Why this matters:

Recruiters are increasingly expected to be strategic advisors at their companies, helping to set the strategy, rather than just following it. But without gaining context and clarity about the root cause of any problem, it’s impossible to propose a viable solution. As such, if recruiters don’t take time to identify where the specific barriers at their company lie, they’ll struggle to advise stakeholders about the importance of DIBs, both from a cultural standpoint and as it relates to the bottom line. You need to do the work to educate yourself before you can educate others and drive positive change.

What you can do:

• Seek out research and literature. There’s a wealth of information out there about the barriers that underrepresented groups face—in the workforce, and in society at large. This research from the Center for American Progress about systemic inequalities experienced by people of color in the U.S. is a good place to start.
• Learn from the experiences of employees. Having conversations with employees from underrepresented groups can help you gain a better understanding of any challenges they faced during the hiring process and their day-to-day experiences at your company. To earn their trust, it’s critical to establish why you’re asking and reaffirm that the organization is dedicated to doing better. But don’t rely too heavily on employees to fill the gaps in your knowledge—that isn’t their job. Speak to those who are interested in sharing their perspective, but make sure you’re also doing research and reading on your own.

Why this matters:

If your company has made a commitment to DIBs, it’s up to the hiring team to help turn that commitment into action. That starts with understanding what the commitment really means to the business. At LinkedIn, our perspective is that hiring for DIBs is not only a moral imperative, but a business one, too. Ensuring that you and your hiring manager are on the same page about what your business’s priorities are and why they’re important will start your search out on the right foot. It’s not enough for one person on the team to be committed to DIBs—this commitment has to be baked into your process and approach.

What you can do:

• Have an alignment conversation. Don’t assume alignment—ensure it. Meet with your hiring manager before kicking off a search to discuss the company’s (and your own) commitment to DIBs and your joint responsibility in supporting and driving DIBs efforts.
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs). Develop agreed-upon KPIs around diversity and inclusion that everyone involved in the hiring process will be responsible for driving. By working with leaders, hiring managers, and your team to set these, you can foster greater understanding and buy-in.
• Reinforce commitment at every turn. Take every opportunity to remind your hiring manager and others on your team that DIBs is a business priority and should inform every action they take. Once everyone adopts, internalizes, and operationalizes this mindset, diversity recruitment will just become recruitment—but you need to reinforce this way of thinking if you want it to stick.

Why this matters:

If your team has historically struggled to put together a diverse slate of candidates, the same old sourcing and attraction techniques won’t work. The right mindset is not enough—you also need the right tools if you want to move the needle. Use any internal data you have to inform your approach, from candidate feedback to insights from your recruiting team about difficulties they’ve encountered. Maybe you need to look beyond your usual talent pools or adjust the language you’re using to speak to candidates. Whatever it is, you need to make thoughtful changes before you’ll see a shift in the breakdown of your applicants.

What you can do:

• Audit your job descriptions. Work with your hiring manager to ensure every requirement listed is essential so you’re not needlessly turning candidates away. Review each posting for gender-coded or unintentionally discriminatory language, and add a powerful statement about your company’s commitment to DIBs.
• Seek diverse referrals. If your organization has employee resource groups (ERGs), tap them for referrals. Partnering closely with these groups can also help you build stronger ties with the communities you want to engage.
• Cast a wider net. If you usually look for candidates with a certain background, think bigger. For example, if you often search based on where candidates have previously worked but your go-to companies have poor diversity figures, are there more diverse organizations whose networks you might want to explore? Where you post your job can also have a major impact on the breakdown of candidates who apply. This list of diversity-focused job boards can help you get your jobs in front of a more diverse group of people.

Why this matters:

Building diverse candidate slates is easier when you have a diverse network. By engaging in proactive pipelining efforts and building relationships with underrepresented communities, you’ll be in a strong position to recommend great candidates when roles open up. Plus, since those candidates will already be familiar with your organization, they’ll be more likely to consider opportunities that arise.

What you can do:

• Be accessible. Consider including an email address in your job descriptions that underrepresented candidates can contact directly. That way, even if a particular job isn’t a good fit, you can start a dialogue and learn more about their skills and interests—so that if the right role comes up, you know where to turn.
• Be transparent. If you spot a candidate with a lot of potential at a time when there isn’t an open role they’d be suitable for, connect with them anyway and be honest about your intentions. Let them know you think they’d be perfect for your organization and you’d like to keep in touch.
• Give back. Dedicate a few hours each month to having career coaching phone calls with candidates you want to keep warm. Discuss what they’re looking for in a role, share resources they might find useful, and help them develop their interviewing skills. In doing so, you’ll increase their loyalty to your company.

Why this matters:

By interviewing a diverse group of candidates, you automatically increase the chances that a qualified underrepresented candidate will be hired. By making your interview process more inclusive, you show candidates from all backgrounds that your company is a place where they could thrive. Be authentic, take steps to ensure that every candidate has an equal opportunity to showcase their talents, and finding the right person for the job will be much easier.

What you can do:

• Talk less, listen more. Encourage interviewers to let candidates tell their stories. This can help them understand how a person’s unique perspective or unconventional background would complement and augment the team.
• Build authentic, inclusive interview panels. If everyone on the interview panel looks the same, this can signal to candidates that they won’t fit in at your company. But if you struggle to put together a diverse panel, this is telling in itself. In these cases, it may be better to have an honest conversation with candidates about where you are and what you’re doing to improve—inviting them to be part of that journey.
• Compare apples to apples. Asking more or less the same questions to every candidate makes it easier to compare them along the same dimensions. You could also create scorecards for every interviewer, further enabling an objective comparison.

Why this matters:

Accountability can be the difference between words and actions. Your organization can’t just say it’s committed to diversity and inclusion—it has to walk the walk to earn the trust of the communities you’re targeting. As a recruiter, you can keep yourself and those around you accountable by fostering a dialogue and being willing to admit when you’re wrong. And by closely observing your team and bringing objective data to the table, you can track your process over time—and ensure you’re on a path toward diversity recruiting becoming second nature.

What you can do:

• Call out. If you suspect bias is influencing someone’s decision or actions, tactfully point this out to them and ask them to articulate their reasoning. If they can’t, help them embrace the moment as a learning opportunity, and encourage your team to take the same approach. When everyone feels comfortable speaking up, it’s also easier to get comfortable with being called out—after all, the team is on this journey together.
• Follow up. If a qualified underrepresented candidate was not ultimately hired, speak to the hiring manager to understand where the gap was. Is the person someone who should be kept in mind for future roles? Would the hiring manager be willing to stay in touch with them?
• Keep track. By establishing diversity-related metrics, benchmarks, and goals, you can consistently and accurately track progress and make strategic adjustments to your process. If you’re falling short of your goals, reexamine your hiring practices to identify the leak in the pipe. Tying KPIs to an individual’s performance criteria and recognizing people who hit their targets can also help create a culture of accountability where team members continuously challenge themselves to be the best talent professionals they can be.