Hispanic Recruiting: Is There Something To It?

The short answer is YES. Today in North Carolina, we have Latinos looking for jobs but working below their capabilities. At the same time, businesses are desperate to hire them.

Here are some reasons for this paradox:

• Mainstream companies posts their jobs in places where Latinos don’t look: Web sites, mainstream newspapers, and bulletin boards are probably not as visited as often by the Hispanic community as they are by other communities. Putting a job opening on-line and expecting a host of Latino people to apply for it is unrealistic. In general, this type of media will only take you to the Hispanic “leadership” and they would have to forward your message to the community for anyone to know about it. You have a much better chance of recruiting Latinos if you are involved with the community.

• Typical job requirements are not always easy and sometimes impossible to meet by foreigners. The idea of Alma Maters sending official transcripts is unknown by most Latin American institutions of higher education, and it is nearly impossible to obtain one. If you really need that kind of information, you need to point out that there are services in the United States that will take photocopies of official education documents, interpret and translate them to English, and provide the information you need. Keep in mind that this has a cost for your job candidate, and he/she may not be able to afford it.

• Latinos prefer to know a bit about the people they will be working for, so getting a job opening through a family member or a friend is best. Getting your ad through a trustworthy person in the community may make the candidate make an extra effort to fulfill your recruiting needs, even at a cost to them. If they could get first-hand information of the type of operation you run, you may be better off.

• In the interviewing process, often mainstream companies do not have the adequate tools to judge a Latino person’s skills. The type of test and interviewing techniques are not the same in the US as they are in Latin America. Actually, recruiting in Latin America resembles more closely recruiting in Europe. There are tests that remove the language barrier altogether. The important thing is to get people with enough experience to interpret them properly.

• Latinos are sought often for their cultural and language skills, but afterward are expected to “act American” in the workplace. So, are you really looking for Hispanic people? Keep in mind that Hispanics are not Americans in Hispanic costume. We are different in many ways and several of those ways show up loud and clear in the job environment. It is important to remember things like political correctness, a clear line between work life and personal life, and expected work behavior (to name a few) may not be common ground between you and your candidate. Consider training yourself and your current employees on cultural competence before recruiting for Hispanic people. Also, consider training your Hispanic new employees in what you consider to be the “American way” of performing in the workplace. If you do so, you will all have a much better shot at success.