The second webinar of Amsterdam – Divers & Inclusive (ADI) took place on Thursday 18 February 2021. This webinar focused on inclusive recruitment. With the central question: how and where do Amsterdam entrepreneurs find staff from diverse backgrounds? The programme consisted of speakers sharing their personal stories, interspersed with employers from ADI’s network giving practical tips. Over 120 participants from various sectors took part. Watch* the entire webinar back below!
*The subtitle function of YouTube is applicable.
https://youtu.be/mjtKMJmHiRQ Host Shivan Shazad, policy advisor at ADI and Diversity in Business/Socio-Economic Council, introduced the webinar with a presentation mentioning the importance of a good recruitment plan.
To reach other applicant groups, it is essential to use other channels, such as alternative recruitment agencies and strategies. It is also important to use social media channels smarter, by mapping out which groups you want to reach in advance and having a clear idea of where to find them. Watch Shivan Shazad’s slides via this link.
Download the Diversity in Business knowledge document ‘Diverse recruitment and selection’ here.
After the introduction, five guest speakers told about their practical experiences, shared their knowledge and gave recommendations on how to get diverse staff into work.
Block 1: Inclusive recruitment, how not to do it better
First guest speaker was Omar Boutrhirhacht (12.00). Omar is a student of public administration at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and an Amsterdam native with a migration background. Omar explained the barriers he encountered in finding an internship. Eventually, Omar started an internship at the municipality of Amsterdam for the Nieuw-West district, where, together with project officer Suzan de Jong (17.15), he devised the Banenplan for young people from Nieuw-West. This plan was set up to prepare Amsterdam youth with a migration background for a job, by having them participate in an academy and mentoring programme.
View Suzan de Jong’s slides via this link.
Block 2: Inclusive recruitment, how can it be done?
Then it was the turn of Amsterdam-Moroccan Souad el Markhous (27.22). Souad is currently a commercial sales specialist at construction company Van der Leij and she has several awards to her name. But the road to the top was definitely not easy. During the webinar, Souad shared her inspiring story of how she started as a cleaner with no training and eventually rose to the position of managing director, saving her beloved construction company from bankruptcy. Finally, Niels Agterberg of Everyday Heroes and Niels van Buren of SWINK (40.16) told about their collaboration to help people with autism find work through Power Certificates. SWINK is social enterprise focused on online services. 70% of employees at SWINK have autism. Director Niels sees that people with autism fail, more often than not, to find a job. As a result, 54% of this group is unemployed. As a company in online services, SWINK actually values the talent of these employees. However, this requires some degree of rethinking, for example in adapting work environments.
View slides by Niels Agterberg & Niels van Buren via this link.
This webinar was the second webinar of a five-part series focusing on practical tips for diverse and inclusive SMEs. This webinar was the second webinar of a five-part series focusing on practical tips for diverse and inclusive SMEs.