Revitalizing Recruitment: Portland Opera's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: The Job Posting Playbook

Portland Opera, a respected nonprofit performing arts theater dedicated to community enrichment and diversity, aimed to improve their recruitment and hiring procedures by ensuring that job listings utilized inclusive language to draw a diverse range of applicants, starting with the Accounting Specialist position. Confronted with outdated job ads and resource constraints, they turned to R2R’s Job Posting Playbook (JPP) to attract a diverse and competitive talent pool within their budget limitations.

Portland Opera faced significant recruitment hurdles for the Accounting Specialist role due to an outdated and disengaging job posting. Limited resources compounded the challenge of conveying their employer brand and commitment to diversity and inclusion, as the posting lacked appeal and inclusive language. Sole reliance on a single job posting platform further restricted visibility. Urgent action was required to modernize the job posting strategy, align it with organizational values, and attract a diverse pool of qualified candidates within budget constraints.

Through a 45-minute strategy session and swift 72-hour turnaround time, R2R delivered a “Job Posting Playbook” outlining a step-by-step process to drive results. Tailored for the Accounting Specialist role, the JPP included a mobile-friendly job posting designed to stand out and emphasize a strong commitment to diversity and inclusivity through carefully crafted language and gender decoder analytics. Additionally, the JPP offered social media content and guidance to enhance job posting visibility, recommended multiple job posting platforms for broader exposure, provided candidate matching profiles, and offered custom Boolean search strings to support internal outreach efforts.

R2R’s engagement with Portland Opera yielded remarkable results. By strategically repositioning the Accounting Specialist job posting to more effectively reflect the organization’s employment brand, company culture, and role details, its visibility was expanded to resonate with more diverse talent, aligning with Portland Opera’s commitment to DEI. These efforts culminated in the successful hiring of an Accounting Specialist. Additionally, the job posting framework developed by R2R has been adopted for all company-wide job postings, reflecting its scalability and effectiveness. The broader success of this cost-effective engagement underscores larger organizational endorsement and signifies R2R’s lasting impact on Portland Opera’s recruitment practices and growth trajectory.