For more than twenty years we at Equality Magazines have been advising our clients to use targeted resources to find minority and veteran hires. Now the recruitment industry is rife with every kind of solution option that you can imagine. However there are certain things that you should always remember and be aware of when deciding how to spend your company dollars on diversity recruiting and compliance.
First, it is essential that the people who are in recruiting and compliance work together. Even though those are technically very different departments, it is more than possible that those individuals share the same goals and more important than that they often share a budget. When these two functions are handled by different people and they combine their outreach and recruitment efforts they often find that if they pool resources twice as much can be achieved. This really means that twice as much company branding tells everyone and the OFCCP that you are not only looking for the right hires, you are reaching into the selected target community too.
Second, now that you have established a working relationship with your counterpart in either recruiting or compliance it is time to choose the best way to get your company’s message about recruiting employees out there. What is important and occasionally overlooked is that your company message is not only for potential employees, the minority community, a commitment to our veteran’s, or compliance. It is to shout about all of these things.
Having said all of that, we can be specific as to how this can be done easily and economically. There are so many job boards out there and many of them claim many different things. Some say they get seen by the most eyes; but whose eyes? Some say that they will reach your audience; but which audience? Some say that they can help with compliance; but specifically how?
My advice to clients is that they try to reach directly into the talent pool or community that they are looking to hire from. This means choosing a resource that is specific to your company’s needs and budget.
Here is the key. As soon as you begin to use the targeted job boards and resources, your corporate message will be seen by fewer people. The analogy would be using a chain saw and a scalpel to do the same task. The “Monster” chain saw will get the job done and while doing so will scatter debris everywhere. The “Equality” scalpel on the other will get the job done too and there will be no waste.
Niche job boards should be an integral part any hiring initiative that comes from the company AAP (affirmative action plan), not just for VERVA or any OFCCP requirements. Some niche boards are community specific, while others are not. This means just because someone calls themselves a niche board you shouldn’t run right to them and spend your budget dollars until you know what your potential choice does within the niche. Does it only have a job board to satisfy a posting need, or does your choice reach into the niche with information and resources for the audience too? Does your choice allow you to have additional company exposure via blogging and social media? Does your choice help you with your GFEs (good faith efforts) for compliance?
Now that you have answered these questions it’s time to look at your best options for saving your time energy and budget. Eventually everything comes back to budget. Ask yourself this important question; should I get out my chain saw just to see the dust fly everywhere including on your chosen audience? Or should I take the scalpel and get exactly what I am looking for? The obvious answer is to be precise and use your scalpel. This is in the end the most cost effective way to get the message out that you are looking for someone specific, a minority, or a veteran.
One such resource is the Equality Magazines family of minority and diversity hiring resources, which has been serving as a premier community job and information resource for more than twenty years. Equality Magazines has worked and partnered with Direct Employers, CareerBuilder, Job Target, ZipRecruiter, Hodes, TMP, the OFCCP, as well as number of Fortune 500 companies. We are a unique position to offer both community outreach through our family of specific niche minority and veteran web sites and job boards.
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 C.O.O. JMR Publishing and VP and Director of New Business Development at Equality Magazines.com, Mark has become a recognized authority on minority recruitment and good faith compliance efforts throughout the electronic recruitment industry.
