Get advice from the very best. Listen to tips from a real pro about how you can recruit top talent.

Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson, the former director of diversity for Disney ABC Cable Networks Group, witnessed just about everything over several decades spent in the HR industry before retiring recently.

After spending 35 years with Sempra Energy, where she launched and led the company's diversity department, Fontenot-Jamerson headed diversity at HealthNet and then landed at ABC in 2005, where she led that company's diversity initiatives for three years.

While at ABC, Fontenot-Jamerson was responsible for creating the means to recruit and retain executives of color and formed a human-resources diversity task force that examined how ABC not only communicated its staffing needs but also introduced custom-designed diversity training for the HR team. 

Get more advice from other successful women in the upcoming March 2008 issue of DiversityInc magazine, all about "women we love."

With years of experience under her belt, Fontenot-Jamerson offered tips to recruiters on how to best find, cultivate and retain the best talent for their companies. Below are some specific tips, which you can listen to by clicking on the audio icons below.

1. You desperately want to find the right job candidate to fill that critically important position. What must the right candidate bring to the table? Experience and technical skills are only the start, says Fontenot-Jamerson.

Click the audio icon to find out what sets one candidate apart from the rest in her mind. [IMG]

2. Above all other qualities, Fontenot-Jamerson says she's always looked for one characteristic in particular when interviewing candidates.

Click on the audio icon to hear what it is.

3. Ever find yourself face-to-face with a candidate that's absolutely perfect on paper but a nightmare in person? One particular job candidate that Fontenot-Jamerson interviewed had a double Ph.D. and all the requisite skills, but when they met in person … disaster.

Click on the audio icon to see how the interview went from a dream scenario to a nightmare.

4. Job candidates must be on their best behavior during interviews. But guess what--so must recruiters. If you're going to attract the best talent, you must be aware of any hidden biases they might bring to the table that might scare off potential job candidates.

Listen to why Fontenot-Jamerson says this is critically important.  

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