Diversity and job boards: How to find and attract diverse talent
If you want to actively promote more diversity in your company, you need to know where to find certain talents. Using the right job boards, including specialised diversity job boards, helps you reach and attract the candidates you’re after.
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You might have the best intentions of creating a more diverse work environment at your company. But if you keep using the same (generalist) job sites for your candidate search, chances are you’ll have a hard time finding that diverse talent.
Special diversity job boards—and the right niche job boards—can offer the solution. By using such specialised channels, you can improve your chances of reaching the candidates you’re searching for. Find out below how these job boards can help you reach your hiring goals!
- The role of job boards in your diversity strategy
- Dedicated diversity job boards to hire diverse talent
- Using other job boards for your diversity recruitment
The role of job boards in your diversity strategy
The business case for less homogenous teams is well established. From diverse teams performing better financially to improved talent attraction of younger professionals. And companies are increasingly trying to find ways to actively change the makeup of their teams.
It’s part of the wider topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace and has led companies to create diversity recruiting strategies to attract diverse talent.
This way, they are trying to profile themselves as an equal opportunities employer. And an important element of such a strategy is the use of the right job boards.
That’s because different job boards can have very different candidate bases. By constantly using the same job board to promote your job ads, you risk your ads constantly reaching the same demographic.
So the first tip when it comes to diversity and job boards is simple. Multipost your job ad across many platforms. For some job board inspiration, check out our guide with the best job boards for 2024.
Dedicated diversity job boards to hire diverse talent
Diversity job boards are specialised job sites that are focussed on one particular group of people. They generally work the same as any other niche job board.
For example, the popular global job platform Fairygodboss is specifically aimed at female candidates. So if your company suffers from a clear gender imbalance, and you would like to hire more women, this job board could be a great place to promote your job ad.
Similarly, there are dedicated job boards for practically any type of underrepresented group in the workplace. Whether it’s for LGBT+ employees (like Pink Jobs), employees with physical disabilities, for working mothers, or for neurodivergent people.
In Germany, you even have a dedicated job board for refugees called Workeer, which we’ve partnered with at JOIN (and interviewed about their job board) and that you can use to promote your job ads.
The goal of such diversity job boards tends to be the same. To provide extra support for people within a certain group, so they can enjoy better opportunities on the job market.
Using other job boards for your diversity recruitment
Aside from such dedicated niche job sites, you can also still use more general platforms. Here are some tips to bear in mind when using job boards for diversity recruiting.
- Promote your job ad across a variety of different platforms (whether free job boards or paid job boards). This way, you increase your chances of reaching a more diverse group of candidates.
- Be inclusive in your job description to more actively encourage diverse candidates to apply. For example, you could mention that your workplace is an LGBT+ safe environment.
- Check job board statistics to get a sense of what audience you might reach by posting your ad on a specific board. For example, you can look at the percentage of candidates that are female or the number of different nationalities that are represented.
- Add the right information that’s relevant to the people you’re targeting. For example, neurodiverse employees might be more attracted to flexible working or working from home options. International employees might be looking for an active and social company culture, as they want to make new friends and integrate into a new country.
- Use the right niche job boards that are most likely to attract the diverse candidates you are looking for. For example, the German job board arbeitnow includes many jobs that offer relocation packages, so the candidates on this platform are most likely foreigners specifically looking for this benefit. Similarly, a remote-only job board like Remotive will also have its own specific candidate audience.
- Keep testing and trying to find the top job boards for your diverse target talent. Unless you post your job ad on a highly specific diversity job board, you will probably still receive a mix of applicants. So a lot of it comes down to trying and testing. Added tip: Try A/B testing different versions of your job ads, where you highlight different aspects of your company or job opening, and see what talent you attract.
Are you ready to build a more diverse workforce? Then try JOIN’s free talent attraction software that allows you to easily multipost your job ad to 10+ free and 100+ premium job boards:
Frans Lelivelt
Frans is JOIN's multilingual Senior Content Manager. His main topic of interest in the recruitment space is DEI and how companies can reduce their (unconscious) biases to make the world of work a fairer, kinder place for everyone. Outside of work, he tries to do the same for animals, spending much of his spare time in the kitchen preparing plant-based feasts.
