Word-of-mouth leads to more diverse workforce says report

A study from the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University has found referring friends and associates for job vacancies can help to create a diverse workforce.

Word-of-mouth recruitment, the most common way to fill jobs, had previously been thought to cause segregation at work: women tend to reach out to other women in their networks, and men do likewise.

But Professor Brian Rubineau has found a way to use word-of-mouth recruiting to integrate rather than segregate. Groups who recruit more actively tend to increase their numbers in their companies, even groups starting out in the minority. This finding can help various minority groups within companies, including those based on ethnicity.

Read full article: The Global Recruiter, 25 January, 2016