Is it Time to Adopt a Targeted Recruiting Effort Focused on Gay Candidates?

Unless you ve had your head in the sand, you can t have missed the fact that much of the world has recently become more tolerant of gay men and women. However, despite all this recent societal change, there has been no corresponding change in the corporate recruiting function, which seems unwilling to redesign its programs so that they can effectively recruit from the LGBT community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender). Yes, some firms have taken a few small steps by finally declaring that they welcome gay employees and by beginning to offer same-sex partner benefits. But these limited actions may turn out to only have a minor impact unless recruiting is completely redesigned to fit this market segment. The key lessons for executives and recruiting leaders is to learn that subtle prejudices and stereotypes still exist and the LGBT community has unique needs. As a result, your LGBT recruiting efforts cannot be successful without first becoming an expert in LGBT recruiting and then implementing a redesigned data-driven process that examines the issues and the opportunities during each individual step of the recruiting process. Why Target LGBT Candidates? There are many reasons to target and focus on LGBT candidates. The first is the size of the community, because depending on where you recruit, the LGBT community may reach

10 percent of the working population. It is hard to argue against the fact that the gay segment of the population is different (different is the very definition of diversity), and if you want different thinking it makes sense to target this group. There is data to support that this target group is different and desirable because it is often more educated; nearly 50 percent hold professional/managerial jobs, and they have a higher average income. Others have argued that they may be more creative and that they are likely to be experienced in handling uncomfortable situations. In addition to providing your firm with great recruits, a focused and publicized recruiting approach may also help to build your firm s employer brand image among the rest of the non-gay population because many (and especially recent generations) may view a proactive LGBT effort as an indication that your corporation is progressive and tolerant. There may also be some positive business impacts, because having gay customer service workers, salespeople, and product designers will likely increase corporate sales from gay customers and gay corporate representatives who make purchasing decisions. And finally, sexual orientation discrimination will continue to grow as a legal issue, so eventually recruiting will have no choice but to re-examine the entire hiring process. Action Steps for Developing a Targeted LGBT Recruiting Effort One of the basic tenets of marketing is segmentation, where you customize your effort so that it meets the unique needs of a particular targeted segment. Because LGBT prospects have unique expectations, your recruiting effort must also be tailored to meet those needs. So if you are one of the few corporate leaders who has the courage to proactively and publicly recruit gay candidates, I have provided a list of 15+ tailored action steps that I have found to be effective not just among the LGBT community but also for most diverse populations. Make the business case obviously if you want funding and executive support, you need to demonstrate the productivity, innovation, and creativity that this LGBT population can bring to the business and the loss that will occur by not having a representative gay population in your workforce. The best business cases are not developed independently but instead in conjunction with the CFO s office because they can help you to credibly quantify the business impacts of the program on corporate revenue, product development, and customer service. A segment of the business case further needs to demonstrate that not having gay people in your employee population discourages other recruits, increases turnover, and wil negatively impact business results. You also need to identify and make a list of potential executive concerns and put together arguments to counter each. Having a senior executive sponsor the effort is also an excellent idea. Use market research to find out how to target efforts as with any group of recruiting targets, you must identify both the positive factors that attract and the negative factors that detracts. Be aware that currently employed and relatively satisfied employees at other firms will have a different set of attractors than prospects who are actively looking for a job. The best way to identify these attraction factors is through surveys of a sample of your current employees, applicants, and new hires who have self-identified themselves as gay. Outside focus groups with potential applicants can also be helpful. Don t make the mistake of assuming that things like partner or same-sex marriage benefits are the primary attraction factor. Use market research to find out where recruiting messages would be most effective even a perfectly sculpted recruiting message has no value if your target audience never sees or reads it. Work with your product marketing team or a vendor experienced with this population to identify the Internet, social media, and traditional locations where your message would most likely be seen and read by the LGBT population. Use the same approach to identify where they would likely see and read a job posting. Also update your corporate website and careers page so that it is obvious to visitors that you welcome and understand the unique needs of gay employees and customers. Also consider offering blogs and videos of gay employees to be sure to provide some detailed information on each of the features that LGBT prospects care the most about. Move beyond traditional diversity recruiting approaches all too often corporate diversity recruiting is narrowly focused and limited in scope. The traditional approach normally is limited to diversity inclusion statements, a few flashy PR ads, celebrating gay pride, donations to diverse groups, and attending diversity job fairs and association events. In my experience, these well-intended approaches are often insufficient. What is needed is a comprehensive approach that includes tailored employer branding, trained sourcers, identifying candidate assessment problems, a customized offer process, a focus on recruiting gay interns, and a tailored candidate experience. Each individual recruiting sub-process and step must be targeted to this audience and later on each must be monitored with metrics to ensure that it remains effective. Incidentally, there is no data that shows that you must be gay to be a great LGBT recruiter; instead exceptional recruiting skills, specialized training, and empathy appear to be the key competencies. Develop a story inventory stories and illustrative examples are powerful selling tools. So work with your current employees to identify examples and stories that would help to authentically illustrate to prospects that your firm actually is a great place for members of this community work. Make sure that hiring managers, recruiters, and employees all have easy access to these stories, so they can help to spread them. Employee referrals should be the cornerstone your employee s contacts and employees authentic sales ability are the chief reasons why employee referrals should be your primary LGBT recruitment source. If it doesn t already have one, your employee referral program should adopt a sub-focus on recruiting diversity and specifically LGBT candidates. Obviously