Diversity Executive - September 2008 - (Page 26)

ﬁrm. “You’ve got to make sure you have a brand that is diverse focused — look at our executive team, and look at the direct reports to the C-level.” Once diversity is mirrored throughout the company, diverse high-potential candidates will see an opportunity for growth, development and advancement. “If you have an opportunity to move into a more diverse environment, where you don’t have to constantly ﬁght that battle with non-diverse colleagues, what would you do?” said Derek Carter, managing director at JB Scott Search, a ﬁrm that specializes in senior-level diversity searches. “Why relocate to the more difﬁcult environment when you could go to an environment where you could just focus on your job?” Demonstrate the Business Case If the business case for diversity is not deftly circulated throughout the organization, any related initiative likely will fail. Employees need to realize the security of their positions depends on having a diverse workforce and an executive team that can connect with diverse customers. “Once you’ve convinced your employees and the company, ‘We can’t sell our product to Spanish speakers because none of us speaks Spanish,’ they buy into it,” Fernandez said. “That business case has to be speciﬁc, and it has to be tied to the business plan.” Illustrating the business case and holding senior leaders accountable for diversity is especially critical, as those who recruit and promote aren’t necessarily the ones creating the strategy. “Companies get diversity if their managers and middlemen get it,” said Natalie Holder-Winﬁeld, president and founder of On the Web Share recruitment techniques at www.diversity-executive.com/network Quest, a consulting ﬁrm, and author of Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce: New Rules for a New Generation. “Unfortunately, if your managers do not understand the importance of making sure every person in that workplace has an equal opportunity to advance, the diversity initiative falls off track.” Further, recruiters may need additional training and guidance to effectively recruit diverse candidates. “Recruiters have to have very objective criteria for the individual they are looking for,” Holder-Winﬁeld said. “It can’t just be a matter of wanting someone with a certain look. It really has to be equipping the recruiter to ﬁgure out whether candidates match up to the criteria set for a position.” Recruiters and managers also must be held accountable for creating a diverse workforce. “If you’re not putting metrics or expectations on your managers and holding them accountable, guess what?” Lowisz said. “Diversity will never increase within your organization. It’s much easier to identify the typical white male to ﬁll your job.” During the interview process, many organizations are overly eager to showcase their diversity to minority candidates. While this is an important point to illustrate, it should not be the primary or only focus of an interview. “In a testimonial from my book, a professional spoke about a company that automatically assumed because she was an African-American woman that she wanted to speak Where to Look for Diverse Talent Organizations can’t rely on standard recruitment avenues when recruiting for diverse candidates. Gerald Fernandez, president and founder of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance, said canvassing diverse internal staff members for ideas, looking to minority organizations and publications, and reaching out to community-based groups may work better. “You find the best, most effective communication vehicles [to] reach that audience, and then you find out their sensitivities, their tendencies, what they like and don’t like, and you build a strategy around that,” he said. “The problem occurs when you ask people to design an outreach program around how to attract talented African-Americans. If you don’t have African-Americans on the team, it’s very difficult to understand what talented African-Americans want. You need to have talented people on your own team who represent different groups.” Advertising in minority publications is one way to 26 Diversity Executive | www.diversity-executive.com | September/October 2008 reach out to diverse candidates for all position levels. “Our industry does little if any advertising in those publications, and when they do, they advertise for low-level people, as if senior people don’t read that publication too,” Fernandez said. “They’ll advertise in a Hispanic publication for a dish washer but not for a general manager, overlooking the fact that the Hispanic/Latino community isn’t all one socioeconomic standing. You can just as easily find a vice president of operations reading a Hispanic publication as you would a new immigrant.” Companies also should work to develop relationships with minority organizations that provide a fertile pool of talent, and leverage their expertise for tips on recruiting. “Connect with them, find out what they do and when they do it,” Fernandez said. “Ask if you can get involved. Go to the African-American group and say, http://www.diversity-executive.com/network http://www.diversity-executive.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Diversity Executive - September 2008

Diversity Executive - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Leadership Connections Guest Editorial Diversity Executive Online 2042: A New Business Era Begins The Rules of Attraction Where to Look for Diverse Talent Like Minds Think Great Culture Teams Target Business Opportunities at Luxottica Retail Special Section Rebalancing Gender At ING Americas, the Color of Diversity Is Orange Profile Business Intelligence Case Study Strategies Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources

Diversity Executive - September 2008

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