Hiring for Diversity Through Targeted Recruitment (5 minutes read)

It’s a well- known fact that to master one thing you have to solely focus on it, and give it sufficient time. Targeted recruitment is the perfect example for this.

It’s a process by which organisations pay particular attention to individuals with certain characteristics when selecting them to fill a job position. These candidates can be minorities, people with disabilities, or candidates with specific skills. Why do companies do targeted recruitment?

The main goal is to diversify the workforce by creating a pool of varied individuals who can work in harmony. This can also be used to the advantage of a firm to improve its image by showcasing that it embraces diversity in all shapes and forms. However, targeted recruitment may look like a simple process, but it has complex layers to it if you want to do it right!

Approach-Here’s how companies should approach Targeted Recruitment:

• Be Specific- Every situation that we encounter in our lives is a result of our decisions. Hence, we take a lot of time deciding before every choice we make. Similarly, to get the best results out of targeted recruitment, you need to be very specific, which involves researching effectively to know what you’re looking for. For example- Are you looking to fill an Accounting role with a candidate that has 4-5 years of experience and a deep understanding of the field, or someone novice with room to grow? It is both the job of recruiter and hiring manager to work together for setting a target- criteria so that quality candidates are delivered.

• Find your Niche- Think about the platforms you are including in your targeting strategy. For example- if you are trying to acquire healthcare talent, send your open jobs specifically to healthcare job sites. Work with recruitment partners who know how to speak your target group, and have the contextual know how specific to that cohort.

• Set Goals- Without goals, an organisation tends to be directionless, and may reach a dead end. That’s why setting goals is an important part of any recruitment strategy. Goals are tailor-made, and differs from one organisation to another. One organisation may want as many applications for a specific role, and the other may want just a few applicants for a role they want to fill. It’s important to set goals at the beginning of your campaign planning so that you can effectively measure the ROI of your strategy.

• Use Data- Use data to make your targeting decisions. For example, depending on the state of employment in the markets you’re hiring in, how you advertise will be impacted by unemployment rates. Evaluate trends in the markets in which you need to hire, and adjust your strategy accordingly. Lower unemployment rates correlate with more competition for candidates, which means you need to ‘bid up’ for the talent you want. A smart strategy is one that evolves with the market.

Even though targeted recruitments provide better results while searching for a potential candidate, as there are specifications which can be blindly followed, many companies choose non- targeted recruitment, where they hire candidate in bulk only to lay them off after a short period of time. The recruitment follows again, costing more funds, energy, and the precious times of recruiters.

Benefits-There are one-to-many benefits of Targeted Recruitment:

• Crafting an effective targeted recruitment plan can help your company hire for hard-to-fill requisitions. In traditional open job advertising, the easiest-to-fill roles often receive a disproportionate amount of applicant volume, while the hardest-to-fill roles are left with hardly any (if any at all!) applicants. Targeted recruitment solves for this by taking the “post and pray” mentality out of job advertising.

• When you can be specific about the criteria potential candidates must meet in order to see your job ad, you know that the applications you receive will be qualified, desirable candidates.

• Focusing your advertising efforts on generating quality (vs quantity) ensures that your spending is focused on delivering applicants who fit your targeted criteria. Targeted recruitment allows you to manage your budget more effectively and reduce your cost-per-hire because you can better allocate your spending, thus allowing for a better distribution of applicants.

• When organizations want to undertake targeted recruitment, they hire specific hiring agencies that specialize in enlisting individuals with the required special skills. These recruitment agencies help the organization to save time and money by finding a candidate in the shortest amount of time.

Recruitment is one of the most important functions of an organization. Every hire within an organization is a key hire. Every employee has potential. Every employee has contact with internal and external customers. Hiring an employee should not be about chance, guesses, hunches, or estimations. But, hiring can be about observation, trial runs, communication of job goals and clarity of fit. Here’s where Targeted Recruitment sweeps in to minimize time, and maximise organisational competitive advantage along with the probability of delivering better candidate experience.