Elevate Your DEI Recruiting & Hiring Practices

We are excited to work with employers and organizations to help meet their recruiting needs while maintaining best practices and standards around diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence. True excellence requires that each individual be able to work and learn in an atmosphere of respect, dignity, and acceptance. While our Career Services team is by no means an expert in any of the following content areas. We instead are eager to learn alongside our employer partners about how their organizations promote diversity and inclusion and engage in conversations about how to best support our students as they enter the world of work in an increasingly diverse workforce.

Successful recruiting of diverse talent requires organizations to look beyond just the recruiting process and also focus on how to retain diverse talent by creating a culture that is validating and welcoming to all individuals. We all share the responsibility as members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln community to safeguard equity, inclusion, dignity, and respect for all.

Here’s a great article with some additional ways to raise your bar in the DEI space.

Consider Your Brand  

Ensure your organization’s presence consistently reflects your commitment and support of diversity and inclusion.   

  • Include a statement or additional content in your marketing materials that defines how diversity and inclusion supports your organization’s mission.   
  • Provide video or photo tours of your organization and include content that shows your commitment to diversity. Support requests for on-site visits whether by individuals, student organizations, or classes. 
  • Create robust profiles on LinkedIn and Handshake to tell your organization’s story of involvement in diversity and inclusion efforts. Encourage those in your organization to do the same. 
  • Highlight your affinity/employee resource groups and share some of their activities or feature them within your news stories to show how people in your organization connect with each other.   
  • Recognize that students may be interested in your community connections and social causes. Share ongoing commitment through photos, news articles, and social media.   
  • Be visible at campus and community programs.   
  • Join national organizations that support diverse populations and/or be involved in committees within general associations or chambers of commerce.   
  • Provide support and mentorship to new interns and employees to ensure they are successful in their roles and able to serve as ambassadors for your organization.   

Acknowledge the Impact of Privilege   

Try to assess the potential of the individual. Some students have responsibilities that affect their ability to be involved in student organizations, have internships, or maintain high grades.   

  • Many UNL students experience financial insecurity.  
    This may translate into poor internet access, limited professional attire or lack of transportation.   
  • Make compensation competitive, transparent, and equitable.   

Engage with Diverse Students and Spaces at UNL  

There are student organizations and programs at UNL focused on diverse student populations.   

  • Student organizations invite guest speakers with relevant professional development content; simply wanting to talk about your organization is not a strong strategy for engagement.  
  • Contact the relevant UNL student organizations and ask what their needs are and develop strong content to share.   
  • UNL student organizations: unl.campuslabs.com/engage   

DEI Job Posting Tips & Tricks: 

• Post open positions in Handshake to ensure opportunities are accessible to all students. A best practice to support diversity and equity is to post all positions to Handshake to ensure all students have equal access.   

• Write position descriptions with inclusive language.   

• Review required qualifications to ensure they reflect the abilities of early talent seekers who often disregard roles they feel unqualified for (especially those that ask for years of experience or high proficiency in a skill).   

• Use both the job posting and interview to talk about job duties and how the employee can contribute and learn. Students want roles that help them grow and advance.   

• Evaluate whether your processes increase barriers to any population.  

Grow Your Talent Pipeline 

• Youth start to explore career fields as early as elementary school. Find ways to introduce students to your industry early.   

• Provide opportunities for job shadowing. Students may have a shadowing requirement for class or are encouraged to shadow a mentor. Your organization’s ability to provide a rich experience helps the individual student and all those they talk about their experience.   

• Consider developing an on-site preview or shadow day for students to learn about different roles in your organization and meet successful professionals.   

• Offer jobs to high school students which give them a sense of the work professionals do. Help them see the connection of their efforts to the organization’s overall success.