Latino Talent: Effective Strategies to Recruit, Retain and Develop Hispanic Professionals

CHAPTER 4

IMPROVING LATINO RECRUITING EFFECTIVENESS

For many organizations, effectively recruiting Latino professionals is a critical goal. However, many human resource professionals are finding it difficult to tap into this pool of talent. One reason is simply that the demand for top Latino talent exceeds the supply. But a bigger problem exists for organizations: Many organizations have yet to realize that their traditional recruitment strategies do not effectively reach Latino candidates. Some of this ineffectiveness is due to the fact that Latinos often differ from their Anglo counterparts, as was highlighted in Chapter 3. Without revising current recruitment efforts and developing customized recruitment strategies specifically aimed at Latinos, organizations will continue to waste recruiting resources.

TRADITIONAL RECRUITING METHODS DO NOT WORK

There are a number of reasons why traditional recruitment strategies do not work within the Latino community. First, because of their ethnic diversity and difference in language and acculturation patterns, recruiting programs designed to appeal to a homogenous group will not reach many Latinos. For example, a job ad in a newspaper with a low Latino subscriber base is ineffective in reaching Latino applicants. Almost half of the states in the United States have a Latino population of less than 5 percent according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2006b). Employers in these states who rely on job ads in local newspapers as a way to recruit Latino ...