Haven worked in an engineering organization for a particular period of time (as an IT hiring manager); you experience a feel of precisely how the organization and industry functions. Thereafter you begin to wonder precisely how diversity adds up to the efficiency of a workplace. However, several companies don’t carry out an effective evaluation of their technical staffing resources with regards to definition of recruiting policy with regards to diversity in workforce.

When we talk of diversity in IT staffing that means that a modern IT hiring manager has to hire from a multitude of IT talent pools (like women, diverse ethnic backgrounds and social classes). That brings along a diversity in workplace that is virtue and vice simultaneously. Virtue in a sense that it adds a rainbow of cultures, working ethics and backgrounds to your workplace and vice in a sense that it brings along the issues linked with diversity in workplace (gender / racial discrimination and sexual harassment claims etc). However, the benefits of creating diversity in IT staffing outweigh the disadvantages by a huge margin and all smart IT hiring managers must make it a point to add the “diversity dimension” to their IT job campaigning. Technical staffing services with no defined diversity factor in IT staffing perform less satisfactorily over time. This is where your talent as an IT manager comes into play for IT staffing while catering or diversity in your workplace. Here are some of the important points to keep in mind for managing technical staffing resources to create a diverse workforce:

• Understand the value of diversity. Diversity in workforce is unfortunately an under rated concept in IT staffing drives at present and most IT managers have little or no understanding of the role that diversity plays in a workplace. A diverse workplace is proven to be way more dynamic, efficient and better at risk management. Businesses with diverse workforce (women oriented) are known to outrun men dominated boards in risk control and audit. Racially diverse businesses are known to command higher market share of their products. Understanding such linkages as a value added feature must be on the recruitment radar of every smart IT hiring manager.
• Diversify your search for the suitable candidates. The most important factor in diverse IT recruiting is to diversify your search parameters to enhance your chances of finding the most suitable IT professional. Here are some of the tips on how to diversify your candidate pool:
• Correct evaluation of your IT and engineering staffing requirements to add in diversity groups like women, minorities, mixed races, ethnic groups and disabled persons. You can even earmark reserved vacancies for each group to ensure employment from the target group only.
• Publishing your IT jobs requirements in the right target forums to attract and encourage applicants from each group to answer your CTA (call to action).
• Special perks and packages offer for diverse groups to join your business like childcare facility for women IT professionals, paid maternity leave and free pick and drop for disabled employees etc
• Connecting with diverse cultural groups and race based organizations can help you expand your potential diverse IT professional base beyond your imagination. All such organizations and forums have deep connections inside the target community and they can help you land your dream employee.
  
  

Conclusion

A word of advice for all the IT hiring managers looking to attract diverse IT staffing talent, opt for IT contracting companies or IT temp agencies if you find your technical staffing resources falling short of the desired mark of attracting the best diverse IT talent on the market.