InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
February 7, 2000
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BlackVoices.com, HotJobs.com are among the places companies turn to diversify workforce
By Candee Wilde
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ith unemployment in the United States at its lowest level in 30 years, companies are having a hard time finding qualified workers. For many businesses, an even greater challenge is building a workforce of men and women of different races and cultural backgrounds.However, some companies are finding that the Internet can serve as a viable tool for diversity recruitment. Companies typically try to meet diversity goals by recruiting more women and racial minorities, and are using career sections on Web sites such as BlackVoices.com, HireDiversity. com, and WomenConnect.com to locate qualified people.
Many companies make it a priority to build a diversified workforce. Successful recruitment of women and minorities not only ensures that the companies are in compliance with equal-opportunity laws, but also affords businesses a number of tangible advantages. When people with different backgrounds and experiences work together, they can generate a greater range of new ideas and offer varied approaches to business challenges. A diversified workforce can also help businesses tailor products or services for a variety of demographic markets.
Texas Instruments Inc. found that hiring a broad spectrum of people provides the company with a competitive advantage in the marketplace, says John Nelson, lead recruiter on the Dallas technology company's sourcing team. "We need a good mix of people from different cultures," Nelson says. "They come to us with different ideas and different ways of approaching problems."
The three-person sourcing team that Nelson heads is a subgroup of Texas Instruments' recruiting organization, and it relies solely on the Internet and the Web to find potential employees. Texas Instruments established the team in 1997, when it became clear the Internet could help the company find more candidates in less time and at less expense.
Each week, the team logs on to as many as a dozen Web sites that target minority communities to review resumés, Nelson says. The recruiters often begin by conducting a keyword search for the qualities they are seeking in a potential employee.
Once these cyber-recruiters have located qualified candidates, they download their resumés and forward them to other TI recruiters who work directly with various divisions of the company. The recruiters typically contact the candidates by E-mail or telephone to narrow the pool of candidates before presenting options to hiring managers.
"These sites have been very successful in helping us meet the goals that we set for filling positions with diversity-type candidates," Nelson says. He estimates that up to 60% of Texas Instruments' new hires last year came from sites that attract people from a variety of cultures, including the Minority Job Bank, Hispanic Online, the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, and the National Society for Black Engineers.
While internal recruiters handle most of Texas Instruments' online diversity hiring, other companies are recruiting people through banner advertising programs that target the Web sites that potential job candidates frequent. Recruitment site HotJobs.com recently created an advertisement program that targets community Web sites for women and minorities.
In addition to the business benefits of a diverse workforce, diversity can also help companies avoid the risk of individual or class-action lawsuits, or conflicts with federal or state governments, says Jennifer Fleischer, director of advertising sales for HotJobs. com, in New York. "We work with companies that have certain affirmative-action laws they want to comply with," she says.
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Photo of Nelson by Steve McAlister
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