So you want to attract diverse candidates to your company. Great, you’ve made a step in the right direction towards enhancing your employer brand. However, you’re not getting the right diverse candidates to apply. What should you do?

Take a look at the message you’re sending to diverse job-seekers:

1. Look at your website. Does it send out a message of diversity? Does it show a diverse group of employees? If it doesn’t, minority job-seekers will feel it – and look elsewhere.
2. Fine-tune your message. It’s one thing for a company to have a theoretical commitment to diversity. But if recruiters are sending out a mixed message, it can alienate people. Even if it involves a new training process, make sure that recruiting is happening in a culturally sensitive manner.
3. Don’t get cute. Candidates will relate more enthusiastically to the concepts of job fulfillment and career growth than to blatant ethnic appeals. A message targeted to one particular ethnic group, if it seems condescending or pandering, it will backfire.