In part 1 of this series we discussed strategy and in part 2 of the series we discussed recruitment branding as it pertains to Diversity & Inclusion. Today, in our third installment, we will discuss actual search.
By default, many in recruitment head directly to LinkedIn to begin a search. We do this even before we look inside our own ATS or CRM. I find myself at fault at times in this as well but often this is a great way to jumpstart a search because either an individual has applied and is interested or they have already been sourced for a similar capacity. An easy search and an often missed opportunity. But lets pretend that you have already looked in the ATS, the CRM and conducted searches inside of LinkedIn, now what?
There are many specific searches to help identify diverse leads for you to track and follow up with at a set time. The reasoning is that once I am in a good search, I really don’t want to pause my search and try and pick up where my thoughts were taking me. Personally, I like to source, track and follow-up with my leads a short while later to keep me focused on the search at hand.
Important point to always remember: don’t get stuck on only searching Google! There are many search engines to use and will bring back a variety of results. Here is a list of alternate search engines to consider:
- Bing
- Yahoo!
- Dogpile
- DuckDuckGo
- Excite
- Exalead
Before we really begin, it is also important to remember that “diversity” will mean different things for each organization. Be clear on what diversity means to help be the agent of change for your business. Two blog posts that I have bookmarked and continued to reference is on LinkedIn Boolean from Boolean Blackbelt and the other is for Top Boolean Strings from Wizard Sourcer. There is a lot of information in these posts and you should definitely read them and bookmark to help in your search ideas.
For a couple of examples, I am going to use an “engineer” as the subject. This is very generic, but it will hopefully begin to help you think through search options.
One trick I love and is almost my immediate go-to is for an image search. This string tends to be one of my favorites as a starting point:
(resume OR cv) AND engineer (she OR her) -sample -template -ad
This string is not very complex at all but it begins the search and will allow you to begin narrowing on location, degree, graduation year, etc… so many options to build on. You may also use an image search for LinkedIn with something along this line:
engineer (female OR she OR her) site:linkedin.com/in
This search result will bring back images on LinkedIn profiles and will allow you to go a bit deeper than LinkedIn Recruiter will allow so it is smart if you have a CRM of some-sort to track your results. Often diversity searches will require you to think in new and creative ways, especially in a difficult hiring market as we are experiencing in 2021. Keep thinking of how to expand searches, identify those organizations and associations, and keep digging.
What is your favorite diversity search tip?