Engineering jobs are being left unfilled due to a lack of qualified engineer job candidates. This is confirmed by several of my recent articles. One way to solve this recruiting problem is by increasing recruitment of women engineers.
Unfortunately, it is rare to find a woman engineer in most engineering departments. This is despite countless teams implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives with the aim of increasing technical, engineering, scientific, IT (information technology), R&D (research and development) and manufacturing gender diversity.
I have some suggestions to remedy this catch 22.
Six Recruiting Steps To Ensure More Women Engineers
There are countless measures you can take, but let me share six aggressive recruiting steps to ensure your organization recruits more qualified female technical and engineering talent. This will not only guarantee improved gender diversity, but also ensure that your key engineer jobs are filled.
1. Simplify your engineering job description. Unfortunately, research shows many women tend to apply only for jobs where they meet 100% of the job requirements. This is in contrast to men who tend to apply for jobs when they meet only 60% of the specifications. To that end, as I shared in a previous article, focus only on your actual needs as versus your wants.
2. Focus on gender-neutral verbiage in your job description. One recommendation along these lines to is use the site Hacker Factor to analyze job listing words and phrases.
3. Offer lucrative paid family leave benefits. Research shows that 61% of women engineers and technical professionals will not work for a company that does not offer paid family leave. Unfortunately, few startup companies offer such benefits.
4. Encourage your employees to seek mentors both within and outside of your company. This can open your company and employees to new potential female job candidates. They may become future engineering talent for your company.
5. Show your support for diversity groups. This can be as simple as sponsoring events in your office for women engineers.
6. Spruce up your website with female images. Unfortunately, many websites feature a plethora of older men. Include photos of women engineers who represent your team.
Please remember, we remain in a ‘War for Talent’ for key engineering candidates. So make your 2019 New Year’s resolution to increase recruitment of female engineers. Doing so will not only be helpful to women, but also a smart business practice for you!
Call me today at 312-944-4000 to discuss other strategies and tactics to help with your key engineer, scientist or other technical recruiting efforts. Or click here for my full contact information.
