Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Recruitment Best Practices

Ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is front of mind throughout the recruitment and hiring process, the EDI team has provided best practice guidance and tips to utilize before, during, and after an employee joins your team. 

EDI Recruitment Guidance

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Setting Strategy

Building Candidate Pipelines

  • Develop a list of resources where you can share your job listings to students and alumni to broaden your reach.
  • Develop relationships with high schools and students. Consider hiring a Step Up Program student intern through the Office of Equity and Diversity.
  • Develop relationships with diverse professional associations, organizations, and external groups related to your college or department.
  • Ask recent hires where they heard about your job opening. 
  • Develop a list of colleges that enroll large numbers of women, people with disabilities, veterans and culturally and racially diverse students.
  • Attend and host events, job fairs, and community fairs for underrepresented groups. Collect resumes and contact information for potential candidates.
  • Keep resumes of underrepresented candidates on file, particularly those chosen for an interview. Use this when recruiting for future positions.
  • Engage with potential candidates and share content about your organization's work environment and employees on LinkedIn.

Determining Job Criteria

  • Ensure required hiring criteria accurately reflect position needs, and review preferred criteria language to ensure it encourages a diverse pool of applicants. 
    • For example, include a qualification to demonstrate commitment to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion while working effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds.
  • Create a diverse search committee. Consider including subject matter experts, people from diverse demographic backgrounds and experience levels, and those with interdisciplinary perspectives.  
  • Hire for cultural add and not cultural fit. When you hire for cultural fit, you are hiring someone like you. When you hire for cultural add, you hire someone different from you, who may have alternative viewpoints, unconventional experiences, or rare/specialized skill sets. A cultural add enhances diversity in existing workforce culture in a meaningful way.
  • Before reviewing applications, complete the Office of Equity and Diversity’s implicit bias workshop and the unconscious bias discussion toolkit from the OHR Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team.
  • Create an accessible and equitable application process. Remove unnecessary barriers to completing an application, such as requiring diversity statements, cover letters, and references.

Advertising Open Positions

  • Aim to create a job description that attracts the widest range of candidates. Examples:
    • Looking to hire high-potential people with varying identities and backgrounds
    • Looking for candidates with a strong commitment to the University’s goal of creating a positive and inclusive campus climate by advancing equity and diversity.
  • Review EOAA goals and current pool demographics with OHR Talent Acquisition specialist or consultant to determine if additional targeted recruiting is needed.
  • When needed for high-profile searches, choose an outside advertising group that has a track record of providing a qualified, diverse pool of candidates.
  • Reach out to your Talent Acquisition specialist or consultant to ask about BIPOC recruitment resources to place recruitment ads.
  • Conduct targeted recruitment using various job boards, local/national organizations, affiliations, and social media, such as LinkedIn, X, and online forums, that engage underrepresented groups. 

Interviewing Candidates

  • Ensure that the interview process is structured and consistent. All candidates should be asked the same set of questions in the same order and evaluated based on the same criteria. Offer accommodations for candidates when requested to ensure equal participation opportunity in the interview process. 
  •  Develop behavioral based interview questions. Consult with your Talent Acquisition specialist or consultant. 
  • Ensure applicant assessment matrix criteria are consistent with the required and preferred qualifications when evaluating applications. Avoid relying on subjective judgment.  

Welcoming New Employees

  • Share information about campus resources and Faculty/Staff Associations. Make sure employees feel welcomed and included by setting up meet-and-greets with their colleagues and scheduling a first-day lunch with the supervisor or team. 
  • Connect new hires to mentors within your department or college.

Further Suggestions for Advancing EDI Within Your Unit

  • Follow Talent Strategy performance management practice guidance for goal setting, ongoing check-in, performance evaluations, and calibration in partnership with local HR. These have bias mitigation, sense of belonging, equitable opportunities, and access as foundational elements. Reach out to Talent Strategy (talentstrategy@umn.edu) for more information.
  • Develop a mentorship program for incoming diverse hires or connect internal diverse hires to mentors within your department or college.
  • Incorporate diversity initiatives into staff performance reviews.
  • Conduct stay interviews, and check in regularly to see how things are going and if there are any questions or concerns.
  • Conduct exit interviews with diverse hires to identify reasons for leaving. Evaluate and make the necessary changes, e.g. EDI training for unit/department.
  • Implement transparent and equitable processes for internal mobility, prioritizing opportunities for underrepresented groups and providing resources for skill development and support.
  • Create internship programs that target historically underrepresented groups.