“Talent first, location second” hiring approach widen talent pool

It is a competitive talent market out there. And while the pool of possible candidates grow smaller, a virtual recruiting platform suggests that focusing on future hires’ suitability for the roles instead of their geographical location, keeps the pool teeming with talent. 

Byron Slosar, the CEO and founder of HIVE Diversity, a virtual recruiting platform, says a growing number of companies the platform works with are now focusing their hiring on “talent first, location second.” 

“They’re  widening their searches for talent beyond their office’s zip code and attracting applicants that, in a pre-pandemic world, might have been shut out from those opportunities,” he adds.

Remote hiring is an emerging trend that is quickly replacing the traditional hiring process. In fact, HIVE Diversty’s executive vice president of business development Alexis Mclaughlin, is a remote hire.  

Since 2021, Mclaughin who lives in Austin, Texas remotely reports for work in HIVE Diversity which is headquartered in New York City. 

A survey by Future Forum also found that while this approach widens the talent pool it also gives equality opportunities to employees of different backgrounds and decent. 

Flexible work policies allow companies to broaden their prospective talent scope and improve the work experience for their existing employees of color, thus boosting retention and overall culture, Sheela Subramanian, the vice president of the Future Forum, Slack’s research consortium said in an interview with CNBC.

Future Forum’s April 2022 pulse survey, which includes responses from over 10,000 knowledge workers in the US, France, Germany and other countries found that the desire for flexibility remains strongest among underrepresented groups. In the U.S., 81% of Hispanic/Latinx workers, 82% of Asian/Asian American and 79% Black workers prefer a hybrid of remote work arrangement compared to 77% of white workers.

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