Diversity is important for recruiting. Why? Research shows that companies with greater diversity in leadership positions perform better than those with less diverse executive, c-suite, and top management staff. That being the case, it behooves organizations to hire diverse talent. There are many concrete ways to ensure greater diversity in your company’s leadership, while still ensuring that the best possible talent is recruited. Here are some best practices for ensuring diversity in your executive recruitment. 1. Set Goals. Different from hiring quotas, diversity goals aim to increase the number of diverse hires without onerous requirements that might lead to a drop-off in the quality of hires. There is no shortage of qualified minority and female candidates. It is just a matter of finding them through effective recruiting practices. 4 Essential Skills of Any Executive Recruiter – Find out what skills enable the best executive recruiters to build relationships and secure successful placements. 2. Communicate Goals to Recruiting Team. If your recruiters don’t know about your diversity goals, they may not provide the diversity for which you are looking when screening resumes and working through the recruitment process. It’s important that everyone involved in hiring decisions understands the company’s goals and is on board with pursuing and meeting them. 3. Write Inclusive Job Descriptions. Certain terms used often in job descriptions (competitive and determined, for example) are more masculine than others (cooperative and understanding, for example). A balance between terms used can lead to more women responding positively to a job description and considering your company as a viable option. 4. Collaborate With Diverse Talent. The more your company collaborates with diverse external organizations and clientele, the more it will normalize internal diversity as well. Bringing in trainers and presenters representing diverse populations is one way to foster acceptance of diversity that may then translate into better hiring practices. 5. Make the Hiring Team Diverse. Including women and minorities in hiring decisions will help incorporate diversity into the interview process and attract top talent wondering whether they will fit into the corporate culture. A multicultural hiring staff can also be helpful in identifying quality talent and making good decisions regarding candidates that might be a good addition to the team. 6. Support Diverse New Hires. Sometimes, a lack of support as the company culture transitions into a more diverse environment will drive away diverse hires and hurt retention. However, an intentional program of support and, when possible, mentorship by minority or female staff can help diverse hires find their place in the organization and help the organization grow and transform. Diversity not only makes sense, it makes profits increase and the overall quality of work in the company better. Diverse teams are more creative and more open to new ideas. Diverse staffs think outside the box and come up with solutions more homogeneous groupings may overlook. In reality, you cannot afford not to work toward diversity in your organization. So, implement these and other best practices in your executive recruiting. For a solution to your recruiting needs that enables diverse hiring practices, contact us at ThriveTRM.