5 SMART Diversity Recruitment Strategies

A new year has dawned, and it is a most propitious time for every diversity employer seriously committed to sustaining as well as improving the climate of diversity and inclusion in their organization to once more take a closer look at the diversity recruitment strategies they employ.

However, before employers can design and create their own diversity recruitment strategies, they should first be clear about what diversity means, since unless they do, their diversity recruiting efforts will fall short of their goals and expectations.


According to a scholarly article written by executive recruiter Katherine Jacobs, Ph.D., Managing Partner at the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, and research scholar Andrew Grant Thomas, Ph.D. Deputy Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, diversity is defined as a meaningful differences in co-worker identities - race, gender, class, age, disability status, sexual orientation, and so on - and their thoughtful leveraging for valued organizational ends. The authors continue to explain that this definition encompasses three important features of workforce diversity, and once the meaning of diversity is clear, it is easier to build one's diversity recruitment strategic plan that is in ways that are personalized to the staffing, achievable within the confines of their individual contexts, and sustainable in the long term. Read more here


For 2014, here are five SMART diversity recruitment strategies from some diversity experts that will help you become more effective :

 1. S = Specific strategic diversity and inclusion plan: A holistic systems approach to diversity recruiting to be most effective considers the full-stream process from initial applicant sourcing through selection to onboarding, according to the MBD Group.

Microsoft, a diversity member company of DiversityWorking, and in DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity in 2013; among the 2013 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Asian-Americans; and also in the 2013 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for People with Disabilities, among other recognitions, follow their own Global Diversity & Inclusion strategy, a fundamental link in their business priorities. See

2.  M = Measure one's progress: What gets measured gets done. This widely used adage addresses part of the diversity measurement issue. The emphasis on doing things and achieving results leads to the corollary, “do the right things.” Read more  

3.  A = Assessment of  current situation and determine what changes will best meet your business needs. The assessment and needs analyses provide the basis for a strategy and implementation plan for your diversity recruitment.  See here

4. R = Rationale for diversity: "Make sure people understand the business rationale for having a diverse workforce; otherwise diversity recruiting is misunderstood as preferences or affirmative action. Even though that business case is clear, we still have the challenge of making sure that white males and females don't feel excluded from the process, and that they don't feel they're going to lose" - this according to Barbara Stern, vice president of diversity at Brookline, Mass.-based Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, who acknowledges that diversity recruitment is a balancing act.  Read more here

5. T = Diversity Training and Development:  D&I training is most effective when it is part of a strategy focused on improving business results. The training should achieve certain workforce and workplace changes that it has been determined will help meet the organization's business objectives. The changes might involve developing new knowledge, skills, experiences, or action plans. Read more



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