers are held accountable for progress in this area. Reward managers for actively assisting in employee career development. Make available training that will help employees with career development and advancement. Minorities are often overlooked when training opportunities are made available. Use a formal committee to make performance and promotion decisions in order to reduce the effect of informal decision-making networks that are so common in large organizations. Compile written standards for evaluation and promotion; make sure they are clearly understood by committee members and candidates. Perform a diversity audit and conduct exit interviews. These are extremely useful tools with which to identify problem areas and establish a baseline for measuring change. Allow employees to make lateral moves. This will also prevent them from being channeled into positions that provide limited visibility and access and to corporate decision-makers. This also helps to dispel stereotypical roles. Set up company-supported employee networks and encourage employees from diverse backgrounds to get involved with them. These groups can often provide minority employees with support and mentors that help to prevent feelings of isolation. Hold regularly scheduled discussions of issues that are of concern to employees. They often help employers gain insight into how employee turnover may be minimized and how the needs of both the organization and its employees might be met. Diversity Recruitment and Retention | Home