Recruiting Diverse Talent at Anser Advisory
Challenge
Anser Advisory’s workforce is made up of technical experts and seasoned industry professionals. The majority of our employees possess a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or other related technical field. We compete with larger firms for the best of the best, and operate in regional markets where women and other diverse candidates are highly sought after. Our primary challenge is to find a way to differentiate Anser Advisory and demonstrate our commitment to hiring diverse candidates.
Actions
Anser Advisory currently sponsors 7 employees through a variety of Visa sponsorships. We work with a dedicated immigration attorney and the HR team is actively engaged in the visa support for our employees. While other employers shy away from formal Visa sponsorships due to the time and expense commitments, Anser has embraced the support for these employees. Our experience has been that these candidates provide a level of expertise and talent that strengthens our existing team and allows us to tap into a diverse talent pool.
Outcomes
We have found that word-of-mouth from our existing employees and Visa-based candidates, has rapidly spread in key markets. Several critical hires have been made in the past few months because we have openly discussed our support for Visa sponsorship during the interview process. Existing team members that we are currently sponsoring have referred additional high-caliber candidates to us. Another side benefit of the formal Visa sponsorship has been the higher retention rate of employees whom we have supported through the process. They are extremely appreciative of the firm’s efforts, particularly it’s support and understanding through a challenging process. Knowing that the firm is committed to Visa support has been very comforting to our employees and allowed them to focus on what they do best. We anticipate continuing the Visa support in the future.
Contact
Marlene Humbert, SVP of HR
Quote
Our business exists as a combination of the individual and diverse backgrounds and talents of each of our employees. One of our founding core values is to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organization. However, when we evaluate how well we are living this value day in and day out, and whether we are an upper quartile performer in DE&I the way that we are in so many other areas of our business, it is clear that we are not.
We have more work to do as an organization to elevate how we foster diversity, equity, and inclusion within our own organization, and also to foster diversity, equity and inclusion in our industry as a whole, and in the communities in which we operate.
I am making the CEO Action Pledge in order to publicly make me and our entire organization accountable to being a leader in achieving DE&I, and to learn from and share with other organizations and CEO’s committed to the same goal.