How To Find Diversity Talent Your Competition Has Overlooked

Hi, hello, and hey there. This is really part 3 in a series on how to find overlooked talent. In part one, I cited how to find passive candidates based on the books they have written and in part 2, I went a bit deeper by citing additional resources for doing more of the same.  I actually discovered a third way to go after book authors but I figure, why beat a dead horse. So for this installment, I’m venturing off into a new direction – diverse candidates. (Insert dramatic music here)

William Francis Sutton Jr. was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, “Willie the Actor” and “Slick Willie.” He is known today by a famous quote, although some debate he actually said it.

When a reporter asked him, “Why do you rob banks?”

His reply was, “Because that’s where the money is.”

When I saw this on the History channel, it dawned on me how this applies to sourcing diversity. Actually, it inspired the five strategies I am sharing with you now.

Diversity Strategy #1 | If you are looking for diverse talent, search and network within companies where those populations are presumably the highest. One way to do that is to find companies that employ a Chief Diversity Officer. Although this job title is not as popular as it once was, they are still being hired, at least as of this writing. A chief diversity officer leads an organization’s efforts to foster a more inclusive, equitable, and diverse workplace. They develop and implement strategies, programs, and policies that promote diversity in hiring, retention, and company culture. If a company has a CDO in place and they have been there for an extended period of time then, presumably, they have done something to increase the diverse population of their company. So, why not focus on those companies and target diverse talent there? 

When I do a search for “companies with chief diversity officers” on DuckDuckGo, my favorite search engine, I see results like these.

• Chief Diversity Officers and DEI Executives at S&P 500 Companies – Senior Executive
• Top 10: Chief Diversity Officers
• The OnCon Icon Awards recognize the top DEI Professionals in the entire world.

Diversity Strategy #2 | Another way to target companies with presumably higher diverse populations is to take them at their word. What do I mean by that? Well, some companies are kind enough to post their diversity numbers. For example, check out the Open Diversity Data (ODD) page which cites the diverse population numbers of various companies. For example, this is some info on Apple that ODD points out.

Diversity Strategy #3 |Another way to find companies with a high number of diverse candidates is to look for articles or blog posts that feature what I call “best for” companies. For instance when I search on “best companies for working mothers” I get results like these.

• Companies That (Seriously) Support Working Moms — HEYMAMA
• Top 10 Most Mom-Friendly Workplaces
• ADP Named One of the “100 Best Companies” for Working Mothers

If I wanted to target working mothers, I could find several companies to target with this strategy. I could certainly use this to focus on other groups as well. For example…