How nonprofits can recruit racially diverse candidates
As an executive recruiter for nonprofits, I’m always looking for racially diverse talent.
Since March 2022, Bonsai Leadership Group has placed more than 20 people from underrepresented racial groups at nonprofits throughout the country. I’ve hired three recruiters to lead that process with me.
I didn’t initially offer executive recruitment, but I love the combination of these services along with ongoing support for board leadership, executives, and the incoming leader.
Why is racially diverse hiring important?
Recruiting focused on racial diversity is important for a myriad of reasons. First, it helps to create an organization that reflects the communities it serves. This can lead to increased creativity, innovation, and problem-solving, as diverse perspectives bring new ideas and approaches to the table.
Recruiting with a lens for diversity can help to reduce bias and discrimination in the workplace, as a more diverse workforce can help to challenge implicit biases and promote greater understanding and acceptance of different cultures and backgrounds.
Recruiting racially diverse candidates can also help to improve employee morale and engagement, as employees are more likely to feel valued and included when they see people like themselves represented in the workplace. This can lead to increased productivity, retention, and overall organizational success.
In addition to these benefits, there are also legal and ethical reasons why diverse hiring is important. Discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics is illegal in many countries and can lead to costly legal disputes and reputational damage – both internal and external -- for organizations that engage in it.
Regardless, creating racially diverse candidate pools is an important step towards creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace, and it can bring a wide range of benefits to organizations and their employees.
How Bonsai can help identify racially diverse candidates for your open positions
Too often, I’ve seen organizations recruit racially diverse leaders to simply “check the box.” They know in this day and age, they’ll miss out on funding and other opportunities if their leadership is entirely white-led.
The missing piece, however, is cultivating an environment so the new leader (and everybody involved) can experience true belonging instead of performative diversity. That starts with deep thoughtfulness and humility about how you’re going to invite underrepresented racial groups into your organization.
Our approach to recruiting for racial diversity combines our interpersonal soft skills with external resources.
Relationship building – We take our time, ask thoughtful questions, and view interviews as opportunities to build relationships with candidates rather than simply screenings.
Listening – If a candidate shares something with us about their workplace preferences, we listen deeply and assess the situation on both sides. We want a placement to be the right choice for a candidate AND the nonprofit.
Follow-up – Staying in touch with candidates is a superpower of ours. It’s not uncommon for us to tap a previous candidate for another position that we think would be a better fit.
Showing up – We attend conferences to increase our networks within the nonprofit world.
Associations and professional groups – We engage with affinity groups that are related to racial and professional sectors, so that our outreach can be specific and targeted towards people who are at the top of their game.
Our personal networks – Our recruiters use LinkedIn to its fullest ability by combing our own personal connections to find the right candidates, networking, and receiving job applications through the platform.
Research – We take our time researching candidates, organizations, conferences, speakers, and published articles. We’re curious and seek out perspectives and information that we’re not familiar with tailored to each recruiting engagement so we can provide the best experience possible for the organization and the prospective hires.
Assessments – Our recruiters leverage the Birkman assessment to identify each candidate’s strengths and preferences to best match them to career opportunities and help the prospective employer understand how to create an environment in which the candidate will thrive
Utilizing Birkman for candidates as part of our recruiting practice
The Birkman Assessment can be a valuable tool in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace by helping individuals and organizations better understand themselves and each other.
The tool measures an individual's strengths, interests, and personality traits. By taking the assessment, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of their own strengths and how they can contribute to the workplace. This can help organizations identify diverse talents and perspectives that may have been overlooked.
The Birkman Assessment can provide insights into an individual's unique perspectives and cultural value systems, as well as their relationship to power, voice, and social experiences that may not be represented by dominant cultural norms. We find that candidates can better identify the kind of organizational environment in which they want to work.
The assessment can help individuals and teams better understand their own communication styles and preferences. This can help promote better communication, collaboration, and understanding among team members of different backgrounds and perspectives.
The Birkman Assessment helps nonprofit leaders develop a better understanding of their own leadership style and how it will impact their team. By identifying areas for growth and development, leaders can create a more inclusive and supportive work environment.
Finding the right fit, both for nonprofits and for individuals
Our recruiters care about providing a good slate of racially and ethnically diverse candidates – especially when the organization believes “there’s no one out there” – but I also care about making sure the culture is ready to support racial diversity and not just expect the person to assimilate to their culture. Even though the nonprofit is paying for the executive recruitment services, we care about the person we’re recruiting, too.
That creates win-win placements because we build relationships with our nonprofits AND our candidates, then back it up with ongoing leadership consulting and coaching to cultivate high performance teams and organizations (all while naming and holding the presence of systemic oppression).
Does that sound like something your organization could benefit from? Let’s have a conversation.