OSRAM SYLVANIA has been designing and manufacturing innovative lighting products for over 100 years. Throughout its rich history, the company has adapted to changing times, markets and customers, and this is also reflected in their recruiting practices. Maureen Crawford, manager of talent acquisition, sheds new light on how OSRAM SYLVANIA’s diversity initiatives make the company a more innovative and inclusive place to work.

Maureen Crawford Manager of Talent Acquisition, OSRAM SYLVANIA

What challenges have you encountered in recruiting Hispanic employees? What methods have you found to be most effective for recruiting multicultural candidates?
I always like to ensure that diversity recruiting is part of what we do all the time. I’m concerned when companies think of diversity recruiting as an afterthought or as a different recruiting category. Every job, every opening, every promotion needs to be thought of as an opportunity for diversity recruiting, because if you don’t have a diverse pool of candidates, you don’t have a good pool of talent, in my opinion.

One of the challenges of diversity recruiting is making sure your company isn’t limiting the applicant pool to candidates who just organically find you. You have to go out and look for candidates who will bring a wealth of diverse characteristics to the company and to the opening.

How do you define and meet your diversity goals and objectives?
For every single job opening we want to make sure we have a diverse applicant pool. If I have a position where only women have applied, for example, I don’t consider that successful recruiting, for me or anyone in my department. Candidate pools need to be diverse and need to reflect the demographic characteristics of the overall population. I do most of my recruiting within the contiguous United States, so the pool needs to mirror the diversity found across the U.S.

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It’s a completely different thing to say that you speak Spanish versus saying you are bilingual or multicultural. We don’t want people to minimize that experience.

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Are minority hiring and retention metrics tied to your professional recruitment staff? How do you measure success?
First, I want to talk about how we define metrics. Success for OSRAM SYLVANIA is having a candidate pool for every job that reflects the demographics of all available candidates. It is not a quota. I look at the pools to make sure they are accurate representations of what is available out there. If a candidate pool is not representative, then my job as a recruiter is not finished yet. As we work with the recruiters on our staff, we really talk to them about the importance of making sure the pool reflects the available demographic.

We determine if our candidate pools are representative by looking at demographic statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as U.S. Census data. It’s a very tight process to make sure we know exactly what we are looking for.

We measure success by finding the best talent for the best jobs. We want to find the most innovative, wonderful people to come work at the most wonderful, innovative company.

What do you say to those who feel that diversity programs are more about complying with EEO requirements and public image, rather than a real dedication to finding diverse candidates?
Well, if somebody starts to have that conversation with me, we probably won’t end the discussion for years and years. I think people need to truly understand the business case for diversity, and why diversity is important. If you want to have the best candidates, but a job is only getting a certain type of applicant, then you aren’t picking from the best talent available, you are just picking from the best who applied. This is why companies have to go outside the box and expand their efforts to source applicants and contact candidates directly, reaching out to find the best talent instead of only considering those candidates who apply.

What initiatives exist to help your current workforce value diversity?
We have too many to name them all, but let me give you a few highlights.

The OSRAM SYLVANIA affinity group network is something I’m really proud of. We are a national trendsetter in terms of affinity groups. Our affinity groups have objectives directly related to the business, and one of those objectives is the recruiting and retention of new employees, so affinity groups really help my department out a lot. Other affinity group objectives include personal and professional development, marketing and brand awareness, and community involvement.

The interesting thing about our affinity groups is that they are funded by the company and operate on company time. The Latino Alliance for Motivation and Promotion is one of our groups, but it does not only include and benefit Hispanic or Latino employees. Many people who do not identify themselves as Latino are involved with this group because they are interested in issues related to Latino culture in terms of co-worker, customer and client relationships. The affinity groups serve not only as a support group but also as a cross-cultural education group and as a business resource.

In addition to the affinity groups, we have a formal mentoring program that is brilliant. It pairs new employees with more seasoned employees and together they work in a structured program; they don’t just get together for lunch once a quarter. This is another program that works really well for us.

How does your employee onboarding process help promote an inclusive atmosphere for diverse employees right from the start?
This is something I’m very proud of. Onboarding at some companies is limited to “Here’s your ID, and this is when we take lunch.” The onboarding process at OSRAM SYLVANIA is really a wonderful process. It includes a diversity program that all new employees take, including an introduction to our seven affinity groups. We make sure that folks know what role those affinity groups play and how to access them.

Many companies struggle to bring diversity to all areas. Has OSRAM SYLVANIA been successful in achieving diversity in upper management? How were you able to achieve this?
We have been doing an excellent job in terms of promoting diversity from within, and also looking for people to feed that pipeline. Most companies that focus on hiring internally make the mistake of thinking: “We need to hire a senior manager in five years, but we don’t have to think about it right now.” In fact, quite the opposite is true. To be successful, you always have to be thinking about feeding the pipeline, especially if you have a company culture that promotes from within.

One of the things that is so remarkable about OSRAM SYLVANIA is our strategic thinking. We’re taking a look at millenials who are entering the workforce now and also taking a look at people retiring in the next five, 10, or 20 years, making sure there are programs to help people make those transitions.

One such program we have is called the Program for Emerging Professionals, which is for people who have been with the company for three to seven years, and who have shown high levels of talent and potential. They go to a special year-long series of workshops and participate in one on one career counseling with our Talent Acqusition staff. The goal is to help the participants that help them make the transition to that next level.

What is your company’s leadership commitment and involvement in diversity? How has the CEO or other top officer of the company embraced or championed diversity?
I think that without CEO-level commitment to diversity – true commitment, not lip-service commitment – it doesn’t actually happen. The great thing about our leadership is they actualize their commitment to diversity through their work. Many of our executives serve as official advisors for our affinity groups or participate in affinity groups themselves.

OSRAM SYLVANIA’s CEO, Charlie Jerabek, is very engaged in community affairs and really cares about what is going on in our diversity initiatives, particularly in terms of recruiting and retention. He is intimately aware of what happens and gets involved. He doesn’t just mention diversity in the corporate slideshow; he lives it every day. He participates in the activities, and he leads the initiatives.

What would you say to Latino candidates applying to OSRAM SYLVANIA today? What can they do to use their language and cultural skills to their best advantage?
When candidates have bilingual, trilingual or multilingual skills and/or multicultural experience, they have to highlight that. Often I see resumes that merely say the candidate ‘speaks Spanish’. It’s a completely different thing to say that you speak Spanish versus saying you are bilingual or multicultural. We don’t want people to minimize that experience.

I also like to see people highlight how their language and cultural experiences are a good fit for my business in their cover letters. OSRAM SYLVANIA literally has operations all over the world, and if people take just a few minutes to research our company they could say, “I know you have extensive operations in Mexico, and I think my language abilities and business acumen in that area of the world is going to be valuable to your company.” I can certainly extrapolate that from a candidate’s application, but I don’t see candidates celebrating the value that these skills bring to the workplace enough.

It makes me very sad that some professionals don’t realize how special and valuable their language and cultural skills are. The candidates who are self-aware, and who are able to articulate the value that they bring to the business, really separate themselves from other candidates who just say “I speak Spanish.”

What do you want prospective diverse employees to know about OSRAM SYLVANIA and its commitment to diversity?
You can’t find another company that truly lives and breathes diversity like OSRAM SYLVANIA. I think you can find companies that look good on paper and have great pictures on their website, but I really encourage candidates to ask questions of any person they interview with. When you ask about the company’s commitment to diversity, you may get the general canned company response, but then ask, “How have you personally supported that commitment to diversity today (or this week or this month)?”

If you are interviewing with someone at a company who can’t easily answer that question, then I would be concerned. Every single person at OSRAM SYLVANIA can tell you how they have personally committed to our diversity mission.

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