Diversity 2.0

Unlocking the digital potential of diversity

Over the past few decades, the World Wide Web has been spreading across countries and continents, connecting people and businesses in new and exciting ways. The potential for recruitment solutions continues to expand as well, with corporate career sites and social networks engaging job seekers with increasingly personalized experiences. One area of great potential gain is in diversity recruitment.

According to Laura Shanon, Vice President, Interactive Sourcing and Strategy, and Martha Ceja, Manager, Diversity Services, the need for digital solutions for diversity is growing and getting the most out of those solutions means understanding the unique challenges that diversity recruiting poses.

To get perspectives from these two fields of experience, Interactive and Diversity, we met up with both Laura and Martha to talk about what’s needed to bring diversity initiatives into the 21st century.

Q. Why is including diversity in the digital landscape so important?

Martha: The digital landscape, like our population, is growing and becoming more diverse. In fact, in many cases the number of minorities using the internet is growing more rapidly than the white population. Ensuring that your career site and advertising speak to a diverse audience is critical. Many candidates will decide whether or not to include you as a company of interest based on your Web presence.

What does your career site say about your commitment to diversity? Do your leadership team and board reflect that commitment? Companies that are transparent in their commitment usually are more successful. The digital landscape also offers so many opportunities for you to connect with your audience beyond the career sites and job posting sites, opportunities such as social networking sites, virtual career events, blogs, etc. It really is a matter of evaluating where you currently are and then strategically determining how to get your company to the next level.

Q. What are some of the best practices you’ve seen implemented for combining diversity recruiting with interactive strategies?

Laura: Four practices come to mind for marrying interactive to diversity:

Keep It Together

There is often a misconception that diversity initiatives need to have completely separate budgets and media plans. Diversity can be incorporated into all media planning. Digital media planning tools give us the ability to easily get data on the ethnic and gender breakdowns of a Web site's audience. Many major Web sites have audiences that are more diverse than the general population.

Specific Targeting

We are currently seeing a trend in media spending that focuses the majority of the budget on occupationally targeted media plans. This is largely due to contracting budgets and organizations wanting to find the most talented candidates. However, there are some targeted options via sites like Community Connect, Yahoo! Telemundo, and HBCUConnect that allow organizations to target diverse candidates in very specific occupations and geographies.

Build a Community

The social networking trends that are all the rage in digital are in line with the values of most diverse candidates. Developing a community (i.e. private social network) for your site can be an effective way of building relationships, especially with diverse candidates. There are few industry related communities on the Web for diverse candidates, and some employers are considering building their own, to provide a means of allowing candidates to connect with then and industry peers.

Allow Customizable Content

Customizable career sites is another digital solution that integrates well with diversity strategies. This solution provides tools for customizing the career site (similar to a My Yahoo!) around the candidates needs. This shows a true commitment to diversity because it works on the concept that each of us is different and wants access to different information. So for instance, if I am an accountant in Detroit, who happens to be Hispanic and has a family and is currently in a Master’s program, I could customize the site to show content that is relevant to me – tuition reimbursement, corporate day care, the Hispanic employee network at the company, and of course, accounting jobs in Detroit.

Q. What misconceptions do people have when it comes to diversity and the Web?

Martha: Some people are still operating under old “conventional wisdom” of a digital divide between people of color/minorities and the majority population. Actually African Americans and Hispanics are much more likely to use the Web for job searches than the majority population. Diversity professionals believe this faith in the Web is related to a perception of fairness and color blindness.

See the latest issue of Diversity Matters for information on digital diversity solutions in action.

Q. What pitfalls are there to watch out for when making diversity part of interactive solutions?

Laura: There are several things to keep in mind before launching into a digital diversity endeavor:

Don’t Copycat

Don’t do things just because other companies are doing them. Seek to understand diverse employee populations, what their needs are as well as what attracted them to your company.

Expect Results

Don’t keep investing in media or initiatives that don’t impact the diversity of your organization.

Keep It Top of Mind

Don’t add diversity as an afterthought; make diversity a goal of all strategies.

See the Big Picture

Understand that language is only one factor, content relative to diverse candidates is also important. You cannot always simply translate your English-language version.

Laura Shanon is Vice President, Interactive Sourcing & Strategy at Bernard Hodes Group, where she heads up a team that helps clients to utilize innovative sourcing tools to find active and passive candidates. Laura has nine years experience working within the human resources and marketing fields, the majority of which has been in the Interactive space. She has consulted with hundreds of clients to implement successful campaigns that drive quality hires and increase brand awareness through the use of email, rich media, banners, mobile, social media, and search marketing and utilize cutting edge technologies, such as relationship marketing, virtual recruitment, and gaming/simulation environments. Laura has worked with such clients as IRS, FBI, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Citi, University of Maryland University College, Dish Network, John Muir Health, Inova Health System, and Virginia Partnership for Nursing, to name a few. Laura holds a B.S. in Psychology from St. Lawrence University.

Martha Ceja, Manager, Diversity Services, Bernard Hodes Group, provides research, consultation and media strategies to assist clients in recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. Martha has over 10 years of project management, marketing and communications experience, working with clients on the strategy, management and implementation of research projects. Over the years, Martha has amassed extensive knowledge of the Hispanic market, providing advertising and communications strategies for various clients, including Home Depot, California Commerce Bank and Bank of America. Martha completed diversity training with the National Multicultural Institute, and holds a Bachelor of Science from San Jose State University and a master's in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.