Increasing workplace diversity: Evidence from a recruiting experiment at a Fortune 500 company

In the United States, nearly 90 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are white males. To increase diversity in the workplace, Christina Rott and other researchers found a simple and cost-efficient alternative to quotas and expensive campaigns: sending prospective applicants a message about how the company values diversity among its employees. The method more than doubled applications from and offers to African Americans and Hispanics – without dissuading majority candidates from applying. The implications of this study extend to a broader range of environments where lack of diversity is a concern.

Published as: Jeffrey A. Flory, Andreas Leibbrandt, and Olga Stoddard (2021). Increasing workplace diversity: Evidence from a recruiting experiment at a Fortune 500 company, Journal of Human Resources, 56(1), pp. 73 - 92.