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7 strategies to recruit a multicultural IT staff
Over the past few years, the number of women and underrepresented minorities in IT has been dropping steadily. CIOs and other IT leaders can follow these simple steps to recruit and retain employees from these groups.11/30/2009 6:00:00 AM By: Rachel Dines
Diversity (or lack thereof) in IT has been a hot topic in the news and among our clients in recent months. And it's true: IT departments are notorious for their lack of diversity, and the problem is only getting worse. Over the past few years, the number of women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in IT has been dropping steadily.
CIOs and other IT leaders can follow these simple steps to attract and retain women and URMs into their IT departments:
- Adjust the language in your job description. Research has shown that women are less likely to apply for positions unless they meet every requirement in the job description, while men are more likely to send in an application if they meet three-quarters or more of the criteria on the list. When writing job descriptions, companies often list required qualities in a candidate in the same sentence as qualities that are not required but that are desirable. Instead, if you're writing a listing for a network administrator, for example, and virtualization skills are a plus but not entirely necessary for the position, list this skill separately from the other required skills.
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How to attract more women to IT jobs
- Recruit at women's and minority-serving institutions. Over the past decade, the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and the Hispanic-serving institutions (HSI) have received billions of dollars from government agencies to benefit their science and technology programs. These programs graduate thousands of qualified minority candidates in technology and engineering every year. Additionally, several highly regarded women's colleges are starting up engineering and computer science programs that are growing quickly. Smith College's Picker Engineering program is an excellent example of this.
2) Professional groups can be resources about minorities and women in IT. - Page 2
3) Women in IT less likely to have time for training. - Page 3
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