Diversity Recruiting Needs More Than a 6-Second Resume Scan

Dr. Marcia F. Robinson is a senior certified HR professional, diversity strategist, and curator of TheHBCUCareerCenter.com job board. She advises organizations on building inclusive talent pipelines and improving diversity recruiting outcomes.

You have probably done that activity on the back of magazines where you circle the differences between two nearly identical photos. 

It takes longer than you think—because real insight doesn’t come from a quick glance. 

Diversity recruiting is somewhat like that exercise and the traditional six-second resume screening rule just doesn’t cut it. When you’re evaluating people, especially those who may not reflect your own background or experiences, it will likely take time.

Let’s be real. Many honest recruiters will tell you they’ve tossed plenty of strong resumes—not always because of errors or missing skills, but often because the resume didn’t grab their attention in the first few seconds. That’s understandable in high-volume recruiting environments—but it’s incompatible with effective diversity recruiting.

So, if your team’s diversity recruiting strategy isn’t delivering the results you want, the fix may be simpler than you think: Start reading resumes for more than six seconds.

Why? Because when you’re committed to sourcing diverse talent, you need to pay attention to nuance—cultural cues, life paths, and nontraditional credentials that may not immediately resonate with your frame of reference. New characteristics, unfamiliar experiences, and different storytelling styles can take time to interpret—and that’s okay.

Let’s be honest: Can you really make an inclusive hiring decision with just a six-second resume scan? If your goal is true diversity recruiting, the answer is likely no.

Data confirms that applicants with African-sounding names face lower callback rates. That alone should cause us to pause and rethink what we’re really screening out in those six seconds.

Here’s what thoughtful resume screening in support of diversity recruiting may require from recruiters:

• Looking up acronyms of professional associations linked to diversity initiatives.

• Appreciating the depth of international experiences or multilingual skills.

• Understanding cultural significance behind Greek-letter organizations or community leadership roles.

• Exploring gaps in employment history or transitions in career direction without bias.

• Thinking beyond conventional career timelines or “typical” job titles.

In many workplaces, employee referrals are the top hiring source—but if your referral pipeline lacks diversity, you will likely hire more of the same.

If our objective is to build inclusive teams with diverse thought, backgrounds, and perspectives, we must question legacy habits like over-relying on quick resume judgments and employee networks that aren’t inclusive.

Diversity recruiting isn’t a speed game—it’s a relationship strategy. It requires more human-centered evaluation, not less.

If we’re serious about inclusion, we must stop telling people they have six seconds to earn our attention. We need to demonstrate through our processes that we care about who they are—not just if their resume is a slick, AI marketing piece. .

Let’s take the time. Let’s look harder. Let’s do better.