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Regulators and policy makers have long recognized the importance of a diverse workforce to enhance social and economic opportunities for women and minorities who have been traditionally underrepresented in the workforce. Federal government, through legislation, attempted to improve diversity in organizations. Consequently, companies began viewing diversity in recruiting as a compliance issue and tended to depend on legal advice in initiating policies that demonstrated compliance. More recently, companies recognized that a diverse workforce was better for business and began imparting diversity training and mentoring with limited success. Based on skill set evaluation and selection decision data involving potential entry-level sales candidates, this research provides important insights to organizations that seek to hire diverse workforce. The study focused on evaluation of skill set and hiring decisions where candidate-recruiter pair was matched and mis-matched on racioethnicity and gender. Results from our study would help companies with recruiting practices for entry level positions in sales that would actually contribute to a diverse workforce.

Sales, Marketing, Diversity