Diversity Campus Recruiting: How to Boost Your Campus Recruiting

Campus recruiting is an integral part of building your business because early in career candidates are the future of work. And as communities become increasingly diverse, diversity campus recruiting is crucial to create workforces that reflect the changing demographics in these areas. 

The importance of campus recruiting cannot be understated: By making it a priority to attract candidates about to graduate from college, you will not only make your workplace more diverse, but will also bring in quality talent with the skills and enthusiasm to move your organization forward. In addition, when you bring in these early career candidates and give them an inclusive work environment where they can thrive, you have the chance to nurture them to become tomorrow’s leaders and build relationships that will increase retention.

However, organizations cannot get the benefits of hiring these talented young people if they don't know how to recruit untapped students in an effective way. The following steps can help you boost your diversity campus recruiting so you can attract the talent you're looking for.

7 Ways to Boost your Diversity Campus Recruiting Efforts

1. Build a Strong Campus Recruiting Team

In order to ensure that your organization is attracting the best early career talent, you need a strong team dedicated to campus recruiting. To build a team that will help you meet your goals, be sure to get recruiters that love working with early career candidates, prioritize diversity hiring efforts, have no problem traveling to campuses throughout the year as well as participating in online networking opportunities, and are skilled at forming relationships with both colleges and students. By having this team in place, recruiters can focus solely on colleges, ensuring that your entry-level positions are filled with talented candidates from an array of backgrounds.

2. Identify Talent Needs

Just as with other areas of recruiting, when you embark on your diversity campus recruiting strategies, you need to have specific goals in mind. Do you want students from a specific cultural or racial background to come on board as interns? Do you feel that you don't have enough entry-level positions filled by members of the LGBTQIA+ communities? In order to be successful with your campus recruiting, you need to have very specific goals in mind and be sure to track them along the way to measure whether or not you’re meeting them. 

3. Build an Employer Brand That Emphasizes Diversity

It's no surprise that younger generations expect diversity to be a priority in their workplaces. In fact, according to a Monster survey, 83% of Generation Z considers commitment to diversity and inclusion important when making decisions about where to work. As a result, it's important to create an employer brand that values diversity and makes that known as much as possible when recruiting to college students. Whether it's creating employee resource groups for those from different underrepresented communities, drafting policies designed to promote inclusion in your workplace, or providing healthcare plans that support all genders, you need to create a strong employer brand and publicize how important DEI is to your organization.

4. Create a Diverse Internship Pipeline

Creating internship programs for students from specific underrepresented backgrounds is a great way to demonstrate to potential employees that you’re dedicated to diversity, as well as create a strong pipeline of potential employees who are intimately familiar with your company before they even graduate. And even interns who don’t end up working for your organization can tell their peers about you, so they can act as strong brand ambassadors that contribute to creating a robust pipeline of the talent you want.

5. Leverage Recruiting Events

In person and virtual events can help you maximize your diversity campus recruiting efforts by allowing you to meet large numbers of potential employees at once. To find underserved groups of students to attend your events, you can partner with campus organizations that cater to these students so you can raise awareness among these groups. In addition to traditional job fairs and networking events, you can also produce events that may appeal to a wide range of students. For example, a hackathon can attract skilled students, boost your company’s brand on campus, and expand your talent pool to those who may not necessarily attend more traditional recruiting events.

6. Launch an Early Career Website

Since early career candidates have unique needs and concerns from those who are already established in their careers, it’s a good idea to launch a careers website specifically for this talent. This will allow you to focus on internship and entry-level opportunities, and really sell your organization as a place that nurtures young people and has a culture that emphasizes diversity and inclusion.

7. Spend More Time on Campuses

To increase your employee brand recognition among untapped students, you need to have a strong presence on campus, especially in the spaces where underserved students congregate. Working with student associations for these populations regularly is a great way to spend your time on campus and allow these students to get to know your brand. But you also should get students’ attention as early as possible, so don’t wait until they’re in their junior or senior years to connect with them. In fact, you can even make students aware of your employer brand on day one by organizing an event to help them move onto campus when they first arrive. This lets recruiters meet students right away and build relationships with them over time.

Diversity campus recruiting can be an important part of your overall diversity recruitment strategy that effectively brings in new talent to help move your organization in the direction you want it to go. These tips can help you get the most out of your campus recruiting and find the talent from underrepresented groups that you want to hire.