Increasing diversity at a company should not be a difficult thing to accomplish, especially if the company puts policies into place that help meet this goal. The ability to increase engineering diversity hiring at companies is not always easy because it is very difficult to find qualified talent. This is prevalent in the engineering field. Diversifying the engineering field to include more women and minorities, other cultures and international talent can be challenging for some firms. There are methods firms can put into place in order to expand their employee ranks when it comes to diverse workers.
Demonstrate How Great Your Firm is to Work For
One of the key aspects of increasing engineering diversity hiring at your firm is to prove how great the firm is to work for, no matter the type of employees you wish to hire. Women tend to be hesitant when switching companies because they might have gotten burned in the past. If you can prove to potential employees, including women, why your firm is right for them, you should be able to increase the diversity within your employee ranks.
Speak with Graduate Students in your Region
If your firm is looking to increase diversity each year, you could speak with graduate students at schools in your region. Find out what their interests are, what they plan to do after school, and what they know about the industry. By meeting with various graduate students in the area, you could come across a female or international student who could succeed at your firm. The only way to diversify an engineering firm is to be proactive.
Change the Screening Process
Your firm can change its candidate screening process to find qualified diverse employees. You can send technical worksheets to candidates who do not hold the obvious skills or requirements needed for the position to see if they can succeed before writing them off for the job.
Let the candidate work a full day at the firm with other engineers so they can see what they would be doing on a daily basis. You can have the engineers the candidate works with report back to you about their work ethic and understanding of the material.
The final, and most important point in this section is that the interviewers should be diverse. If you use a committee of employees to interview candidates, make sure it is diverse. It should include a whole host of employees who speak to the diversity of your firm.
Ask Candidates Questions about the Process
When you are working to onboard a candidate, make sure you ask him or her about the various steps. Find out what interested them the most about the company, what he or she liked or disliked about the process, and what stood out about the job. Ask them if there is something the firm is doing that would not attract diverse employees.
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