Recruitment: Targeting Diversity & Minority Groups.
Introduction.
In 2019, from the annual population survey across England, Wales and Scotland we were interested in employment rate by ethnicity and employment distribution across the 16-64 age group.
We saw that:
- 76% of people aged 16-64 in England, Wales and Scotland were employed in 2019
- 83% of people from the White other ethnic group were employed – the highest rate out of all ethnic groups
- 56% of people from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were employed – the lowest rate out of all ethnic groups
The national LGBT survey also revealed there is existing discrimination and harassment in the workplace. In the recent government LGBT survey 19% of respondents with a job preceding 12 months had not been open about their sexual orientation or gender identity with any of their colleagues. A further 30% said they had not been open with any senior colleagues and 57% said they had not been open with any customers or clients.
The risk with regards to targeting these groups in advertising for example Facebook is that they can see why they are being targeted which is a socially sensitive issue. We need to identify a solution that doesn’t allow for discrimination.
Finding that perfect candidate.
With recruitment costs rising, the need to drive quality over quantity is more important than ever. No longer can recruiters rely on driving high volume numbers to demonstrate ROI, with quality, skilled candidates that fit your company culture and job profile being a must to ensure effective budget spending. Engaging with passive online audiences who are not necessarily looking for you as a job seeker is key to finding the right candidate. This is done through effective use of social media advertising, by targeting those with specific interests, location, experiences etc that match your company or job profile.
Diversity targeting for digital success.
A custom audience is made from audience lists of information. This information contains key “identifiers” that you will have collected. If you have managed to recruit key diversity audiences in the past, we use this first party data to then try and find new similar users to those. This means that we no longer have to rely on behavioural targeting to reach your audience (a socially sensitive matter when it comes to diversity in the workplace)
Hyperlocal Targeting, as well as Contextual Targeting, are very good techniques to utilise when targeting specific groups of people. Timing is another factor to consider when targeting a specific group of people as well.
Case study.
Police Now:
Every year Police Now recruit trainee police detectives to join their partner forces across the UK. With only 7.3% of police officers in England and Wales coming from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, the British police service has a challenge in front of them to increase diversity- ensuring their workforce is a true reflection and representation of all demographics in England and Wales.
We used Police Now’s own historical data of Black, Asian, minority ethnic applicants to create lookalike audiences. This means that we were able to create an audience pool based on successful minority ethnic applicants of the past.
This not only ensures a highly relevant audience, but also high-quality leads too. Lookalike audiences can be created based on several factors- not just demographics. They consider interests, behaviours and probability of taking action. We can also use a number of sources to create these audiences, for example users who are similar to social followers, engagers and website visitors.
