Budget Right the First Time

Corporate Budget

Corporate BudgetMany times a company diversity recruitment strategy is geared towards the importance of the local community: its talent pool and what kinds of positive impact your company plans to have on it. But a good Human Capital Manager, Corporate Recruiter, or HR Coordinator knows that in order to fulfill compliance efforts, sometimes the local talent pool isn’t enough. Therefore the strategy needs to be revised to include broader efforts. Oops?

A common enough lack of foresight, but a costly one. Don’t realize this mistake after you’ve already implemented your company’s plan, because if you’ve devoted your budget to the current (incomplete) campaign strategy you can’t exactly start begging for more funding. This is why it’s crucial to thoroughly plan out your diversity recruitment strategy at the onset.

Define your company’s diversity recruitment goals while creating your budget, not after. Defining these goals also means carefully evaluating the community you’re located in / targeting. Don’t wait to evaluate them later.

Consider the following statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor:

  •  At nearly 23 million, people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity represented 15 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2011. By 2018, Hispanics are expected to comprise 18 percent of the labor force.
  •  With 8 out of 10 Latinos working in the private sector, they are more likely to be employed in the private sector than Whites or African-Americans, not including unincorporated self-employed entrepreneurs. Conversely, Latinos are less likely to work for government than either Whites or African-Americans.

If you’re an employer in Southern Texas these numbers greatly influence how you look for candidates locally. If you need to reach out on a broader basis to find your candidate, are you factoring in your commitment to the local community through your recruitment actions? Does your strategy align with the latest EEOC and OFCCP’s enforcement of Non-Discrimination Requirements?

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is responsible for enforcing affirmative action and non-discrimination obligations of federal contractors and subcontractors. Nearly one-in-four American workers are employed by a company that does business with the federal government, giving OFCCP a broad purview to enforce equal employment opportunity laws across the American labor force.

Don’t be stuck with a flawed minority recruitment campaign because you failed to budget accordingly. Plan it out with all the important facts and guidelines first, and then put together your budget. With a fully-informed plan and a more accurate budget, execute your plan and rest easy knowing that you’ve done your job properly and on-budget the first time.

About the Author

Mark Cohen has been working since 1995 to promote diversity and equality in the workplace through minority recruitment and community outreach. In his position as VP and Director of New Business Development at Equality Magazines.com Mark has become a recognized authority on minority recruitment and compliance.

Equality Magazines.com and its family of Diversity Recruitment Vehicles have been at the forefront of minority recruitment and compliance. Since 1997 they have been advocates of promoting diversity in America’s workforce; bringing the vast and talented pools of African-American, Hispanic, Veteran, and Female workers to the companies that need them.

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