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Diversity Recruiting

06
May
Diversity Recruiting  ·  Recruiting Best Practices  ·  SeekOut
The Joy of the Search: How to Support Diversity Recruiting

With diversity recruiting at the top of the priority list for many companies, those involved with talent acquisition are continually looking for new ways to discover diverse candidates. But there’s more to finding diverse candidates than searching LinkedIn. 

Think about how you buy airline tickets. Back in the day, people typically went to a given airline’s website that offered the route they needed. Now, search engines and aggregators (like KAYAK & Travelocity) make it possible to see all the airlines flying to your destination, plus their schedules and pricing. You’ve got options and the ability to filter through the results. 

SeekOut takes a similar approach to diversity sourcing. LinkedIn is like that airline you always went to before the advent of sites like KAYAK and Travelocity. Just because it originated the professional network doesn’t make them the best way to access and unpack information about potential candidates. 

Likewise, if you’re keen to ensure diverse recruiting, you shouldn’t need to go to the same spot over and over again. I talk about different ways to promote diversity in the workplace on a recent episode of Sourcing School with Brian Fink and Ryan Leary.  

Here are my top six tips for discovering diverse candidates:   

  1. Establish who is responsible for diversity

Diversity means way more than hiring people who look different from one another. And yet, many organizations get stuck on this foundational aspect. 

Many things need to happen to move the needle on diversity, and one of the first steps an organization should take is determining who is responsible. 

Is it HR? The leadership team? Who is going to do the work and speak for the outcomes? Know your role first. 

  1. Leverage recruiting adjacent resources

There are plenty of great recruiting-related resources – this is one of them. Going to my point above, looking in the same place will yield the same results. 

One of my favorite books to give recruiters (and one that Fink also knows and loves) is The Joy of Search: A Google Insides Guide to Going Beyond the Basics. 

Is it about recruiting? Not really. Is it about being a great online searcher? 100 percent. And that’s what great recruiters are – great online searchers. 

  1. Look beyond the obvious

We need to challenge ourselves to think beyond what we know and how it shapes our worldview. This runs the gamut from the obvious to the not-so-obvious, like preferring candidates who went to Ivy League universities or California colleges because that reminds us of where we’re from and who we relate to. 

With SeekOut’s Blind Hiring Mode, you can focus your sourcing on experience and skills by hiding information that would reveal a candidate’s gender, race, or ethnicity so recruiters and hiring managers can minimize unintended bias. 

  1. Practice mindful sourcing

Mindfulness underpins so much of this conversation – especially as we put searches into action. That means reviewing keyword selection, incorporating gender-neutral or otherwise non-biased language. 

When it comes to finding diverse candidates, every word matters down to the letter. You need to not only look for diverse populations, but you also need to think like them. Our language is evolving and recruiting needs to too. 

  1. Pay extra attention during review

As you start to engage diverse candidates, pause and think about how you interact. The raised focus on diversity and inclusion might mean you make additional attempts to connect, even with active job seekers. 

You will likely need to adjust your outreach by working to understand this talent pool and demonstrating patience, persistence, and politeness. Respect the value they offer. 

  1. Data doesn’t lie

While it’s true that recruiting is about making connections, it’s also important to understand how and where you’re most effective in these efforts. 

Data can be a powerful ally, and SeekOut’s Diversity Talent Analytics will help set targets, drive conversations with hiring managers so you can create diversity-friendly job descriptions and hone your sourcing strategy. 

The overlay of technology works to ensure you’re on the right track and making progress with the candidates you’re looking to engage. 

In Closing 

With diversity recruiting, there are a few critical factors to keep in mind: sourcing goes beyond filters, bias comes from all directions, and headcount is just the start. 

Long-term change doesn’t happen overnight. You will make mistakes. 

You will probably even repeat some of them. It’s a process, one that benefits from thoughtfulness and intention – and thinking outside of the proverbial box as much as possible. 

Learn how SeekOut can help you recruit hard-to-find and diverse talent. Request a demo.

 

SeekOut Media Contact:
Eric Jaquith
Senior Account Executive
[email protected]


14
Apr
Diversity Recruiting  ·  Recruiting Best Practices
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mistakes That Are Holding You Back

Imagine it’s pre-COVID. You’re going to a conference, but you’re running late. You find a parking spot, jog into a building you’ve never been to before, and you see a janitor cleaning up. You stop to ask where the front of the meeting hall is, and you’re directed to a nearby hallway on the left. As you head that direction, you see a couple taking wedding photos in front of a beautiful fountain. You enter the meeting hall and get there just in time to see that the keynote speaker from one of the hottest tech startups just took the stage.

Close your eyes, and try to visualize this scenario.

What do you see? Was the janitor a white woman? Were the newlyweds two men? Was the keynote speaker a 40-something bald Black woman?

This is what Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion expert Jackye Clayton asked attendees at her HR Tech keynote to demonstrate implicit bias. We all have a tendency to visualize what’s familiar, but this is holding us back from building diverse workforces and inclusive company cultures that will retain them.

If we want to make progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, we need to challenge the way we think, and the way we do things. With that, here are six common mistakes that may be holding you back.

1. Only sourcing Black candidates from HBCUs

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are a tremendous resource for sourcing Black candidates, but should not be the only source.

Out of the top 10 colleges and universities for enrollment of Black and African American students, only three are HBCUs. Based on current enrollment, you would be leaving over 50,000 candidates on the table if your recruiting plan for Black talent stops at HBCUs. In fact, only 20 percent of Black students who complete a bachelor’s degree go to an HBCU.

Make sure your diversity recruiting strategy is able to reach the other 80 percent of Black college graduates—as well as those without a college degree.

2. Using unnecessary job requirements to screen candidates

Job requirements often contain a minimum amount of experience with continuous responsibility or growing leadership responsibilities. Candidates with job gaps or lack of career progression are often disqualified right away.

This can disproportionately affect people from marginalized groups, who are more likely to be treated poorly at work—and may have shorter tenures as a result. For instance, 90 percent of transgendered workers have directly experienced harassment or mistreatment at work. This includes inappropriate questions, missed promotions, and physical violence. Because of this, people from marginalized groups could be more likely to have job gaps or lack of career progression—and shouldn’t be punished for it.

Before you judge someone because they seem to move around a lot, consider that they may be a victim of discrimination.

3. Overlooking candidates with disabilities

Companies often think about diversity in terms of gender and race, but overlook other forms of diversity—including disability.

Approximately 11 percent of all postsecondary undergraduates report having some form of disability. And there are many educational institutions that specifically assist students with disabilities:

  • Gallaudet University supports students that are deaf or hard of hearing.
  • Landmark College supports students with learning disabilities.
  • Perkins School for the Blind supports students with blindness, deaf blindness, and multiple disabilities.
  • The University of Houston has a center for students with disabilities that supports mobility impairment, psychological disabilities, and learning disabilities.
  • The University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration supports those with developmental disabilities.

When you are recruiting, don’t overlook the often overlooked.

4. Only hiring for diversity in entry-level roles

True diversity and inclusion isn’t an easy fix, like hiring young women out of college to join your sales team. It requires change across your entire organization.

Make sure that you have diverse leaders on your team to hold others accountable to the company’s diversity goals and create a safe environment. If one of your new team members from an underrepresented group feels discriminated against, your program isn’t going to work. Accountability is critical.

5. Expecting technology to solve a problem that a lack of technology did not create

Innovations in modern technology have made finding diverse talent easier than ever before. With an AI-powered Talent 360 platform like SeekOut, you can find the right talent, engage with them through automated, personalized messages, and boost the candidate experience at every stage of the hiring process.

But technology alone cannot solve all your diversity and inclusion challenges—because it’s not causing them. For instance, technology alone can’t reduce biases. That’s because bias doesn’t start when organizations buy technology. The problem starts when you hire people who are unaware of their own biases. While technology may be able to help with things like blind resume reviews, that won’t matter once your team members meet candidates and new hires face-to-face.

6. Retaining team members who contribute to a toxic culture

Some people are so afraid of losing their power and their comfort that they would rather not take action to create a more diverse, inclusive workplace. Allowing those people to stay at your organization is holding you back from reaching your goals, because it creates a toxic work culture.

If you want to employ a diverse workforce, you need to break or change your culture to help those people feel that they belong. You may have practices and policies in place that have disadvantaged people for years, and it’s going to take hard work, self-reflection, and some discomfort to change them. You may need to shatter the way you are used to doing things, and you may need to let people go if they are holding you back.

Final thoughts

The world has changed in the past 20 years, but many of us are recruiting based on information we received 20 years ago. We have so much more technology and ways to connect with people than ever before, yet we haven’t learned how to connect with people just across the street that are different than us. It’s time we challenge what we think we know, and how we do things.

Next time you recruit for an open role, do an exercise to visualize the different types of people you’d like to see on your team. When you encounter the unexpected, ask yourself how you would handle the interaction if the person looked like you, and whether your behavior would be different if they did. And make a conscious effort to expose yourself, your family, and your friends to as many different kinds of people as you can.

Hire those that don’t fit your culture. Vote for candidates who have earned the position. Challenge the norms. When you change the expected to the unexpected you can have long-lasting consequences that make companies and communities change for the better. It’s time to level-up on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 

Ready to build a more talented, diverse team? Get a demo to see how SeekOut provides you the needed diversity talent insights to get a competitive edge in recruiting hard-to-find and diverse talent.

SeekOut is the #1 rated diversity recruiting software on G2 Crowd.


14
Dec
Diversity Recruiting  ·  Recruiting Best Practices  ·  SeekOut
Data-driven Diversity: 4 Ways Your Team Can Start 2021 on the Right Path

Diversity and inclusion are top of mind for many company leaders today. It’s the right thing to do to combat social injustice, and research has shown that diverse teams perform better overall. But finding more diverse candidates to interview is one of the biggest barriers to improving diversity.

Data can help. In fact, 81 percent of attendees on a recent webinar agreed it would be helpful to have diversity statistics for setting and achieving goals. However, 91 percent said they had difficulty finding the statistics they needed.

The right data can help you and your team think more strategically about how to approach diversity hiring in 2021.

1. Setting realistic diversity targets

It’s common for HR leaders to be given corporate diversity targets, but they may not always be realistic. Taking a more proactive approach with data can help you get a seat at the table while goals are being discussed and set.

Understand your talent pool demographics by looking at your competitors’ demographic data, as well as regional demographic data. Compare that to your own data to find opportunities to improve. For example, if 3 percent of your workforce is comprised of Black employees, but 10 percent of your regional population are Black, consider how you might better attract and retain Black workers.

Break down demographic data by seniority, discipline, and specific roles to find exactly where you should focus your diversity recruitment efforts. For example, if your competitor and regional data show a higher percentage of Black software engineers than you have on your team, you will know you have a strong opportunity to hire more talent from that group.

2. Strategically advising hiring managers to craft better job requirements

A Hewlett Packard internal report found that men apply for a job when they meet 60 percent of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100 percent of them. Your hiring managers may be inadvertently derailing your diversity recruiting efforts with long lists of must-have skills and qualifications.

Empower your talent acquisition team to have data-driven conversations around job requirements, so they can become true strategic advisors to your hiring managers. For example, they can show how the original job requirements yielded only 50 candidates across the country, with only a handful from underrepresented groups. By removing unnecessary skill, location, or title requirements, they can show hiring managers how to access a larger, more diverse talent pool.

3. Strategically sourcing and submitting diverse slates

Traditionally, sourcers have uncovered candidates from underrepresented groups by building Boolean strings based on where diverse people are. But many of these strings aren’t accurate—and may even introduce bias. For example, searching the top 100 US female names finds less than 20 percent of women, and those women will be predominately white. A quarter of Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) students aren’t Black, and only 9 percent of Black college students attend HBCUs.

Dig into your data to see where candidates from underrepresented groups are coming from, and use that to refine your sourcing strategy. For instance, what companies have they worked for, where are they located, and what colleges did they attend? Help your team go beyond traditionally-used search strings by investing in sourcing platforms that use data and AI to accurately find candidates from underrepresented groups, and reduce bias.

And when hiring managers submit slates to hiring managers, encourage them to include at least two women and two minorities. Studies have shown that a more diverse slate of candidates increases the probability of hiring someone from an underrepresented group.

4. Diagnosing bottlenecks in the talent funnel

Finally, use data to uncover breakdowns in your talent funnel. Is there a stage where candidates from underrepresented groups are disproportionately screened out of your hiring process? Is your turnover rate higher for employees from underrepresented groups?

Diagnosing pitfalls in your talent funnel can guide you toward solutions. For example, blind resume reviews can reduce bias early in the process, while structured interviews and assessments can reduce bias later on.

But simply hiring a candidate from an underrepresented group doesn’t help you build a more diverse workforce if you can’t retain them. Keep a pulse on why employees are leaving, so you can provide more transparency in the hiring process—or move to enact change.

Final thoughts on data-driven diversity

There is a great opportunity for your team to leverage data and insights to set diversity targets, become talent advisors to your hiring managers, and achieve or exceed your targets. But increasing representation at the top of your talent funnel is only part of the equation.

Candidates from underrepresented groups should feel included, and know that their different personal experiences and ways of thinking are accepted and celebrated. Diversity, inclusion, and belonging are all very important, and need to be thought about concurrently to achieve true progress and better outcomes.

Ready to build a more talented, diverse team? Get a demo to see how SeekOut provides you the needed diversity talent insights to get a competitive edge in recruiting hard-to-find and diverse talent.

SeekOut is the #1 rated diversity recruiting software on G2 Crowd.

 

Jen Dewar, SeekOut Content Writer


23
Dec
Diversity Recruiting  ·  SeekOut Events
3 Takeaways on Diversity: What I Learned at the From Day One Conference

With 2020 right around the corner, we must have 20/20 vision with our future diversity initiatives. The From Day One conference, held December 11th in Los Angeles, focused on diversity strategies. Here are 3 key lessons I learned from top-in-class diversity leaders.

1. Trust the Benefits, Trust the Research, and Take Action

I attended the Panel Discussion Getting Bias Out of Our Systems with panelists from CAA, Novartis, Southern California Edison, Joonko, and Control Risks. I learned that getting bias out of an individual or an entity takes a long time. It requires systemic change and “Educating a System,” not just changing individual attitudes. As diversity & inclusion leaders, it’s imperative to educate the system well enough to penetrate an inclusive framework. 

As you can imagine, this will take time.

According to Marion Brooks, VP of Diversity & Inclusion at Novartis, a well-rounded diversity initiative for your company is just an inch away with the right tactics. By fully grasping the benefits of diversity and trusting the research that has been done, you can solidify your strategy for leading this process.

Benefits:What are the known benefits of diverse teams?

  1. Higher Revenue
  2. Greater Innovation
  3. More Customer Needs Met

What the Research Says:

You can’t increase your diversity hiring with token efforts to diversify your talent pool. You need to make sure you have significant representation at the top of your talent funnel. According to the Harvard Business Review, if you only have one woman or one person of color in a slate of candidates, there is no chance statistically that they will be hired. Unconscious Bias is just too strong. But if at least two women or people of color are in the slate of candidates, the odds of hiring a diverse candidate goes up to 50% or more. By simply diversifying the final candidate pool, you can diversify your workforce.

The Strategy: 

Novartis’s Diversity Guideline: Novartis created a new Hiring Guideline in which they will make it a requirement to have at least one woman, and at least one person of color in the final candidate pool. This will launch on January 1st, 2020. 

Lesson Learned: We have statistics available, scholars have done research, and it is our responsibility to make something out of their efforts by implementing diversity initiatives. 

Speaking of using statistics… this leads me to the second lesson learned.

2. Use the Data, and Analyze the Insights

I sat in the Creating a Data-Driven D&I Strategysession presented by Anoop from SeekOut. I learned from my very own CEO that “big data is eating the world today”. Data and the insights they provide drive how CEOs and leaders run their businesses; data determines whether our businesses die, survive, or thrive.

The D&I sphere is a hugely rich and complex space that requires actionable insights backed by data to make informative decisions for your business. Data and AI can be used in the D&I space by leadership AND individuals to use as guidelines on how they can be better at our jobs every day and excel at the work that we do. 

Examples of Useful Data in the D&I space:

    % of diverse employees at your company
  1. Diversity stats of your competitors
    2. % of diverse employees by function% of diverse “data scientists” talent in a specific city/region% of diverse employees by title 

In the recruiting and talent acquisition space, data can be used to form concrete goals and solidify strategy. Tools like SeekOut can help you find all the data points above. Bringing us back to my first lesson from 1. Trust the benefits, Trust the research, and Take action, having solid researched data to present to your manager/executive will bring you closer to implementing diversity initiatives. 

Lesson Learned: Having data as your ally is an enormous advantage in knowing where you stand in your diversity efforts.

You can watch Anoop’s Breakout Session below!

3. Finesse the Tools, Make them your Ally 

My final point that I learned was that there are a multitude of tools that are our allies in D&I. Specifically, Textio was mentioned in several speaking sessions as being able to help fix gender-biased language.

  • Textio: Textio is an augmented writing platform that connects to your Applicant Tracking System, and rids any language that keep certain groups away from applying. Textio will not rewrite your job description, but it will highlight and suggest new words. This can help reduce bias out of the hiring process and keep your strategy more thoughtful. 

https://textanalysis.beapplied.com/

  • Ongig: https://www.ongig.com/features/job-description-text-analyzer-gender#/
  • Kat Manfield: http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/

    • Lesson Learned: My biggest takeaway from the From Day One conference is that a diverse yet inclusive vision is not a “nice to have” but a “must have”, and that doing it right takes time and deliberate effort. Implementing diversity initiatives is complex, layered, and time-consuming. However, doing it right is worth it, and you can utilize the data and finesse the tools to set you up for success.  


    19
    Jul
    Diversity Recruiting  ·  SeekOut Product Updates
    Custom Pictures Added to Blind Hiring Mode

    You’ve asked– we delivered! Remove unconscious bias while sourcing with Blind Hiring Mode. It hides information that could reveal a candidate’s gender, race or ethnicity. You can now change the cat in Blind Hiring Mode to your favorite pet, animal or virtually any custom image to your liking.

    To change the cat picture follow these steps:

    1. Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of SeekOut
    2. Click on ‘Account’
    3. Click ‘Change Blind Hiring Picture’

     


    24
    Apr
    Diversity Recruiting
    How to Reduce Unconscious Bias in Hiring

    Despite all the advancements we’ve seen in diversity and inclusion hiring over the last few decades, prejudice and stereotyping remain rampant at organizations across all industries. Making matters worse, you can’t always tell when it’s happening. 

    Few people would openly admit to being prejudiced. As it turns out, though, it’s possible to display such tendencies without being aware that you’re even doing it. 

    When this happens, it’s referred to as unconscious bias—also known as implicit bias. While unconscious bias is capable of impacting all areas of operations, it shows up frequently during the hiring process. 

    What is Unconscious Bias?

    Unconscious bias refers to having unfounded assumptions or beliefs against individuals or groups of people. It can be applied to demographic data like race, gender, age, geographical location, or health. It can also be applied to socioeconomic data: Where did you go to school?

    “The brain is like an association-seeking machine,” explains Mahzarin R. Banaji, a social psychologist and Harvard professor. “It puts things together that repeatedly get paired in our experience. Implicit bias is just another word for capturing what those are when they concern social groups.”

    Banaji provides some examples of how unconscious bias can show up in the world. 

    “When I see that my mom puts out butter when she puts out bread, the two are associated in some way,” says Banaji. “But I also see other things in the world. I see as I walk down the street who the poor people are and who the rich people are, and where the one lives and where the other lives.”

    These are just a few examples of biases — as you can see in this graphic from Diversity Australia, the list of potential biases goes on and on:

    unconscious bias in hiring graph

    (image source)

     

    The Most Common Types of Unconscious Bias

    Unconscious bias comes in many different forms. Here are some of the more common ones.

    1. Affinity Bias

    The next time you hit it off with a job applicant, take a step back and assess the situation. Ask yourself what it is that you like so much about that person. Could they resemble you in any way? 

    As it turns out, we tend to gravitate towards people who are like ourselves. This behavior is called affinity bias, and it can be very difficult to pick up on if you’re not actively aware of it.

    2. Halo Effect

    Think about a time when you heard a shocking story about someone and found it hard to believe. What you were experiencing is called the halo effect, or the tendency to focus on someone’s greatest attribute while ignoring negative characteristics or potential red flags. 

    3. Groupthink 

    We’ve all seen this before: A team of hiring managers is reviewing a job application, and the majority of them share negative feedback—putting pressure on colleagues to agree in order to  avoid voicing a dissenting opinion. 

    Going along with a group when it goes against your better judgement is called groupthink. Oftentimes, it’s done out of good intentions—like maintaining harmony and preventing conflict. But it won’t always lead to the best decisions. 

    4. Gender Bias

    Gender bias—or giving preferential treatment to a particular sex—is one of the most prevalent and destructive forms of unconscious bias in the workplace. 

    Research shows that 42 percent of women experience gender discrimination at work. And both men and women are twice as likely to hire male candidates. 

    5. Perception Bias

    Perception bias refers to the act of forming stereotypes around certain groups of people. For example, someone from Georgia may judge someone from New York City based on regionally enforced societal beliefs—and vice versa. 

    Today, perception bias tends to show up in politics. Any time someone is slandered purely for aligning their views with a particular group, perception bias is most likely at play. 

    6. Confirmation Bias

    Confirmation bias occurs where people assign more weight to evidence that confirms their ideas while ignoring or undervaluing evidence that refute them. 

    For example, a recruiter who thinks highly of veterans may justify hiring an individual based on having prior military service while ignoring their lack of technical skill or spotty employment history. 

    Why Unconscious Bias in Hiring is Harmful

    As the above examples show, there are many types of unconscious bias to consider. If left unchecked, it can harm an organization in many different ways. 

    First and foremost, unconscious bias impacts job applicants. For example, one study found that only one-fifth of applicants who were not white, male, able-bodied, or from elite schools made it to a first-round interview. Yet when recruiters were blinded to those characteristics, 60 percent made it to the first round. Add it all up, and it’s clear that unconscious bias can sometimes disqualify a candidate based on demographic information alone. 

    Unconscious bias can also impact worker performance. Another study revealed that employees at large companies who perceive unconscious bias are about three times as likely to be disengaged at work. What’s more, those who perceive bias are more than three times as likely to say they’re planning to leave their job within a year. And they’re 2.6 times more likely to say they’ve withheld ideas and market solutions over the previous six months. 

    At this point, you’re probably wondering if unconscious bias can even be corrected or if it’s a natural—and unfortunate—human characteristic that’s simply innate.

    While it’s not easy to change the way people think, it is possible to take active measures to protect against unconscious bias in hiring. 

    How to Eliminate Unconscious Bias in Hiring

    Here are some things that you can do to ensure a fair and inclusive hiring process with minimal bias. 

    1. Be Mindful About What You Write  

    One place where confirmation bias tends to show up is in written communication. This may include company policies, job descriptions, and marketing content. 

    For example, you may use the word “fearless” to describe a data scientist who is unafraid to tackle complex problems or unanswered questions. However, using this type of word could inadvertently skew your description to favor men. 

    So, consider your word choices before posting any job descriptions. Consider using neutral language to ensure your copy is fair and inclusive. You should also consider using a tool like Textio, which analyzes millions of monthly postings and provides guidance and feedback on how to improve job descriptions. 

    2. Provide Bias Awareness Training 

    You may not be able to change someone’s opinion about a particular group or individual. However, a little bit of education and training can go a long way in helping people understand when they may be committing unconscious bias.

    Round up your team and provide a rundown of unconscious bias, offering tips, suggestions, and tools for keeping interviews purely objective. 

    For example, you may want to encourage them to use a tool like Interviewing.io, which offers voice-changing technology to mask a candidate’s ethnicity and gender during an interview.

    3. Use Blind Sourcing and Resume Screening 

    One of the best ways to shield your company from unconscious bias is to use software to remove age, gender, and race data during candidate sourcing.

    For example, SeekOut offers a blind hiring tool that enables recruiters to screen profiles based purely on users’ credentials, publications, and abilities. 

    Here’s an example:

    example of blind hiring mode in seekout

    In addition, SeekOut offers many filters to help with diversity hiring initiatives. Recruiters can use these filters to search for specific genders, race, or credentials (e.g., military status). 

    diversity filters

    As you can see, unconscious bias is a widespread problem with no simple solution. However, by understanding it and accepting its existence, you can play an active role in reducing it at your company, making your organization more open and inclusive while enjoying better business outcomes.

    Learn how SeekOut can help you become a diversity hero.


    23
    Jan
    Veteran recruiting strategy
    Diversity Recruiting  ·  Recruiting Best Practices  ·  SeekOut
    Your Company Needs a Veteran Recruiting Strategy. Here’s Why.

    Your Company Needs a Veteran Recruiting Strategy. Here’s Why.

    It’s no secret that a veteran recruiting strategy can bring a ton of value to your business.
    But, if you’ve been in talent acquisition for a while, you’ll probably agree that many recruiters often overlook vets when working on tough-to-fill jobs.
    Whether it’s because you don’t have the right tools to properly identify veteran candidates or maybe don’t quite understand how military experience translates to civilian careers, the truth is this:
    You might be spending your days digging for that purple squirrel, when the perfect veteran candidate has been sitting right under your nose all along.
    In this post, I’ll show you exactly how veterans benefit your business and what you can do to jumpstart your veteran recruiting strategy today.
    But first, let’s dive into the value veterans bring to your organization:

    Why Hire Veterans?

    There are plenty of reasons to implement a veteran recruiting strategy, but perhaps none quite as powerful as this one:
    Hiring veterans feels good.
    Think about it: You’re providing opportunity to someone who risked their life to fight for our freedom and protect our rights.
    Who doesn’t want that?
    people giving a thumbs up
    But, it’s not just about good vibes — hiring veterans also benefits the productivity of your business as well.
    That’s because veterans possess skills and experience that can have a positive impact on the bottom line of your organization.
    Here’s how:

    #1. Veterans have proven leadership experience.

    Look, everyone wants to hire a leader.
    Even if you’re not hiring for a “leadership position,” I’m sure you want all of your employees to know how to delegate work, team up with various personalities, and inspire others toward results.
    And that’s precisely why including veterans in your diversity hiring strategy is such a good idea:
    By design, the military teaches these leadership skills. And they learn it in the most high-stress environments possible.
    It explains why the majority of companies who partook in a veteran hiring research study said they perceived veterans to have especially strong leadership skills.
    And also why 93% of post-9/11 veterans are interested in serving as a mentor to your other employees.
    It’s because soldiers in the armed services learn important leadership skills faster than in the common workforce.
    As Sergeant Jon Davis, US Marines, explains it:
    “The military doesn’t just educate their members on the practical ways to manage behavior, such as the discipline and communication methods. Leadership is truly studied on the academic and theoretical level. More so than in other organization, this theoretical and practical leadership are put in practice as a matter of survival.”
    So, in short: veterans learn how to lead for survival. And they can translate those skills to help lead toward your business goals, too.
    But, it’s not just their experience as leaders that should draw your attention — their ability to work as part of a team is pretty amazing, too.

    #2. Veterans Have Top-Notch Teamwork and Collaboration Skills

    In business, teamwork and collaboration often play a critical role in the success of a project.
    But in the armed forces, the lives of your fellow soldiers can depend on it.
    And as a result, the communication skills of veterans are generally best-in-class. The ability to motivate a team and give direction is part of it. But, veterans also know how to understand complex team dynamics and drive results through clear, concise actions.
    Lieutenant Colonel Stewart Welch sums it up nicely over at The Strategy Bridge:
    “Effective leadership hinges on conveying trust in subordinates and peers. If people understand the importance of the mission, and they know the importance of their individual contributions to the mission, then they will perform beyond expectations. Joint teams operate at the speed of trust, where the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.This is what the American military does better than anybody on earth, and it demands effective communication.”
    The demand for great communication comes from the need to make fast, smart decisions under some serious pressure in the military. Which leads to our next reason you need a veteran recruiting strategy:

    #3. Vets Understand Responsibility and What It Means to Deliver Under Pressure

    Look, we’ve all been there before: you make a bad hire and all of a sudden have an employee who never seems to take their job seriously.
    They show up late…
    They’re lackadaisical when it comes to completing assignments…
    Their attention to detail sucks…
    And they just make you want to do this:
    man screaming
    Well, here’s the good news:
    Veterans are often the exact opposite.
    That’s because the military instills responsibility in soldiers by forcing them to follow a strict code and adhere to policy.
    There’s no room for slacking off — and veterans bring that same focus and responsibility to their jobs after their service has ended.
    It’s the reason why 20% of veterans in the workforce are director level or above: their skills and experience help them accelerate into leadership.
    statistics on veterans in leadership roles
    (image source)
    So, hiring a veteran today means hiring a leader for tomorrow. And not just any leader — a leader with a deep understanding of how the world works:

    #4. Veterans Offer a Unique Global Perspective

    It’s a simple fact: whether a veteran was a combat soldier, engineer, or in operations, they were all taught the same thing: achieve the goal above all else.
    That means overlooking differences and working alongside team members of a different race, religion, gender, or ethnicity in the name of completing the mission.
    The task at hand is the one and only priority and veterans understand that in order to accomplish their goal, they need to work together as one.
    And it’s precisely that global point-of-view that makes veterans so conducive to an increasingly diverse workforce: their mission-first attitude means they look at the skills and experience people bring to the team before their race, gender, or any other differences.
    Convinced that veterans can add tremendous value to your organization?
    Wondering why you haven’t been hiring them all along?
    Well then, read on:

    Here’s Why You’re Missing Out on Veteran Hires

    Sure, there are already plenty of companies making a big push to hire veteran talent across the U.S., but here’s the good news:
    If you don’t have a veteran recruiting strategy yet, it’s not too late to start.
    But to get there, you need to first understand some of the reasons why you’re missing out now:

    #1. You’re Not Sure Where Veterans Fit or Which Questions to Ask

    Remember when you started recruiting and first learned how to interview candidates?
    You probably had a specific set of questions you learned to help you identify whether a candidate has the right skills for the job.
    Well, guess what?
    It’s no different with veteran hiring. But, you do need to learn a different set of questions.
    Think about it: instead of asking job or task-specific questions, it makes sense for you to ask questions about a veteran’s background that draw out their experiences, and then spend time analyzing how those experiences might add value to your work environment.
    Try these questions to get you started:

    • How would you describe your military roles in civilian terms?
    • Looking at your recent military work experiences: what key knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences would you say are most valuable?
    • What was your primary mission and what did it take to accomplish it?
    • Give an example of a time something didn’t go as planned and what you did/learned from the experience.

    (Need a few more? Here are some additional questions.)
    You might also try checking out the amazing skills translator from Military.com to find out how a veteran’s skills match up with a job within your organization.
    image of military.com's skills translator
    (image source)
    And it’s not just the hard skills you should be looking for, but the soft skills veterans have developed, too:

    #2. You’re Focused Too Much on Hard Skills (Instead of Paying Attention to a Veteran’s Valuable Soft Skills)

    If you read our previous blog post, you know there’s a big difference between a traditional recruiter and a true strategic talent advisor.
    And one of those differences is that a talent advisor takes time to sit with their hiring manager to understand the “must-have” skills versus the skills that can be taught to the right candidate.
    Those conversations become even more important when it comes to a veteran recruiting strategy. Many vets may not have the “hard skills” that qualify them for an open position at your company. But that doesn’t mean they can’t learn them.
    Part of a successful veteran hiring strategy is understanding that if a skill can be taught, it’s worth investing the time in training and developing veterans with big potential.
    This is especially true considering that the military pays for education, so veterans have the resources available to learn any of the necessary skills.

    #3. You Don’t Have the Tools to Efficiently Uncover Veteran Talent

    Of course, in order to hire veterans, you actually need to find them first.
    Sure, you could go through the laborious task of writing out long, military-focused Boolean strings to identify service members.
    But frankly, it’s too time consuming. And now that SeekOut allows you to identify military veterans from over 100 million U.S. profiles with just the click of a button, it’s unnecessary, too.
    Take a look:
    veteran filter from seekout
    Pretty cool, right?
    So now, with the tools and skills in place to build a successful veteran recruiting strategy, there’s really only one other hurdle to overcome:

    #4. Your Company Needs to Prioritize a Veteran Recruiting Strategy

    If you know your company doesn’t already have a game plan for recruiting veterans, take it upon yourself as a talent advisor to speak to your leadership team about making veteran hiring an initiative.
    And then, with leadership approval, promote your company as one that welcomes veteran talent.
    Why?
    Because your biggest problem might be perception.
    Veterans are concerned about their own job hunt. In fact, 74% believe it would take them longer to find a job than a non-veteran with the same level of work experience.
    When it comes to not applying to or accepting jobs, common conceptions for veterans are:

    • Disappointment with salary or benefits
    • Doubting their own education or relatable experience
    • Selling themselves in an interview
    • Discrimination
    • Negative reviews about the company

    concerns among veterans on getting hired
    (image source)
    So, the more you can advertise that your company welcomes veteran talent, the more likely they will be drawn to your organization.
    Your brand matters. Make it a point to highlight that you offer the resources, tools, and environment that will allow military veterans to thrive.

    Conclusion

    Veterans offer both the hard and soft skills that can drive the results your business needs.
    And that’s why the best thing you can do for your business right now might be to hone in on your veteran recruiting strategy.


    02
    Jan
    diversity statistics 2018
    Diversity Recruiting  ·  Recruiting Best Practices  ·  SeekOut
    5 Diversity Statistics that Will Shape Your Recruiting Strategy for 2018

    With competition for top talent at an all-time high, you probably know that diversity hiring is one of the best ways to expand your candidate pool.
    Think about it: focusing on skills and experience above race, religion, gender, age, sexual preference, or physical disability means you get a leg up on finding the best possible person for the job. Period.
    And that’s not even the best stuff: Diverse candidates open your business up to new perspectives, opportunities, and better connections to the communities you serve.

    Oh, and did I mention diversity hiring makes your business more profitable, too?

    That’s right — here’s the first diversity statistic for you:

    #1. Companies with a diverse workforce are 35 percent more likely to outperform those without diversity initiatives.

    [Source: McKinsey]
    I’m sure you intuitively understand that diversity hiring is a good thing. But seeing the actual impact really cements the idea that establishing a diverse workforce can have a dramatic impact on your business.
    According to a study conducted by McKinsey, companies in the top 25 percent for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to outperform companies in the lowest quartile. When looking at ethnic diversity, that gap expands to 35 percent.
    diversity statistics profitability

    Your action for 2018:

    Start the conversation. If you’re in a leadership position at your company, sit down with your talent acquisition team to find out what you can do to target more diverse candidates. If you’re not in leadership, bring these statistics to your boss and make a case for why diversity hiring needs to become a bigger piece of your recruitment strategy.

    #2. 72% of tech founders believe in the importance of diversity, but only 12% have five or more diverse employees in tech roles.

    [Source: Techstars]
    diversity statistics importance to tech
    Most tech companies recognize the importance of establishing a diverse workforce. But, there’s a clear gap between understanding and action.
    As Techstars notes in their recent Diversity & Inclusion Report, many young tech companies struggle in finding the most cost-effective ways to attract and retain employees from underrepresented groups.
    Of course, sourcing tools that help recruiters identify diverse candidates are one simple solution. But, there are also larger initiatives at work to help organizations with a commitment to diversity hiring succeed.
    Organizations like Tech Inclusion and Paradigm for Parity are working to improve access to diverse candidates for forward-thinking companies around the world. And it’s working: this next diversity statistic demonstrates that we’re taking steps in the right direction.

    Your action for 2018:

    Get involved with organizations like Tech Inclusion and Paradigm for Parity. Research the tools and strategies diversity leaders leverage to promote a more diverse workforce at their companies. Turn ideas into action in 2018.

    #3. 70+ companies published gender diversity hiring targets in 2017.

    [Source: Forbes]
    If last year was any indication of the way diversity hiring is headed, 2018 should be an exciting year, particularly when it comes to elevating women in the workplace.
    According to Forbes, there are now 70+ companies across all industries that made pledges to gender diversity hiring in 2017. Here are some highlights:

    gif of girl puching
    Of course, these are just goals — not quotas. There’s no guarantee AOL, Twitter, or any of the other 70+ companies will actually hit these targets. But, as Georgene Huang, CEO of Fairygodboss puts it:
    “Quantifiable goals, transparency and measurement are all important signals that an employer takes diversity seriously.”
    And taking it seriously is a tremendous leap forward for diverse candidates.

    Your action for 2018:

    Based on these diversity statistics, set a goal for your own company’s diversity hiring in 2018. Publish it on your company blog, promote it on your social channels, and get the word out that your organization values diverse talent.

    #4. 92 percent of tech founders know about unconscious biases in hiring. But, only 45 percent are doing anything about it.

    [Source: Techstar]
    The average job opening receives 250 applications.
    And your average recruiter spends just six seconds reviewing each of those resumes.
    Crazy, right?
    With numbers like that, even the most well-intentioned recruiter is likely to have some unconscious bias dictating who they move forward to an interview and who gets left behind.
    (Think you’re immune to unconscious biases? Try out this test from Harvard and see how implicit biases exist even where you least expect them.)
    The good news is that most companies recognize that. The bad news is, less than half of them are doing anything about it.
    And that’s a big problem. As Christine Del Castillo explains it over on the Workable blog:
    “Due to human nature, we’re all unintentionally biased and more skilled at hiring people who are similar to us. If we don’t put the right processes in place, bias can snowball into discriminating against qualified people and undermining diversity initiatives.”
    There’s an interesting study that came out of Harvard and Princeton about unconscious bias in symphony orchestra auditions.
    The study put auditioning players behind a screen so that they would be judged solely on their playing ability and not who they are.
    The results?
    The screen increased the hiring of female players by 30 to 55 percent.
    And while you may not be able to put a literal “screen” between you and the candidates you source, there are definitely some easy ways to reduce your unconscious bias in recruiting.
    Case in point: SeekOut’s Blind Hiring Mode.

    Recruiters searching the 100 million+ profiles within SeekOut have the option to hide information on a candidate’s profile that may reveal their gender, race, or ethnicity with the flip of a switch.

    Here’s what a search for software engineers in San Francisco looks like before turning on Blind Hiring Mode:
    diversity statistics unconscious bias
    And here’s what it looks like after:
    recruiting unconscious bias
    We replaced profile photos with adorable, gender-ambiguous kittens. We abbreviated names down to the initials. And we dramatically reduced the opportunity for unconscious bias as you give each profile your standard six-second scan.

    Your action for 2018:

    Face the facts on unconscious bias: every talent acquisition leader needs to put defenses in place that give all candidates an equal opportunity regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, or disability. If you’re looking for a good place to start, sign up for a free 14-day free trial of SeekOut and give Blind Hiring Mode a try.

    #5. Military veteran unemployment reached a historic low in 2016 of 5.1 percent. But even still, 74 percent of post-9/11 veterans believe a civilian candidate with the same work experience would get hired before them.

    [Source: Bureau of Labor and Statistics; iCims]
    Military veterans face many of the same discriminatory biases that have historically plagued women and minorities in the workforce. And yet, until very recently, veterans weren’t often a part of diversity hiring initiatives.
    In 2011, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans was 12.1 percent. Luckily, that number has dropped dramatically on the back of veteran hiring initiatives from companies like:

    [For a full list of the 25 best companies for veteran hiring, check out this blog post from Diversity Journal.]
    However, despite initiatives from top companies and the dropping unemployment rate, many veterans still feel insecure about their post-service job prospects and the existence of negative biases in the recruitment processes of many companies.
    A report from iCims showed that many veteran insecurities about getting hired center around a recruiter or hiring manager’s lack of understanding about their experience or how their military background translates into valuable skills in the workplace:
    diversity statistics military veteran recruiting
    (image source)
    And according to Hiring Our Heroes — an initiative from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation — those fears aren’t entirely unfounded:

    Only 9 percent of companies formally train recruiters and hiring managers on how to relate to military veterans in the hiring process.  

    And 49 percent of veterans said they have experienced bias in a hiring process before.

    Your action for 2018:

    Include veterans as part of your diversity hiring initiatives and implement specialized training on how to understand military experience and relate to veterans with your recruiting team.

    Now it’s your turn:

    These five diversity statistics should help give you an idea of the current landscape for diversity hiring. While many companies are doing great work in an effort to increase the number of diverse candidates in their recruitment pipeline, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
    What are your diversity initiatives for 2018?
     
    Sources: