Unconventional Ways to Source Diverse Talent Bring in top talent and add to the overall growth and diversity of your organization.
By Clair Kim
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If you're an organizational leader who's looking to diversify your talent pool for 2021 while easing the pain points of your recruiters, then you may want to enlist some unconventional sourcing techniques as you build your talent pipeline.
Gone are the days of looking solely for a cultural fit. The techniques below will help you bring in more top talent that can add to the growth of your organization overall.
Using niche job boards
While job boards such as LinkedIn, Monster and Indeed are the standard, there are additional options for finding more specified talent. If you're finding great candidates to be few and far between, then consider smaller, niche-based job boards.
AngelList, for example, is a job board that specializes in tech jobs for startups. Adobe's Behance provides a pool of candidates with digital portfolios within the UX/UI space. Job boards that focus on people of color, remote workers and technical roles can also be found.
Look within your talent community
If your organization doesn't yet have a talent community established, now is the time to begin succession planning. Those who know your organization or those who are already rooted within it can provide some of your best referrals.
Consider enlisting your talented workers, retirees and investors as sources for future talent. Also, take a look back at those who have applied for jobs in the past and workers who have left (hopefully on good terms).
Developing this pool is as simple as reaching out and saying, "Hey! We are starting a bit of a talent community. May I share a monthly newsletter with you listing our latest openings and industry news?"
Use content marketing as a recruiting tool
Now, this is an interesting approach and I don't see many organizations doing this. The essence of using content to source employees lies in creating content that is commonly digested by readers who possess the skillset that you desire.
For example, if you are a financial institution, then sharing a social media post about a new programming language on your LinkedIn profile may not interest your followers in the financial realm. It may, however, attract the UI developer that you need to create your internal platform.
The success of this method depends on your content strategy. Be sure that your posts fall in line with your company's messaging and branding standards.
Consult professional associations
Professional associations can be a very powerful sourcing technique. If you have a recruiting initiative that's based on visiting colleges and universities, this is a similar principle. But instead of meeting new talent at the entry-level, professional associations enable you to meet talent at the professional or community level.
This method may require some creative thinking and additional time to research the associations that fit your talent requirements, but it will quickly fill your talent pool. Additionally, you will save time that might otherwise be wasted competing for attention on job boards and virtual career fairs.
Related: When You Say There's a Limited Pool of Black Talent, Here's What You're Revealing About Yourself
Look at social media platforms
While LinkedIn has become the social media platform for recruiting, people are showcasing their talents in very clever ways across Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.
Taking your talent search to social media platforms beyond LinkedIn saves you from the relentless competing job posts on the platform. Finding the right talent may be as simple as searching through a recent hashtag or results returned from a keyword search.
Related: 4 Steps to Demonstrate Your Commitment to Diversity
While job boards and social media platforms have become an industry standard, there are other unconventional ways to find top talent. Get creative with the techniques above and build the culture necessary for your organization to grow.
