How to Increase Black Talent in Your Candidate Pool
Many tech companies would love to increase the percentage of Black employees working on their teams, but have a hard time knowing where to start. Data has shown that while Black people represent 12% of US workers, they only make up 8% of tech employees. One of the questions we are asked most frequently by our clients is how to increase the number of Black candidates in their interview pipeline. As we close out Black History Month, we wanted to leave you with a few tips to help attract more Black talent.
1. Sourcing, sourcing, sourcing.
The easiest way to increase the number of Black candidates in your pipeline is to actively seek them out. When you are doing boolean searches on LinkedIn, you are only able to see the first 1,000 results; this often leaves out a large number of very talented candidates who fit your search criteria. Building search strings that allow you to find Black talent will help ensure that you don’t miss out on candidates that might be filtered out by the algorithm. You can do this by searching for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), members of Black fraternities and sororities, and members of Black professional organizations.
2. Make your employer brand more inclusive.
No employee wants to work in an environment where they feel unwelcome. If diversity and inclusion is one of your core values, that should be showcased on your company’s website, job page, and social media accounts. Did your company do any programming for Black History Month? If so, post pictures and videos from the events. If you’re a small company, you may not have enough resources to have ERGs or cultural heritage month programming yet; that’s okay! Begin to build a strategy toward becoming a more inclusive company, and share that strategy on your website. This can help you hold your team accountable, and it will also let Black candidates know that you’re working toward a goal they can be a part of.
3. Attend Black meetups and conferences.
A good way to attract Black talent is by increasing your company’s visibility at Black events, meetups, and conferences. Many Black professional groups have annual national and regional conferences, and companies can post jobs onto their job boards and set up recruiting booths at their events. Some even allow you to post onto their job boards year round. There is often a certain amount of financial investment required to get access to these job boards and career fairs, but there are often lower cost payment options for startups.
4. Promote Black leaders internally.
Black tech employees are underrepresented in leadership, both at the management level and even more so at the executive level. A good way for a candidate to assess a company’s commitment to inclusion is by seeing diverse leadership at all levels of the company. Having Black managers, directors, and execs will attract more talent, and promoting your current employees into leadership positions allows candidates to see that career growth is possible within your company. Black leaders can also make an impact on your company culture and policies, and this can make a big difference when Black candidates are evaluating whether or not they want to work for your company.
5. Hire Black interns.
Hiring Black college students as interns is a great way to train and invest in future full time talent. Many companies use internships as a way to see how a student works over a longer period of time, and this is a more effective way of making a solid full time hire than most traditional interview processes. Plus, interns are also able to bring new and innovative ideas to their work, which can make a positive impact on your core product. If you’re having a hard time finding Black interns, there are several organizations that you can partner with to hire Black students in STEM.
As always, the best way to increase the diversity in your company and in your candidate pipeline is to be intentional about it. Increasing the percentage of Black employees on your team won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen accidentally, either. The good news is that there are plenty of resources available to you if you don’t know where to start. If you’d like professional help with diversifying your candidate pool, Envision Inclusion is here to help! Send us an email at info@weenvisioninclusion.com, or contact us below.
