Making Diversity Work For You
By Otis Collier

Hiring diverse candidates is no longer a social or "politically" correct thing to do. More companies are discovering that having a diverse workforce is financially good for business. However, finding and attracting the best diversity candidates has not been an easy task.

Companies everywhere have increased commitments to recruiting and hiring a more diverse workforce. Even amidst the sour economy, many companies are monitoring layoffs to ensure that no class or groups of employees are hit disproportionately. In the past, diversity interests were a luxury and were quickly thrown to the side when times got tough. Their steadfastness to diversity is an indication of how seriously corporate America now views this issue.

The car company Saturn, conducted research on the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Studies showed that sixty cents of every dollar spent on cars in America comes out of a pocketbook, not a wallet. As a result of this study, Saturn engaged in efforts to recruit more females for their sales force.

Why did Saturn focus on recruiting more females? It has been found that race and gender can affect the interaction between employees and customers. In this case, female buyers felt more comfortable and relaxed purchasing from a female salesperson.

So what does this have to do with you? Because of past discrimination, minority candidates have historically shied away from listing anything on their resume that gives them away as belonging to a minority class. This however, has created a challenge for employers who are seeking diversity candidates.

Many recruiters are turning to training companies to teach them how to find and identify this very distinct pool of candidates. Interestingly enough, it is ultimately up to the candidate to leave clues as to their group classification. Diversity candidates are now being encouraged to create resumes with clues to their group classification.

There are several things you can do to leave subtle clues to your group classification.

• List associations and group memberships that you belong to. These should include organizations that are catered towards your group classification. (Example: National Asian Women's Health Organization)
• Include your membership to your fraternity or sorority. Certain fraternities and sororities have a large percentage of members from a particular ethnic group. (Example: Alpha Kappa Alpha is a sorority made up predominantly of females of African American decent.)
• Your name. Many times a name can be a clue to group classification. (Example: Manuel Gonzalez would indicate a strong chance that this candidate was of Hispanic decent.)
• Publications. Submit articles to niche magazines. An article in Black Enterprise would be a clue that the writer and readers will be more than likely African American.
• Post your resume to niche job boards. There are hundreds of job boards that cater to different classifications such as race, gender, age, sexual preference, etc. http://www.airsdirectory.com/directories/job_boards/
• Network with a few diversity recruiting firms. Often companies will work with these firms to attract qualified diversity candidates.
• Submit your resume, with the subtle diversity clues, to those companies who are ranked as the best companies for minorities. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/diversity

Companies today are seeing only one color…green. There is a growing realization that there is a strong correlation between financial performance and a diverse work culture. If there has ever been a better time to belong to a diversity group, now is that time. For so long it has worked against you, maybe now it will start working for you.

Otis Collier is a certified Internet recruitment specialist. In his recruiting career, he has trained over 5,000 Fortune 500 corporate recruiters and 3,000 job seekers. For more information about Otis and his contact info see: www.blackrecruitersnetwork.com