Strategies for attracting female candidates
Stories Inc. team members Christy Coluccio and Jessica McFadden outlined strategies for attracting female candidates in their LinkedIn Live. Here are the top takeaways.
The key to engaging more female talent is sharing proof of cultures that working women are looking for now. Stories Incorporated team members Christy Coluccio, Content Strategist and Program Manager, and Jessica McFadden, Head of Marketing, took to LinkedIn Live to outline the most effective strategies for attracting female candidates.
You can watch the full LinkedIn Live, Creating Compelling Recruitment Marketing for Women Now, here:
And, here are the key takeaways from the discussion, as well as the content examples from leading companies shared during the Live.
Produce culture content that allows female candidates to picture themselves thriving at your company
In our work with leading companies, we see that the places succeeding in attracting qualified, great-fit female candidates are developing specialized culture messaging that allows female candidates to really picture themselves working — and thriving — there. Companies that are exceeding their goals for recruiting and retaining female talent are sharing stories from female team members.
Just like other facets of diversity and inclusion content, candidates want to hear about progress directly from the employees. They are the people who experience and form the culture that results from organizational actions, attitudes, and values. And, they’re the sources candidates trust.
One of our favorite examples is the Women of Dell Technologies (which last year won the Rally Award for Best Use of Video in Recruitment Marketing). Here, female employees around the globe share stories of exactly how they’re experiencing growth, inclusion, flexibility and more.
Show how being a woman is celebrated as an advantage in your culture
Attracting more female candidates for technologist roles is an ongoing recruitment challenge, even though women earn about half of all STEM degrees. However, women account for less than 20 percent of the jobs in STEM fields.
Gayatri Shenai, a partner in McKinsey Digital and leading researcher on women in technology, says, “You can’t be what you can’t see…show the world who some of these women in the space are – and what’s possible.”**
That’s exactly what we helped Expedia Group do in this video featuring the stories of women engineers. Their stories center on how they experience gender inclusion and how their gender is valued as an advantage in the culture.
Share stories of how mothers in your company experience flexibility
In the pandemic, working mothers were more likely to leave their jobs than women without children.*** And today, female employees who experienced cultures that were not supportive of their increased load during COVID are looking for something better. Attract both of those groups of candidates by showing proof of your company’s compassionate, working parent-friendly flexibility.
This video from Eleven Peppers Studios – a Stories Inc. Story of the Year – shows candidates exactly how the company supports parents, and what that balance really looks like.
Participate in celebrations of women and conversations about gender equity
Stories from women in your organization recruit more women. And, they allow you to celebrate women at key times in your recruitment marketing content calendar, like Women’s History Month (when we hosted this LinkedIn Live), Gender Equality Day in August, International Day of the Girl in October, and more.
For example, we helped Labcorp capture stories of how the women on their team specifically and uniquely experience gender inclusion and belonging. We developed a compilation video of the stories for International Women’s Day, and the stories also serve as a key culture content for attracting female candidates all year long.
Together, these strategies and examples show proof of cultures that support women.
Not only do these stories attract female candidates, they also reinforce culture with the women already on your team. Shine a spotlight on the women in your company and capture their stories! You’ll provide female employees with a meaningful opportunity to discuss gender inclusion and honor their contributions.
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Sources:
* National Women’s Law Center, March 4, 2022.
** McKinsey & Company, March 6, 2020.
*** The New York Times, February 4, 2021.