I recently attended a wonderful panel discussion hosted by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis. The focus of the discussion was on attracting and retaining multicultural talent. There were so many good nuggets of information shared by the expert panel, I couldn’t resist sharing with the Unira Workforce manufacturing community!
Here are tips on attracting multicultural workers that I took away from the presentation:
- Recruiters for your company should look like the people you are trying to attract. The term for affinity with someone who looks like you is “affiliation bias”. So, if you are trying to hire Hispanic talent, find someone in your organization that is Hispanic and ask them to help in the recruiting process.
- Go to local Chamber of Commerce meetings and events. Most cities have Chambers of Commerce that represent immigrant and diverse members of the community, such as a Hispanic or African or Asian-American Chamber of Commerce. Do a Google search for these groups and attend their functions. These can be great events for finding workers from diverse ethnic communities. There was a Bosnian woman whose resume was shared with attendees at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce function I attended recently who had stellar IT/Project Management skills and experience.
- Stay informed on facts on hiring immigrants. Did you know that immigrants are work ready? In addition, if you look beyond the resume, many have a great work ethic. It is good to stay informed on the facts surrounding multicultural employees both to inform interviews and to not be swayed by myths that may deter you from hiring foreign-born workers.
- Reach out to international student organizations at local universities. Many larger universities have international student organizations that can help you connect with to hire graduating students.
- Get creative about additional outreach. Have you thought of checking with the AARP to find workers? How about local churches and synagogues? All can be great ways to connect with a diverse workforce.
- Offer flexible work schedules. Many immigrants have extended family that they care for and an inability to obtain child or elder care due to language barriers and lack of income. Employers that offer flexible schedules such as workdays structured around a school day are more likely to attract a multicultural workforce to allow them to care for loved ones.
The international talent pool is an untapped group of potential talent for your manufacturing company. By using the best practices outlined above, you are more likely to find and retain employees from the diverse ethnic communities.
