Corporate Profiles in Diversity: Newell Rubbermaid

Mike Rickheim is the Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition for the international consumer products giant Newell Rubbermaid, which employs a global workforce of nearly 30,000 employees. He recently sat down with LatPro to discuss Newell Rubbermaid’s perspective on diversity recruiting and its future goals for Hispanic talent acquisition. Below is an excerpt of his interview, but you can read the entire interview here.

First, can you tell us a little about your own background and history with Newell Rubbermaid?

I joined the organization in 2003, and I am currently Vice President - Global Talent Acquisition for Newell Rubbermaid, a Fortune 500 consumer products marketer. In this role I am responsible for developing and improving worldwide talent acquisition efforts and aligning with global business unit hiring objectives. Our organization takes a very aggressive approach to talent acquisition, and we do nearly all of our hiring through our internal recruitment efforts - from entry-level to executive and everything in between.

What challenges have you encountered in recruiting Hispanic employees? What methods have you found to be most effective for recruiting multicultural candidates?

In our values, we state that “the success of our company starts with our people,” so we recognize how important talent acquisition is to our overall success. Our goal is to look and think like our consumers. Our product line is broad - ranging from office products to strollers and car seats to cookware to hand tools and accessories and beyond. The Hispanic consumer has an increasingly large impact on each of our businesses, and this makes our Hispanic recruitment efforts that much more important. We continue to challenge ourselves to identify creative channels to source, screen, and secure top Hispanic talent.