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Employers should substantially increase their female applicant pool to increase the number of hires. The key to achieving this increase is implementing women-specific recruitment strategies such as having a recruiting Web page for women or sponsoring a career orientation for women in your male-dominated fields or occupations.
Messaging
I n IWITTS's national WomenTech Educators workshops, facilitators start by asking attendees to talk about the messages women and girls receive about being in a technology or trade occupation. Those messages are at best mixed and usually negative.
Employers can counteract the strong negative messages women receive about technology and trade occupations with their own strong, positive messages. The following types of messages should be a component of all recruitment efforts:
- We have women employees in X occupation
- We want women
- We welcome women
- Women are leaders in our organization and have upward career paths
- Women have career opportunities in all areas of the company
- Occupation X offers a good salary and benefits
Assessment
Before a company develops a strategic recruitment plan to increase the number of women hires, it should conduct a self-assessment to compare what it is doing to recruit women to the universe of known strategies.
It should also perform a statistical analysis of its selection process by gender to determine whether women are being disproportionately screened out at any stage. If that is the case, any type of female-specific recruitment efforts would be a waste of an employer's precious resources.
Finally, employers should determine which women-specific recruitment strategies would require the least amount of effort while likely yielding a high return and, as a second choice, which efforts would require high effort in exchange for a high return. Options will vary from one employer to another. For example, an employer with an internal Web designer may find developing a women-in-technology section of its Web site to be a low-effort, high-return strategy, while an employer that relies on a consultant Web designer may find it to be a high-cost, high-return activity.
World Wide Web Recruitment Strategies
Increasingly, employers are using the World Wide Web to recruit job applicants. The Internet offers an inexpensive way to reach thousands of potential applicants around the country. It serves as a primary venue for many job-hunters, enables employers to provide in depth information about the company and the recruitment and selection process, and generates acutely needed tech-savvy applicants.
The Internet is also a great way to recruit women applicants. Add a section for women in technology and trades occupations within a company's recruitment Web pages. There, you can feature biographies and photos of the employer's diverse group of employees.
Include an e-list sign up on the women's page by using a free, easy-to-maintain e-mail list such as the one on www.yahoogroups.com. This way, employers can send an e-mail message to multiple potential applicants at once. The e-mail message could of course contain tips on preparing for any required physical agility test, key dates, and information on the application process. The host maintains the subscriber list for the employer automatically.
Women in Technology Career Expo
Career expos should be two or three hours long and should be held on the weekend or in the evening, as employers want to attract participants who are employed. One employer held two shifts of the career fair-one in the afternoon and a second in the evening-so as to capture potential applicants who worked daytime hours and those who worked evenings.
The core elements of the women in technology career expo are as follows:
- A plenary role-model panel of three or four women employees from a variety of assignments (including women new to the company) who talk about their work
- Information about the application and selection process
- Tips to help women prepare for the physical agility test, if applicable
- Keynote addresses from the CEO and a high-ranking female manager
- A place where attendees can ask questions in a non-plenary setting
Free Media Coverage
The press likes to do human-interest stories on women in male-dominated jobs; employers that IWITTS has worked with have received positive print, television, and radio coverage of their efforts to recruit more women.
Employers should issue press releases that include key statistics such as what percentage of X occupation nationwide and in the company are women; quotes from women employees about how much they enjoy their jobs, and why; a quote from the CEO; and a note on the availability of female employees for interviews; and, of course, career expo information.
Some employers have chosen to hold press conferences. Keep in mind that the press always likes good visuals, so, if you have women employees, offer them an opportunity for a photo shoot.
Publicity Materials
It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words. If a female applicant goes to the home page of a company's Web site and finds photos of only male employees, she is less likely to click through to the recruitment information than if she sees images of someone who looks like her. Companies seeking to attract female candidates should make sure that at least one third of the images on their Web sites, brochures, flyers, and other publications are images of women employees. Employers should have recruitment flyers as well as brochures.
Target List
Reach out to women who are physically active by posting flyers in places such as gyms; locker rooms of women's sport teams; and facilities for rock climbing, karate, kickboxing, and similar activities. One employer recruited female candidates at an aerobics instructor conference.
Another good source for potential female candidates are women with hobbies that are traditionally dominated by males, such as aviation, skydiving, target shooting, and car restoration. Women in the military reserves and veterans' groups should also be pursued; contact your local military base to find out how to connect with them. Overall, connecting with women in these lesser-known groups has grown easier, as more and more of them maintain an Internet presence and e-mail lists.
Finally, women-specific recruitment flyers should go up in places women frequent, such as supermarkets, self-service laundries, and shopping malls.
Long-Term Strategies
Employers may want to approach two and four-year colleges with occupational education programs in their communities and develop a collaborative goal of recruiting women students. Employers can also offer internships for students, thereby strengthening their connection to the company.
Recruitment Staff Composition
An employer's recruitment staff should reflect the applicants it wishes to hire. Thus it is important that the staff include women and minorities. While many employers may have limited recruitment staff, consultants from outside the recruitment department often are hired and can assist in reflecting the diversity of the company.
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