Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Alberto Mariño has a passion for elevating Latino employees in the workforce, but when he tried recruiting Latino candidates for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in Washington, DC, he kept hitting roadblocks.
Challenge
According to a 2015 McKinsey & Company study, ethnically diverse companies are 35 percent more likely to outperform their national industry median. Knowing this, Mariño, senior sourcing officer of diversity and inclusion for WMATA, has worked tirelessly to find qualified Latino candidates to fill important positions at his company.
He has worked with local media outlets, posting frequently about job openings on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, in addition to consistently updating job boards devoted to the transportation industry, and purchasing advertisements in The Washington Post. He even spearheaded an outreach program called “Metro Trabajo” at WMATA, aimed at recruiting diverse candidates for roles within the organization. But these methods were either complicated, expensive, or didn’t yield a strong enough return on investment for his money and effort.
When the opportunity to be featured in Hispanic Executive magazine presented itself, Mariño thought it was the chance he needed to reach a national audience of Latino professionals.
Solution
Mariño’s feature in Hispanic Executive allowed him to highlight his dedication to diversity and his accomplishments at WMATA in promoting minority employees.
From the early stages of his feature’s conception, Mariño worked with our team to refine his message and emphasize precisely what he wanted to say—in contrast to the broad message he was forced to deliver with other publications. That customized experience gave Mariño the ability to showcase his accomplishments in-depth.
Mariño’s article (“Diversity Conductor”, link) underscores his commitment to maintaining a multicultural workplace in the transportation industry. Mariño highlights various initiatives he’s started at WMATA such as Metro Trabajo, in addition to the positive impact he’s already had on Latino employees in the DC area.
Outcome
The response to the article was much greater than any of Mariño’s previous efforts and significantly expanded his candidate pipeline, he says.
Shortly after the feature’s publication, the story garnered more than ten thousand views on his LinkedIn page and more than one hundred shares. The story is so popular that Mariño continues to post the article to social media channels weekly.
In addition, Mariño also receives ten to fifteen emails per day from minority candidates interested in careers with WMATA, he says. These job seekers reference his article in Hispanic Executive as a primary reason for reaching out and piquing their interest in working at the company, he says.
Mariño also works with several different organizations that refer potential employees to him based on his current needs. After his feature was published, referrals from his existing partners increased dramatically, and Mariño even fielded offers from new partners hoping to work with him, he says.
Mariño has not only found his story to be a valuable short-term recruiting tool, it’s becoming clear to him that it is something he can leverage long into the future to attract highly qualified, diverse candidates to work alongside him.