Successful diversity recruiting initiatives are driven by the straightforward business goals of finding, hiring and retaining the best employees. To weave diversity recruiting into the life of an organization, recruiters must fulfill their leadership role according to the best business practices of planning and executing.

The Monster Worldwide Diversity Enrichment team has established a best practices framework for diversity initiatives, recognizing nine hallmarks of effectiveness for assessing diversity performance. These nine hallmarks require alignment across an organization's strategic, outreach/communications and program development groups, and an organization with an active policy of inclusion will embrace that alignment.

Strategic Alignment

Strategically, the degree to which an organization demonstrates its commitment to diversity as a vital, operating tenet of its business is a good measure of its "diversity consciousness." The three hallmarks of this commitment are:

1: Conscious integration of the diversity business case into corporate strategy and operations. At the most immediate level, this commitment reveals itself through alignment of general workforce composition with the composition of its market segments. Enlightened departments are moving to ensure that their staffs (especially their customer-facing service staffs) accurately reflect their customer populations.

2: Acknowledgement of a broader conception of diversity and active approaches to all segments in the diversity population. Diversity leaders know that it's not enough to simply respond to the letter of the law, paying attention only to the customary "minority" segments of the workforce. They establish programs rooted in a broader definition of diversity -- reaching out to include women, individuals in different lifestyle and work-life categories, and the disabled and cognitively challenged, among others.

This holistic approach helps uproot the ingrained habits of mind that fuel exclusionist practices, and when you reach out to working mothers and single fathers, to gays and lesbians, to disabled workers and others, you demonstrate a commitment to moving beyond bad habits of the past.

3: Support/encouragement/enforcement of diversity among value chain partners. Companies that "get it" with regard to diversity make it a point to encourage all companies in their respective value chains -- suppliers, vendors, distributors, dealers and so on -- to get on board with effective diversity programs. This encouragement can range from consultation and knowledge sharing to strict enforcement and certification of quantitative standards.

Outreach and Communications Alignment

The energy and imagination that a corporation devotes to diversity audiences in every form of communication is a key sign of a healthy diversity initiative. Are your communications, publications and marketing aligned with your diversity initiatives? Do others agree? Three hallmarks of effectiveness in outreach and communications indicate a strong initiative:

4: Strategic imagination evidenced in diversity recruitment efforts. The depth, energy and commitment that an organization devotes to explicit diversity recruitment are key indicators of its appreciation for the value of diversity in its culture. Also critical: the innovation and creativity that your organization exhibits in executing diversity outreach -- from advertising to outreach to direct engagement to events and public relations. Do your department Web sites emphasize creative engagement, as exemplified by case studies, testimonials and chat/discussion frameworks?

5: Creative integration of "diversity consciousness" in human capital/recruitment outreach. Committed organizations take pains to weave diversity consciousness seamlessly into all outreach communications. An organization's recruitment communications and events should explicitly point to its diversity initiatives as a core value. Even more indicative of excellence in this category: the department whose market messages and brand imprint in all media illustrates a commitment to diversity.

6: External recognition of the organization's diversity excellence. There are scores of magazine and association lists that recognize and rank excellence in workforce diversity and discuss public admiration for organizations that excel in diversity recruiting. Achieving placement on these lists is a key hallmark, but it's the end of the process and can only be earned by meeting or exceeding your diversity goals. Again, in this real-world test, good intentions are not enough.

Program Alignment

The third measure of an organization's commitment is the range, depth and efficacy of the diversity effort itself, revealed in the programs and resources devoted to its diversity strategy. Three hallmarks of this program alignment point to its effectiveness:

7: Sponsorship of programs to enhance diversity at all levels of the organization. Percentages don't tell the whole story. Is your diversity initiative embraced and acted upon top-to-bottom in the organization? Diversity advisory councils and the presence of a chief diversity officer or equivalent position -- with real organizational clout -- are good indicators of this commitment. Also critical: cultivating internal programs such as inclusive leadership programs and mentoring initiatives.

8: Encouragement of grass-roots, employee-originated diversity activities, groups, programs and community outreach. Diversity-aware organizations strive for vertical integration of their programs, encouraging employee-originated interest groups, a high level of voluntarism, and alliances with community organizations, especially those that share diversity missions.

9: Integration of external alliances with diversity interest groups/events. This hallmark applies to organizations that actively participate in diversity-aligned national organizations and associations supportive of diversity and inclusiveness. By doing so, they demonstrate their commitment not only to their own workforces, but to external constituencies as well.

Like most recruiting, diversity hiring is easy to describe and hard to execute. Good intentions -- and even the occasional success -- are not sufficient proof of an effective diversity plan. If you've achieved most of these hallmarks of effectiveness, you're on the right track.

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