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CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION

Protocol for the presentation of colors.

By Jennifer Holik

• Proper Display of Flags on Three Flagpoles

The presentation of colors is a ceremony presenting or retiring a flag. The "colors" refer to a flag. A color guard, consisting of two honor guards and two flag bearers, presents or retires the colors. A Sergeant-at-Arms dictates the orders during the ceremony. Proper respect should be given to the colors at all times during the ceremony.

Officer's Roles

The presiding officer or designated appointee of an organization announces that the colors will be presented. Guests rise and the officer asks that the colors to be presented. The Sergeant gives the orders to the honor guard and flag bearers. He calls the group to attention before marching to the front of the room to face the appointed officer. The officer will signal that the colors should be presented, and the Sergeant gives the order.

Presenting the Colors on a Stage

The flag bearers carry the flags in a holster and march forward in step with the other bearers. The bearers stop marching at a designated spot and wait for a "halt" command from the Sergeant. The flag bearers proceed to the center of the stage where the flags will be placed. The honor guard remains behind the flag bearers. The flag bearer takes two steps forward and waits for the next flag bearer to step forward. The bearer faces left while the other bearer faces right. The flag bearers place the flags in stands and take a step backwards. The flags are placed on a stage to the right of a speaker, preferably at the same height as the speaker.

Presenting the Colors on the Floor

When a stage is not available, the flags must be placed in flag holders on the floor. The flags must be placed to the left of the speaker. The honor guard remains at attention while the flag bearers to march in a line toward the flag holders. One bearer then faces right while the other bearer faces left. The flag bearers place the flags in the stands and take a step backwards.

The End of Presentation

When the colors have been presented, the group faces the flags and stands at attention. Honor is given to the flag, whether it is a salute, standing at attention or removal of hats and placing hands over hearts. The Pledge of Allegiance is recited and the color guard retreats upon orders from the Sergeant.

• Cornell: Presentation of Colors (PDF)

Jennifer Holik, a professional genealogist, has been writing professionally since 2009. She writes for Chicago-area genealogy society publications. Holik has a Bachelor of Arts in history from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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The Psychology of Color in Recruitment

• Advertising & Marketing
• Agency Marketing
• Employee Branding
• Human Resources
• Outsourcing
• Recruiting & Sourcing Types
• Search Techniques
• Social Sourcing & Recruiting
• Source the Web

You might have already learned about how typography influences readers and how people could be influenced through different content formats .

But did it ever occur to you that there is a connection between colors and the reactions you can obtain from your reader, candidates or customer niche?

If this isn’t an aspect you have considered so far, you have to start taking it into account when it comes to your marketing and branding strategies. You no longer have to choose certain colors for a marketing campaign, for example, just because you think they look nice, as you also have in mind the effects they will trigger in the mind of the audience.

Thus, the following information will prove to be more than useful if you want to create a stronger brand and marketing campaigns that will reach their target as planned. So, let us take a closer look at human behavior, perception, and interpretation of colors and how these could help your business thrive.

Conventional psychologists dismiss any role of color in influencing human personality, yet psychiatrists use color tests in conjunction with other tests to determine personality. While physiological responses to colors are part of the human experience, the evidence linking specific colors to specific responses is inconclusive (Kaiser, 1984) (source: Impact of color on marketing ).

The purpose of color psychology is to observe the reactions and behaviors triggered by the visual impact of a certain color. Thus, researchers noticed that human emotions and feelings could be influenced, more or less, by the colors that surround them.

Of course, the results differ according to personal beliefs and traditions, so the psychology of the local audience must be known to best interpret these results. As an example, white is seen as a sign of innocence and purity in Western countries while in the East it is a color used for funerals and mourning. In Inuit communities, white is so important that it has 17 words to describe it, each with a different meaning.

In a cross-cultural study, Wiegersma and Van der Elst (1988) found that blue was the most preferred color in general across cultures. Colors have various meanings in different cultures, but some colors, like black, always have a negative connotation associated with it, dating back to 2300 BC.

It would be highly useful to take these details into account as well when creating a color theme for your company’s marketing strategy or if you are choosing the color for your next job advert.

Colors and Human Psychology

But do colors affect human psychology? If yes, how are our mood and state of mind, for instance, affected by colors? Let us take the most important colors and see what kind of emotions they can evoke and which brands have chosen to use them.

• Yellow – inspires warmth, optimism, brightness, happiness, and can be found in the logos of Nikon, McDonald’s, IKEA, and Shell;
• Blue – makes people think about strength, reliability, trust, and dependability, and it can be seen in the logos of Dell, HP, Oral-B, Vimeo, Pfizer, Lowe’s, and NASA.
• Green – inspires peace, health, liveliness, and natural growth, and it is the chosen color of Animal Planet, Tropicana, Spotify, and Range Rover;
• Orange – is a color that screams out confidence, freshness, friendliness, and joy, and it is used by brands like Amazon, Fanta, Harley-Davidson, and Mozilla Firefox;
• Red – represents boldness, excitement, and a youthful spirit, and can be seen in logos like Coca-Cola, Virgin, Nintendo, Kmart, CNN, and Lego;
• Purple – is the color of creativity, of wisdom, and imagination, being used by brands like Yahoo!, Cadbury, Barbie, Taco Bell, and Hallmark;
• Grey – because it is a neutral color, it inspires calm, tolerance, and equilibrium, being a color preferred in the logos of Apple, Honda, Wikipedia, Puma, and Nike.

There are many studies about colors and their effect on the human mind, but there is one interesting piece of information that caught my attention. The University of Melbourne did a study that shows that seeing green boosts your concentration. Glancing at a grassy green roof for only 40 seconds markedly boosts the concentration of test subjects. The study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology , showed that looking at an image of nature for less than a minute was all it took to help people perform better on their task. Dr. Lee and her team also did a study of how a greener workplace improves mood and performance.

Also, Dr. Chris Knight from Exeter University found employees were 15 percent more productive when even just a couple of house plants were brought into the office.

Effect of Colors

While the colors we choose won’t trigger miracles, as the reactions they trigger also rely on the personal experiences of each person, they can help a company increase its sales. So, it won’t be in vain to pay a bit of attention to this aspect and choose the right color for the marketing of a product and brand.

According to the Kissmetric, 85% of shoppers place color as a primary reason for why they buy a particular product. Yes, when facing a new product or a variety of products on an aisle, people guide themselves with the help of colors to make the choice that appears to be most suitable for them. Of course, each client will pick the color that appeals most in their case, but the point is that the chosen color will do its job right. And 93% of shoppers place visual appeal above sound, smell, and texture when buying a product.

Colors and Company Brand

It is also estimated that brand recognition increases by 80% with color (source: University of Loyola ).

You have to keep in mind that people appreciate more the brands that they can recognize with ease, which makes the chosen color even more important. When you create a new job ad or banner, you need to use a color that will help your brand stand out from the crowd while delivering the message you want to convey and attract customers toward your product.

Thus, you will have to see what colors your competitors are using and opt for an entirely different color, but you should keep using the color that is your company color so people will easily connect the color with your brand. You want people to know which brand is yours and which is your competitor’s.

After all, it would be a shame if people applied for a job advertised by your competitor thinking that they were applying to your ad and the other way around. Yes, choosing the right color can be a challenge, but you need to so that people will buy your product or apply for your job.

When choosing brand colors, it’s important to consider brand personality based on what color suits the characteristics of your product/company.

That’s why is important to know that the  personality of a brand is made out of several traits, as pointed out by Professor Jennifer Aaker, who teaches at Stanford and is a psychologist as well. Thus, there is sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Of course, a brand can reflect more than one of these traits, but, as a general rule, they are usually governed by one main trait.

When creating the personality of your brand, it is always best to convey what you think it transmits, rather than just going with the flow and doing what others do.

Just like the traits, which can be multiple, colors can also have a variety of meanings. For example, green is considered suitable for products that are natural, promote good health or are related to the outdoors, but it can also represent money and financial services, for example.

The main point is that you shouldn’t be limited to going in one single direction when it comes to choosing the right color for your brand and products. As long as you have a color that is different from the ones used by your competitors, manages to stir the reactions you want it to stir, at least to a large percentage of your customers, and fits your brand’s profile and personality, then the color you chose is right, even if it doesn’t fit with the stereotypes.

Even if color psychology still needs more research and studies, we cannot disregard the importance of colors in our lives. We see colors, and we love them, each one of them giving us a particular feeling and state of mind. If you use this aspect in your marketing strategies and the presentation of your brand and products, you will significantly increase your rate of success.

If you thought that choosing colors for your business was something random, now you have something to think about. Use the way people perceive and react to colors in favor of your company, and you will not regret doing so. Numbers are already showing that we are more prone to buying the products that appear most appealing to us. Thus, if you know the customer niche your brand addresses, then you will manage to find the color that is most attractive in their eyes. The right color will also help you to raise the number of applicants for your jobs or number of readers of your posts and articles.

Don’t forget that not everybody can see colors in the same way. That’s why colors can have a different impact on people.

10 Easy Tips for Recruiting People of Color [or BIPOC]

A key focus for companies is on how to recruit people of color. We found 10 easy tips for recruiting people of color (POC) or Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC).  

1. Create diversity goals to recruit applicants of color

Diversity and inclusion goals, especially for hiring people of color, can be documented and shared publicly to get more visibility for your organization. Here are a few examples we found and added to our list of  25+ Examples of Awesome Diversity Goals :

• Facebook commits to a 30% increase in the number of people of color in leadership positions over the next five years.
• Levi Strauss & Co. strives to have 50% of candidates interviewing for jobs be people of color.
• RBC is donating millions of dollars to BIPOC, committing 40% of summer opportunities to BIPOC youth, establishing and measuring internship and new hire goals, and increasing Black and indigenous executive representation by 10%.

If you are committed to recruiting people of color, create specific goals that support hiring from the BIPOC community.  

2. Create a diversity program that focuses on how to recruit people of color

Creating a diversity program is a great way to kickstart support POC hiring. Here are a few ideas on how to recruit and retain people of color:

• Gather data — assess diversity in your current workforce related to people of color
• Identify areas of concern — find areas of underrepresentation that need to be addressed
• Create objectives — outline areas of focus for recruiting women and people of color
• Create and support ERGs — collaborate with your workforce to create new, or partner with existing, BIPOC Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
• Get support from BIPOC leaders — have BIPOC leaders help drive diversity efforts that are focused on hiring POC
• Implement inclusive hiring — identify and use tools that help support POC hiring
• Invest in social invents — hold events that allow employees from all levels to interact and feel included

3. Create a diversity report

After creating a diversity program, you might find specific needs related to recruiting people of color in your organization. To act on these needs, you can create a diversity report as a benchmark.

A diversity report helps your organization become more transparent about diversity and can help attract more Black Indigenous People of Color. Earlier this year, we found  10 Examples of an Awesome Diversity Report . You can use these as a guide.

Both Target and Uber share data on the percentage of their employees who identify as people of color. Gathering similar data and creating comparison charts can help you identify which departments might need more focus on recruiting people of color.  

4. Use diversity job boards & diversity recruiting websites for POC hiring

There are loads of job boards and diversity recruiting websites that help support recruiting people of color. These websites have diversity blog content, information on diversity job fairs, and list job openings for people of color. Here are just a few we listed in  5 Great Diversity Recruiting Websites :

• Black Career Network
• Diversityjobs.com 
• Hispanic/Latino Professionals Association (HLPA)

If your goal is recruiting people of color, listing your job postings on these job boards could increase visibility in the BIPOC community. Diversity job fairs also are a great way to reach potential POC candidates.  

5. Create an EEO statement for job postings to recruit applicants of color

Creating an EEO statement that mentions people of color (POC) or Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) will not only keep you in compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), but it will make sure job postings stand out to diverse groups. Knowing your company supports diversity and underrepresented groups could increase your applicant pool.

Code for America mentions People of Color in their EEO Statement:

“Code for America values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color , LGBT individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. Code for America is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.”

Along with an EEO statement that supports POC hiring, you can list benefits in your job postings that support Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC). Like BIPOC ERGs, mental health services, or other company programs that support people of color.

(Note: For other examples of EEO statement samples that support diversity as a whole, check out our blog  10 Samples of an Effective EEO Statement .)  

6. Invest in internships for students of color

Ongig client Peak6 partners with the Greenwood project to create financial internships for people of color.

“Greenwood Project introduces Black and Latinx students to careers within the financial industry via paid summer internships, educational field trips and our summer financial institute for high school students. In many cases, our programming gives young people strong motivation to succeed in their remaining high school tenure and also a compelling reason to attend college.” (source: https://greenwoodproject.org/about/)

The initiative is growing each year. More firms are coming on board leading to more opportunities for students of color to get involved.

7. Eliminate racial bias for hiring POC

Another focus of  POC recruiting techniques is to use tools that eliminate racial bias in hiring and interviews. These types of tools:

• create blind hiring assessments to avoid racial bias against people of color
• send pop-reminders about removing bias during hiring
• remove candidate information from resumes that could trigger racial bias

We think these  10 Tools for Eliminating Racial Bias  will increase your chances of hiring more people of color.  

8. Create a “Leadership Accelerator”

Launching a program promoting leadership for BIPOC is another idea. DoorDash does this with their program called “Elevate.” Elevate focuses on women of color who want to move into management roles. Here’s what Harvard Business review says about the program:

“Participants, known as “fellows,” engage in a six-month cohort experience, which includes the following monthly activities:

One-on-one coaching sessions with an external executive coach

Executive sponsor meetings with company directors and C-suite members

Career workshops

Attendance at leadership team meetings”

9. Implement a diversity training program

Creating programs to promote inclusion and belonging for all employees helps build the framework for hiring POC. In Netflix’s 2021 Inclusion Report , there’s mention of this type of training:

“ The inclusion recruiting programs team built a training curriculum to do this more inclusively, with topics like: spotting bias in the interview process, sourcing candidates in non-traditional ways, and helping hiring managers identify the perspectives missing on their teams. More than 200 people on our recruiting team have completed one or more courses in the program.”

10. Remove racial bias from job postings

WHY I WROTE THIS

Ongig is on a mission to help eliminate boring and biased job content. With Diversity and Inclusion in the spotlight, there is a growing focus on recruiting People of Color.  Ongig’s Text Analyzer  enables employers to write more inclusive job content which can help attract more diverse candidates.

• Battling Bias: Building diversity in recruiting and hiring  (by MGMA)
• How HR Can Support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in 2020  (by Sarah Koller)
• How to support women of colour in your workplace.  (by Randstad)
• APRIL 30, 2020 How to Develop a Diversity & Inclusion Program from Scratch  (by Anika Nishat)
• Are You Offering the Mental Health Benefits Your BIPOC Employees Need? (by Andrea Holman and Joe Grasso)
• Inclusion Takes Root at Netflix: Our First Report (by Vernā Myers)
• Inside DoorDash’s Leadership Accelerator for Women of Color (by Gayle Allen and Bie Aweh)

November 4, 2020 by Heather Barbour in Diversity and Inclusion

• AI Recruitment (1)
• Applicant Tracking System (16)
• Candidate Engagement (10)
• Candidate Experience (5)
• Company Career Site (42)
• Conferences (18)
• Diversity and Inclusion (239)
• Employee Branding (3)
• Employer Branding (42)
• Employer of Choice (4)
• Entrepreneurship (4)
• Hiring (27)
• HR Content (64)
• Job Boards (2)
• Job Description Management (7)
• Job Descriptions (152)
• Job Pages (3)
• Job Postings (9)
• Job Titles (44)
• Leadership (4)
• Microsites (6)
• Networking (5)
• Recruit Veterans (1)
• Recruiters (18)
• Recruiting Metrics (2)
• Recruiting Process (7)
• Recruiting Software (13)
• Recruiting Strategies (32)
• Recruiting Videos (12)
• Recruitment Marketing (10)
• Recruitment SEO (9)
• Social Recruiting (21)
• Talent Acquisition (9)
• Talent Airport (2)
• Technology (8)
• Trends (11)
• University Recruiting (3)
• Video Job Descriptions (9)
• Writing Job Descriptions (40)

template: single.php

Recruitment Presentation

In a competitive market, recruiters and HR representatives need to attract and lock down top talent for their organization. Your company might provide competitive benefits, high salaries, an engaging company culture, and enticing opportunities for growth, but if you don’t know how to sell those perks, you won’t bring in those candidates. 

A compelling and informative job recruitment presentation can set you apart from your competitors and bring in top quality job candidates who are perfect for your team.

Use our recruitment presentation template to:

• Highlight your company’s advantages
• Connect and network with candidates in your industry
• Attract high-quality candidates

Create a memorable Job Recruitment Presentation

Every slide in your recruitment presentation tells an important part of your company’s story. Make each slide impactful and memorable by using images, videos, charts, timelines, or graphs. Each of these design options is available with our job recruitment template.Some potential slides to include are:

Pro Tips for your Job Recruitment Template

When filling out your job recruitment packet template, keep these tips in mind.

Your recruitment presentation is selling your company to potential employees. Be persuasive and appeal to emotion in order to tell your company’s story.

While you should tell a story, you also need to give your potential job candidates the facts that make your company their best option.

A recruitment presentation is a great opportunity to engage with the audience; after all, they may join your team! Leave time for questions and discussions in your presentation.

Have your company perks, leadership structure, or number of offices changed? Don’t forget to update your presentation frequently as needed to make sure recruitees have the most accurate information.

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Blog – Creative Presentations Ideas

infoDiagram visual slide examples, PowerPoint diagrams & icons , PPT tricks & guides

Presenting the Recruitment Process Clearly in PowerPoint

Last Updated on February 20, 2024 by Anastasia

A key part of HR management is the process of recruitment, selection, and onboarding of new employees. If you are about to give a presentation on any of those topics, see several ideas on how to illustrate complex recruitment process concepts and large amounts of data in a concise and eye-catching way.

Transform your business presentations with our expert resources. Discover more on our business performance presentations webpage.

Below you will find several ideas for visual slides covering different recruitment process concepts:

• hiring spiral
• stages of a recruitment and selection process
• candidate selection process
• hiring process comparison

You can download all presented slide examples as an editable Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes PowerPoint deck . See details by clicking slide pictures.

Why use diagrams to illustrate the HR Recruitment Process?

Well-designed recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes are crucial to building an effective team. Using modern creative graphics to show the necessary steps to fill the job vacancy successfully will help you tell a story and make sure the audience gets all your ideas.

The recruitment process takes care of identifying the vacancy needs, finding, selecting, and finally hiring the best candidate for the job. Finding the best candidates is only part of building an effective team. The process of onboarding new employees can be one of the most critical factors in ensuring that recently hired talent will be productive, contented workers.

If you are speaking in front of your team and explaining the process to them, it is a good idea to start a presentation by clarifying the definition of the process.

Below we put the diagram examples you can use to depict the recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes .

Visualize the recruitment and selection process in a flowchart

To illustrate such multi-component processes as recruitment and selection, you can use a spiral diagram. You can include common steps such as:

• Job Description
• Job Posting or Referral
• Candidate Application
• Selection Steps
• Intention Letter

We also used color coding to make the three stages more distinguishable and symbols to make the slide more eye-pleasing.

Alternatively, you can use such a ribbon diagram to show the phases of the recruitment process:

Show the candidate selection process

Illustrate the candidate selection process with a 2-step diagram, including candidate application and second selection. Outline more details by adding points for each stage: CV, motivational letter, video CV, pre-screening questions, interview, presentation of candidate, tests & questionnaires, case studies, assessment center, or input of direct manager.

Present the hiring process – comparison with onboarding

You can start off by defining what the onboarding process is in case you want to complete the hiring process with and without it. Below you can see an example of a definition slide illustrated with a symbol:

Here’s how you can distinguish the 2 versions of the hiring process: with and without the pre-onboarding phase. Usually, the process includes the following milestones:

• Signed contract – the beginning of pre-boarding
• Getting info about the workplace, company policy, and products
• First welcome day
• Onboarding – getting to know the workplace and products
• The employee is ready for work

In the slide example above we used different colors for each stage, so it will be easier for the audience to see which stages are different and the same for both process versions.

Check our movie with step-by-step guides on creating the Recruiting Selection Hiring Onboarding Process in PowerPoint:

If you’d like to present other areas of HR management, such as human resources-related KPIs and performance metrics, check this article about how to illustrate various HR metrics using dashboards .

Resource: Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes Graphics Collection

The infographics and diagrams above are a part of our recruitment process diagrams collection. It contains templates to illustrate the hiring spiral, recruitment process flowcharts, recruitment and selection stages, candidate selection steps, and more. Check the full deck here:

Recruitment, Selection, Hiring HR Processes PPT Graphics

If you need more general diagrams and charts, consider the  ultimate collection of modern infographic templates .

Recruiting for Board Diversity — Without Disrespecting People of Color

As a Black man who has worked with or for nonprofits for most of my career, I’ve become very familiar with how nonprofit boards recruit for board diversity; by my count, I have been actively recruited by the boards of 13 organizations. 

I can divide 11 of these 13 board recruitment experiences into two categories:

• Five boards that I agreed to join due to a mutual passion for the mission and a shared understanding of the alignment between what the board was seeking and what I could offer
• Six boards that I didn’t join due to a poor fit or inopportune timing

But there’s a third category of board recruitment experiences that has left the most indelible memories – memories that, although unpleasant, have provided some valuable “lessons learned” that I carry with me to this day. The third category consists of the two times I declined to join a board because I felt disrespected during the board’s recruitment process – so disrespected that declining the invitation was an easy decision because I believed that the recruitment experience was a foreshadowing of the obstacles I would have faced as a board member.

As we at BoardSource continue to urge the nonprofit sector to commit to action on diversifying its boards (a cause that has become even more important during the current national conversation on racial inequity), I want to share my story of what went wrong in these two recruitment experiences and offer my perspective on what boards need to do differently to successfully recruit – and retain – people of color.

The two recruitment experiences that made me feel disrespected were almost identical; here’s a summary of what happened:

A White board member requested a meeting with me to discuss his organization (a nonprofit that was unfamiliar to me) and to gauge my potential interest in joining the board. When we met he gave me more background on the organization, with a particular emphasis on the board’s desire to become more diverse. After listening to the board member’s “pitch”, I asked him to share the ways he thought I could add value to the board; I wanted to know what prompted him to reach out to me , specifically. The board member seemed surprised and unprepared to answer the question, and just re-stated his board’s focus on becoming more diverse. His visible discomfort in directly answering my question revealed the real answer to me: I was being recruited because -- and seemingly only because -- I was Black and my board membership would support the organization’s board diversity goals. The board member didn’t appear to know much about my work or my skills and experiences (or else he considered them to be far less important than my race, from the board’s perspective), so based on his response I believed that I was being “tokenized” – being recruited by a board not for my capability (in combination with my race), but so that the board could use my membership to portray to the public a misleading impression of its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity.

The board member’s approach to recruiting me was indicative of a board that has adopted (whether due to lack of awareness or a conscious decision) a “check the box” mentality rather than a thoughtful, strategic, respectful approach to becoming more diverse. It was as though they understood that they should be diverse, but had no idea why that mattered or how it connected to a broader recruitment strategy focused on bringing in the expertise, perspectives, and reputational capital needed to lead and govern effectively. At the time that these conversations took place, I brought a wide range of skill sets and expertise – I was an expert in affordable housing policy and financing, I had significant leadership experience in both non-profit and for-profit contexts, I had been a grantmaker and understood fundraising, and I had a network of influence in my community. I am also Black, and bring the lived experience of being Black in America that could have helped both of these organizations bring new insight to their thinking about diversity, inclusion, and equity. But they didn’t see any of these things. Or, if they did, they didn’t know how to communicate that to me.

Based on these experiences, I now ask the “how can I add value to this board and organization” question as an initial litmus test whenever I meet with a board member to discuss potentially joining a board; if the board member is unable to answer the question to my satisfaction, we may continue the dialogue but the real conversation, from my perspective, is effectively over. To be clear, I think this question of “how can I add value” is essential for every potential board candidate to ask, and to which every recruiting organization should have a thoughtful response. But as a person of color, the stakes are even higher. That’s because there is a fundamental, “uncomfortable” truth related to racial inequity in our country that is common knowledge to people of color, but to others may come as a revelation: in our society, people of color live under a constant “cloud of suspicion” that when we achieve something significant, it’s because we’ve been given something that we haven’t fully earned, such as obtaining desirable jobs that White people imply (or sometimes explicitly state) that we didn’t deserve, or graduating from top schools that White people are often surprised to learn we attended (these are not hypothetical scenarios; they are examples from my own experiences and those of many people of color that I know). There is a perception among many in our society that when a person of color is successful, someone must have “lowered the bar” in order for the person of color to have cleared it. So when a White board member recruits me and effectively diminishes the totality of my assets and qualifications to one aspect of my identity – my race – he may expect me to be pleased by the invitation, but from my perspective it is a “flashing red light” indicating that although the board is inviting me to be “included” in an official sense, I am still being seen as “less than”. That’s why – for me – it’s not just clunky or awkward when someone cannot provide a thoughtful response to “how can I add value to this board and organization”; it’s offensive.

A Better Way

Reflecting on the Importance of Diversity to Your Organization’s Work

• Have we identified our “blind spots” as a board? Have we compared the current composition of our board in terms of the skills, expertise, cultural/ethnic demographics, and lived experiences to the optimal composition we would like to achieve so that we include a wider range of perspectives? Does our board’s composition signal a sincere commitment to understanding and sharing power with the communities we seek to serve? What do we understand about why it matters that we become more diverse? How will it impact the way that we lead our organization?

Expanding and Diversifying Your Network of Potential Board Candidates

• Are we cultivating and recruiting candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences? Are we expanding the board candidate search beyond our customary board recruitment networks (i.e., expanding our networks by posting board roles on diversity-focused job websites such as blackcareernetwork.com , or reaching out to local chapters of ethnic professional or civic associations such as The Hispanic National Bar Association or The National Black Chamber of Commerce )? When we communicate with a board candidate who is a person of color, are we clearly articulating the organization’s mission and specifically naming the various ways that the candidate would add value and help the board fulfill its mission?

Building an Inclusive & Welcoming Board Culture

• Are we positioning new board members to have a positive, long-term experience with the board; are we welcoming new members to the board and meaningfully engaging them in the work through participation on committees and/or task forces? Are we assigning a mentor or “buddy” for them to contact with questions and/or ideas that they may initially feel more comfortable sharing one-on-one than in the context of the full board?
• Are we examining our long-standing practices regarding board social gatherings to make sure that they are inclusive to board members of color? If they are not inclusive, are we willing to make the necessary changes to make them welcoming to all board members?
• Are we being intentional about inviting new board members of color to share their perspectives and opinions – opening the door to different ideas and conversations in the boardroom?
• Are we acknowledging the value of the perspectives of new board members of color by leveraging their input to develop enhanced strategies and action plans that advance our mission by more directly addressing the needs of those we serve?
• Are we dedicating time for reflection on how our strategies and action plans have been impacted by the addition of more diverse voices and viewpoints? Are we reflecting on how we as a board have, perhaps, been fundamentally changed – changed in ways that will help us better identify the work that needs to be done and the most impactful approaches to doing it as we go forward?

Final Thoughts

Building a diverse and inclusive board is critically important. And efforts to do so should generally be applauded. But the reality is that if a board adopts an insensitive or ill-informed approach to diversifying its membership, there is damage that can be done – both in the recruitment process and if a person of color actually commits to joining the board. Being thoughtful and intentional about why diversity matters to your board and organization, and how the board is committed to cultivating a truly inclusive board culture – a board culture in which every board member’s perspective is welcomed, respected, and valued – is the only way to effectively diversify the board. Any board that fails to apply a more intentional, considerate approach in its outreach to people of color will struggle – deservedly – to recruit and retain people of color as board members.

Additional Resources & Tools for Boards:

• Taking Action on Board Diversity: Five Questions to Get You Started (BoardSource)
• AWAKE to WOKE to WORK: Building a Race Equity Culture (Equity in the Center)

More from BoardSource:

• The Value of Lived Experience (August 2020)
• A Message to My Fellow White Board Chairs (July 2020)
• A Moment to Change (June 2020)
• Now That We Know Better (June 2020)
• Reflections on Trust and Its Relationship to Racial Inequity on Nonprofit Boards (May 2020)
• BoardSource's Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity: For Ourselves and the Social Sector (March 2017)

Topics: Board Diversity & Inclusivity , Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

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5 Essential Slides to Include in Your Campus Recruitment Presentation

You're prepared to leave a lasting impression on the students attending your employer information session because the space is reserved, registration numbers are promising, and the room is booked.

Hosting an on-campus info session as a crucial component of your campus recruitment presentation is an excellent approach to connecting with potential applicants and building your employer brand at the local level.

But before you begin, we must inquire about the caliber of your slide presentation.

Effective presentations can captivate audiences and persuade them to accept your ideas. You want to ensure that your presentation (and your employer brand) are memorable—in the most excellent way possible—in a room full of enquiring, career-focused Gen Y talent.

How can you make a convincing and captivating slideshow presentation?

1. feature a simple and informative slide design that should meet the expectations of the students..

Design-savvy is one of the many descriptions given to Gen Y pupils. They've formed specific judgments about what looks nice and what doesn't, from mobile apps to business cards.

Your template design should live up to their expectations. Do you really believe they'll pay attention to a slide that's pure white and has Comic Sans font? Think again. Information that is attractively presented and well-organized inspires Generation Y. They regularly interact with dynamic visual content, so they don't want to sit through a dull presentation.

Consider the presentation's overall structure and theme if you're in charge of making your own slide deck. Use simple, contrasting colors on your slides to enhance dimension and highlight important terms and phrases. When accompanying text, photos should be kept to one or two on each slide, and creative typography should be explored. In your design, stay away from animated components (which are out of date and intrusive). Most significant? Formatting should be consistent!

If your creative team is in charge of designing your deck, collaborate with them to include Gen Y-friendly concepts in your overall structure.

2. Consider your presentation as a further representation of your employer brand.

You want students to leave your information session with the impression that your company is the most incredible location to launch a successful career, so consider your presentation an extension of your employer brand.

The best method to transmit the qualities that make your company distinctive is through the individuals who currently work there, which you must do to accomplish that.

The presentation technique of storytelling is highly powerful. It can aid in increasing audience engagement and fostering an emotional bond between them and your ideas. Build and create a PowerPoint presentation that engages students personally using anecdotes, testimonials, and other personal cues from your staff. When an employer brand is sincere and honest, students can tell. Don't be hesitant to give the professional some individuality! If possible, get quotes from workers your student audience can identify, such as recent recruits, Gen Y employees who are already established in their jobs, or student interns.

3. The most accessible approach to convey your thoughts to the students attending your info session is using concise, easily understood the material.

Generation Y's information consumption habits have been influenced by growing up during the social media revolution (which makes sense in a world limited to 140 characters or less).

Source: TalentEgg Trends

Unsure of how to concentrate your messaging? The 10/20/30 Rule by Guy Kawasaki is useful for structuring your thoughts. The venture capitalist came up with the concept in 2005 to alter how business owners presented their bids, which has since developed into a standard procedure for all presentations.

The fundamental principle is that you should keep your presentation to no more than 10 slides, keep the presentation to no more than 20 minutes, and use text at least 30 points in size.

According to Kawasaki, 10 slides is a fair standard because most people have problems comprehending more than 10 things simultaneously. A formal presentation of your ideas should take no longer than 20 minutes, providing plenty of time for a fruitful conversation to follow. Your messaging will be clearer and easier to comprehend if you use a 30-point font (larger font requires less slide space). The 10/20/30 Rule can increase the likelihood that your message will be understood.

4. Put a strong emphasis on your company's mission and vision.

Describe the organization's long- and short-term goals. The younger generation nowadays is not just looking for a well-paying job. They are looking for something that will offer them meaning in life. They are more conscious of the potential negative future effects of current decisions.

Source: Powtoon

You may identify the best individuals who are in line with the objectives of your firm by having a clear understanding of your mission and vision. You may connect with a prospective pool of workers who desire to change the world by developing your employer brand.

5. Include visuals to help your audience understand and connect with your thoughts.

Be careful not to let your information speak for itself. Show Generation Y why they should work with your company. Literally.

Multidimensional elements, including high-quality images, audio snippets, graphics, and video content, can significantly improve your presentation. Overly text-heavy slides can give students the impression that your company is out-of-touch with modern design and technology trends (something they inherently value).

When possible, use photos of actual personnel; stock photos are apparent and lend your presentation a fake or cheap appearance. Additionally, you may use TalentEgg video footage in your presentations to support your arguments and respond to some of the inquiries students might have about your business, such as what employees value most about the workplace environment.

What are the essential qualities young people look for in an organization?

A job isn't the only thing that almost all fresh grads eager to enter the workforce are searching for. They desire their job to contribute to something greater actively.

• Organizations with strong ethical standards and various cultures are more appealing to students. Breaking down gender stereotypes and eradicating social stigma is becoming more common. 83% of young people want to work for organizations with diverse workforces.
• If sustainable practices are not implemented, the youth's future will be compromised. Climate change is currently the top issue for young people in terms of sustainable future possibilities, according to 67% of them. This generation recognizes the value of protecting the environment and is eager to cooperate with organizations that can improve the planet for future generations.

The idea behind employing recent graduates and conducting campus interviews has gradually shifted. Top organizations no longer approach colleges; instead, it is frequently the other way around.

Organizations know how critical it is to develop an employer brand that supports and nurtures students' academic and professional development from the beginning. In the past, only book-smart candidates were needed for campus recruitment. Workplace culture, work-life balance, ethics, working with industry rock stars, and many other topics are now prioritized.

To adapt your organization's campus recruitment presentation techniques to appeal to a broader audience, join a top-notch presentation team made up of presentation design professionals like Emaze, Prezi, and Slides. The team can assist you in developing a distinctive voice that can connect with potential employees and knows the importance of employer branding while developing recruitment presentations.

REFERENCES:

1. https://360.talentegg.ca/2014/07/fall-prep-5-ways-your-info-session-presentation-can-make-an-impression/

2. https://ezcast-pro.com/stories/5-knows-to-perform-a-great-presentation/

3. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/

4. https://recruitingdaily.com/millennial-candidates-want-a-diverse-workplace/

5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/08/10/how-mental-health-awareness-can-help-shape-a-better-workplace/?sh=39c60d56559e

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About the Author

Ankit Chauhan - Your Business Pathfinder

A seasoned professional with a diverse business background. I've worked in roles spanning consulting, partnership development, social media strategies, and B2B lead generation. My career journey has spanned various industries, and I'm all about delivering measurable results.

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Presenting the Colors at a Sporting Event

DrillMaster November 16, 2021 Ask DrillMaster , Color Guard/Color Team , Honor Guard , Honor Guard Training , Instructional 5 Comments

In 2017 I was talking with one of the JROTC instructors at one of the local high schools where I have taught in the afternoons and he was relaying the story of their color guard presenting the colors for a professional ball club and how the training I gave the team really helped since it provided the cadets and the instructors with a repertoire of moves from which they could choose to make their colors presentation look as professional as possible. “Education is key”! Let’s get into presenting the colors at a sporting event. First, information for the announcer.

For the Announcer

Here is a great article on what to announce for the different situations announcers may encounter. Read the article from sportsannouncing.com . Here is a snippet from the article, All About Presenting the Colors . Please read it for a full understanding of presentation methods and techniques.

While there may be other anthems representing certain people groups, they are not afforded the same protocol as a national anthem. The public is not required to stand or place their hand over their heart. Let’s take the Black Anthem as an example. While I am in no way suggesting disrespect should be shown to a piece of music that may have meaning to a number of people, it is not at the same level as a national anthem and is not accorded the protocol of standing and placing the right hand over the heart, a military hand salute, or even the color guard going to Present Arms with the rifle guards at the position of Present and the non-national flag dipped forward. If this other music is played, the color guard should only stand at the position of Attention if on the court/field and after that music has finished, the commander of the team gives “Present, ARMS!” and the Star-Spangled Banner is then played or sung. The announcer can say, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Black Anthem.” After it is finished the announcer should say, “Ladies and gentlemen, please rise, (men remove your hats, and place your right hand over your heart) for the Star-Spangled Banner.” Here is where the color guard would go to Present Arms and the anthem would then begin.

Now, we will cover which direction the team should face. This is all about communication to the audience.

Which way does the team face?

A cadet contacted me on Instagram asking about the proper direction to face for presenting the colors. That is an excellent question! Below, the images concentrate mainly on professional events where the team must hit a certain mark for the TV cameras. However, there are high school and college games that come into play, although many college games, if not all, are probably on the same level of a professional event with TV cameras.

High School Games

I appreciate why a team would stand at the 20 yard line (or the top of the key, for instance) face the opposite end zone instead of the home team stands and fully support that thinking, this is exactly what my color guard used to do while I was drum major of my high school band. Doing it is very appropriate and here is why: it’s a game, not a war. Yes, I understand that some may build a sport up to the level of “doing battle on the field”, but it’s not even close and this is not about the three types of respect or sportsmanship. The other team is not made up of enemies. The other side of the field or court is full of spectators; parents and grandparents who are out to see their student play his or her heart out. Everyone is there to support their team and enjoy the sport. Facing only one side does not create a sense of mutual respect.

There are different ways to enter, position, and exit a sports field. Some, provide a unique “problem” on how to accomplish the ceremony while keeping the flag in the primary spot (to the marching right or in front). Once you read this, you will not encounter any more “problems”, you will have the tools necessary to navigate those issues.

Below I have used images to illustrate the different ways to enter and exit the different fields you may come across. If it is a professional or even college sport, your team may have to hit certain spot at a certain time while facing a certain direction for the TV camera all coordinated with the timing for the broadcast.

For this, I suggest moving to your position at Port (flags and rifles/axes), post at your spot, and then go to Right Shoulder/Carry and then Present as the announcer asks the audience to stand.

If you will stage in the tunnel (off field), go to Right Shoulder/Carry, and enter and post with the camera on the team the whole time, you will have to coordinate halting, facing, and going to Present as smoothly and quickly as possible.

Basketball Court/Football Field/Soccer Pitch

For this setup, the team forms up in column formation and waits. At the cue, the team marches forward, rounding their corners (no flanks!), and moving into position.

Moving to center court/field: The team may wait at the sideline and again wait for another cue, or continue marching forward once in line formation and hit their mark for the presentation. An alternate to this is rounding the corner at the key and executing Every Left On at center court. The same principles apply for football and baseball. Below are examples.

Entrance from the viewer’s right. For this setup, the team marches out to in front of the pitcher’s mound, or in front of/behind second base in column formation, picks up Mark Time at a predetermined spot, and executes a Colors Turn-On or halts and executes Left Face. The exit would then be either a Colors Turn-Off to exit to the viewer’s left, or Every Left Off to retrace the path of entry.

Ice Hockey Rink

The first setup involves entering, traveling down the carpet and presenting to the right. You cannot start with the American flag last in line and then face to the right. The American flag leads in column formation and the team executes Every Left On. To exit from here, the team execute a Colors Turn-Off or a Right Face.

The second setup involves traveling down the carpet and presenting to the left. This involves Colors Turn-On or Left Face. To exit from here, the team must have the lead/right rifle/axe guard step off first and then every team member steps off in sequence with Every Left Off.

Coordination

Once the team is in position, giving Present Arms right away would be a good idea instead of waiting for the first note. That way, the Anthem can begin on the visual signal of the color team going to Present.

If you are a trained and certified Ceremonial Guardsman, remember, you are the ceremonial expert everywhere you go, you are the one to tell the hosting organization what you do, how you do it, and when. You must have a knowledge of flag protocol.

I also suggest that, when leaving, you give the command, “Port, Arms”, which brings the colors down to your side (you have finished your job and are no longer the focus) and depart.

Share this:

The former Army Instructor at my AJROTC battalion informed me that it is against protocol to allow personnel behind the U.S. flag. Consequently, we’ve always halted the Color Guard at the 35 yard line of our football field so that people in the stands are all in front of the Colors. I haven’t found any source that supports the AIs claim. Could you please address this? Thank you.

LTC Staack,

I’m positive that was your predecessor’s personal preference because it doesn’t make sense. I appreciate the thought process behind it, but there are some situations where the colors will have audience behind the team. A look at any colors presentation for a college football or even NFL game will show you that. If you wish to keep the color guard at the 35, go ahead, there’s nothing restricting that but there’s also nothing restricting your team standing on the 50 and facing the home stand.

I’m interested in introducing my AFJROTC color guard to moves like “Every Left On/Off” and “Colors Turn On/Off.” How should commands be given in cases like this? I’ve also seen a video by USAF Honor Guard ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQB9M4tMmsQ ) that shows some instructions for these moves (while accounting for regulation vs ceremonial drill), but not all moves in this video have commands. Should commands be given with a command voice? or should we do so without command? or something else? Thanks DM.

Every Left On is started with Forward March and ends with Color Guard Halt.

Off starts with Ready, Step.

Colors Turn On is begun with Colors given on a left step, individual rotation in 4 steps, Halt is then on the left step four steps later.

Colors, Colors Turn, HARCH is for Colors Turn Off.

Thanks for the elaborations and explanations . . .

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Home / The Ultimate Guide to Color Theory in Presentation Design: What Colors Mean and How This Impacts Your Audience

The Ultimate Guide to Color Theory in Presentation Design: What Colors Mean and How This Impacts Your Audience

How does the color red make you feel? 

Depending on the tone and application, red can convey an air of romance, a sense of anger or the spirit of revolution. 

Now how about blue?

Cool blues could make you think of the ocean open, offering up a feeling of calm. Darker blues, however, portray authority — you may be reminded of your university’s emblem.

And chances are, it’s not just you who thinks this way. In fact, not only do colors represent emotion and carry significant symbolism, but these associations will be shared by a vast majority of the population. 

So, when it comes to presentation design, the color palette you use will have the same semiotic meaning to most, if not all, of your audience.

That’s why you need to pick presentation colors wisely . Here’s how…

• First things first: a quick dip into the psychology of color
• The psychological meaning behind your favorite colors — what’s right for your presentation? Blue · Green · Red · Yellow · White · Black · Purple · Orange · Pink · Magenta · Brown

Want to use more than one color in your presentation? You certainly can, but the trick is to be complementary

Okay that’s it — now you know how to choose and apply your presentation’s color palette with confidence, first things first: a quick dip into the psychology of color .

Back in the 1940s, a study by Faber Birren provided radical insight into human emotional reaction to color. 

Birren’s findings proved that colors trigger a genuine psychological impact in a viewer — for example, reds and oranges stimulate the autonomic nervous system, while blues, purples and greens will cause this system to relax. 

We see this all the time in the natural world. Have you ever wondered why Black Widow spiders carry red spots on their backs (warning: toxicity)? Or why you find yourself in an overall better mood when the sun is shining in a clear blue sky?

But, of course, designers use these psychological stimulations as well.

Take McDonald’s, for example. The hugely popular fast food chain uses a combination of red and yellow in their brand identity… and that’s no happy accident! These colors together have actually been shown to stimulate human hunger response.

So whilst you don’t need to conduct your own research into color theory, you do need to have a basic understanding of how the colors you use in your presentation will make your audience feel .

If you’re producing a presentation for a company or brand who already has an established color palette, then you can simply skip ahead to choosing a template that features your colors . The color theory work has already been done!

However, if you’re not working within a defined template and need to choose colors for your presentation, how do you find the perfect combination of shades to support your presentation content in a cohesive way? 

Let’s break down some of the most frequently used colors, and explain the visual and emotional associations they tend to inspire…

The psychological meaning behind your favorite colors — what’s right for your presentation?

Blue is one of the most well-used colors in the world, but it’s also one of the most complicated. 

While it is considered a ‘cold’ color, blue is often perceived as soothing by our psyche. Birren believed this link may have something to do with our relation to nature (the calming sky or sea) and blue is also known to provoke trust, confidence, and assurance, which makes it a popular choice for companies in their branding (think logos for Facebook, NASA or Bank of America). 

However, blue can also represent sadness (hence the term feeling blue ) and bring a somber feel to a presentation. This juxtaposition of meaning makes blue a good choice for a variety of presentations when considered carefully.

If the topic of your presentation is meant to build trust or confidence, to calm your audience or to deliver important — perhaps serious — news, then blue may be the color for you. After all, in a survey exploring color word connections, blue was most commonly chosen to represent trust, security and reliability.

Remember, the shade of blue you use makes a difference as well: light blue lands more gently, where dark navy feels weighty and significant.

Examples of blue presentation templates

Green, like blue, is defined as a ‘cool’ color, which means it has a calming and serene effect. 

Fun fact: that’s why a lot of doctors and nurses wear green scrubs, to be a calming presence for patients!

But the semiotic communication of green doesn’t stop there. This hue is often associated with nature, but it can also stand for growth or wealth, or be associated with a feeling of ‘envy’ (hence the term green with envy ). 

So if you’re going to use green as the main color in your presentation, it’s important to make sure it can’t be misconstrued. For example, if your presentation were to deal with the profits made by companies from the destruction of rainforests, green could be a confusing choice in portraying your argument. But if your presentation is about the benefits of outdoor yoga in mental health, green would be a ‘natural’ choice! 

As with blue, green has a lot of shades that can help to either lighten the mood/message or portray it more seriously. A lime green would be fun for a startup, where a hunter green carries a bit more substance, for example. 

Examples of green presentation templates

Red is the flashy, fiery king of the warm colors, and is often used as the primary color for quick attention . When you think of well-known brands like RedBull and Virgin, both companies feature red logos — communicating confidence, excitement, and power (think Virgin’s skydiving CEO and Red Bull’s well-known partnership with Professional Bull Riding). These two organizations have also built a strong reputation based on being fast — RedBull as an energy drink, Virgin as an airline, broadband provider, cell network etc. — and in the same study on word associations, red was most often cited as representing speed.

But red, when applied carefully, can also show establishment and longevity, e.g. Kellogg’s who have been feeding households for well over 100 years! Here, red signals a ‘seal of approval’.

Essentially, red is a color that provokes energy — whether good (like love, passion, and strength) or bad (like fear, warning, and danger). 

If you’re looking for a presentation that has a powerful and demanding presence , red could be a good primary color choice for you. But, proceed with caution: red is a super powerful color, and too much of it could end up over-shadowing your presentation message.

Examples of red presentation templates

As with several of the colors above, we borrow our perception of yellow from nature. The sun, sunflowers, summer and golden plains — yellow occupies the place in our brain reserved for joy, optimism and fun . 

If you want your presentation to have a warm, happy and upbeat feel, try making yellow your focus color, just make sure you choose an appropriate background color to make it pop (which we’ll talk about further down in this article).

Examples of yellow presentation templates

Out of all the the colors, white is possibly the most used in terms of making comparisons. Black and white, white as snow, little white lie — all idioms that convey white as being simple, pure, harmless, or uncomplicated. 

White is also associated with innocence or cleanliness and, overall, the feelings associated with white tend to be positive. 

However, there is a dark side to white — associated with loneliness or barrenness. Keep those two contradictions in mind when applying white to your presentation. 

Examples of white presentation templates

Black is a very bold and complex color. While it represents many things, black is most often associated with sophistication (a little black dress, a black tie affair) or power. In the survey exploring color word associations, black was the overwhelming first choice to signify ‘high quality’. 

Thing is: when it comes to presentation design, black is a very dominating color and should be used sparingly.

A black background for your presentation could be a bit overwhelming to your audience, and may elicit a feeling of doom or fear. Instead, use black to add power to statements in your presentation or to draw attention to something important. 

Just like that little black dress or a well-fitted tux, black in your presentation can be rather eye-catching and authoritative!

Examples of black presentation templates

The way we perceive purple may be due in part to nature, but also to its place in human history. 

Purple is often referred to as a regal color. This stems from the reserved use of purple linens for royalty in the third century , because the dye that made purple was very expensive to make.

Fast forward to today, and purple is still symbolic of luxury and status — think Hallmark or Cadbury. But purple can also stir up feelings of mystery or spirituality, and has a feminine quality to some.

Interestingly, if we return to the study on color word connections, purple was most frequently chosen to symbolize courage . However, this wasn’t an overwhelming majority, with only 29% of respondents choosing purple , 28% choosing red and 22% choosing blue. 

Examples of purple presentation templates

Remember earlier when we said that the McDonald’s logo is designed to make you hungry? Well orange is proven to stimulate your hunger response too, as it’s the color combination of parent colors red and yellow.

Orange is also perceived as a friendly color, so it’s only advisable to use orange if your presentation is going to be upbeat and informal — orange was the top choice to represent ‘fun’ in the color word connection study. Therefore, if you choose to apply orange in a serious or somber presentation, you risk distracting from your main message. 

Examples of orange presentation templates

In some cultures, pink is seen as a feminine color, due to its association with softness, caring and nurturing. But pink can also represent playfulness, and can be a good alternative to red if red seems too powerful or overbearing in your presentation. 

Word of warning though: pink is not often thought of as a ‘serious’ color, so if your presentation is one of a more serious nature, you might want to pass on pink! 

Examples of pink presentation templates

Magenta (also known as fuchsia) certainly makes a statement! This brilliant pink/purple mixes warmth and cold for a beautiful eye-catching color that looks great when paired with dark backgrounds. 

When it comes to symbolic meaning, magenta combines a lot of the positive qualities found in red, pink, and purple — it’s often associated with harmony and self-confidence.

Magenta is a passionate and strong color, so if your presentation requires that type of energy, give magenta a second look. 

Examples of magenta presentation templates

The king of earthy colors, brown is warm, honest, wholesome. Brown will stir up a sense of trust in your audience, and make them feel at ease. 

Brown also reigns supreme when you are looking for a nature-based template or a template that doesn’t demand all the attention and can let your content shine.

Examples of brown presentation templates

If you’re keeping things simple for your presentation, then we suggest you pick one focus color and run with it! 

But, if you’re feeling confident and want to incorporate two or more colors in your presentation design, then you need to get familiar with complementary colors .

By definition, complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. Of course, this doesn’t mean that your audience sees these colors together in grayscale, but that the colors work so well in unison they almost come together to form one entity. 

Follow these four steps when building and applying your color scheme :

• Refer to a complementary color wheel to check how well your chosen color palette works together. This is particularly useful if you’re a beginner in presentation design — sometimes colors that you imagine will work well together are not so complementary at all!
• Keep your color combinations simple . As we explored above, color has meaning and many of those meanings are vastly different. Each additional color adds or takes away from your message, so it’s vital you make sure the colors in your palette aren’t conflicting in message. We’d suggest using no more than 3 colors in your presentation .
• Even with two or three colors, the balance shouldn’t be evenly split. Instead, remember to have a dominant focus color which you apply more frequently throughout — the rest of your color palette should act to complement the first. Not only does this create a sophisticated color pairing, it also gives the audience a break to focus on the opposite color(s).
• Red and green: despite being omnipresent around the holiday season, these two actually communicate very different messages when it comes to color psychology . Using them in your presentation risks leaving your audience confused.
• Red and blue: these two very powerful colors steal the show from one-another and the mixture of hot and cold is unsettling.
• Orange and blue: these two colors clash with each other and are very hard to read as they seem to vibrate against one another. (Sorry University of Florida fans!) 

Download our PDF guide on how to pick colors to have it always at hand.

Examples of presentation templates that use complementary colors

Now that you have a good understanding of what each color means — and how your audience will respond — you can start to design!

Remember, consider how you want your audience to feel . Should your presentation take a serious, somber tone? Or can it be upbeat, peppy and informal? Are you looking to entertain or inform? To shock with grim statistics, or encourage people to donate to a worthy cause?

Then select a primary color, or complementary color scheme, to support this mission.

Be sure to also consider icons, fonts, and photos available to help get your point across. 

And if you need ready-made color palettes that work, check these  12 great color combo ideas for presentations  (and a few examples of how they can be used in slides).

Looking for more presentation inspiration?

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How to Develop a Police Recruiting Presentation That Works

• January 7, 2022

Delivering a  recruiting  and hiring presentation at a college, military base, or community event can be a sure-fire way to fill your agency’s applicant pool. However, if your recruiting and hiring message and presentation are not inspiring or leave the audience wanting more, you’re missing the boat.

Agencies must develop consistent recruiting and hiring messages that employees know by heart. This message should include information about pay, benefits, working conditions and what makes your agency and community a great place to work.

Employees should have an elevator pitch, a 90-minute presentation and everything in between. Consistency with numbers and information is key.

DO NOT LEAD WITH DISQUALIFIERS

Like many agencies, the  Topeka Police Department  used to recruit with employment disqualifiers.

The recruiting team traveled with a 19-slide PowerPoint presentation and 6-foot poster listing disqualifiers. We would go through the disqualifiers before discussing a career path with a potential candidate. No one was inspired. No one had goosebumps. No one wanted to meet with us afterward.

Presumably, because so many applicants were competing for so few spots, promoting the disqualifiers kept recruiters from wasting time with someone who couldn’t be hired. Now, however, a lot of departments have more vacancies than applicants. If your agency is spearheading recruiting initiatives by emphasizing employment disqualifiers, it’s time to evolve.

Dr. Charlie Scheer, assistant professor of criminal justice, forensic science and security at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) agrees, saying that students are getting burned out on disqualifier presentations. He told me about one of the nation’s largest wildlife and parks agencies arriving at USM to recruit. The students, who were researching the agency and vocalizing their excitement, were quickly deflated when they received an hour-long slide deck of vision and hearing requirements. Dr. Scheer said if the recruiter had shown up with an alligator he would have hired 10 students.

PRESENT THE INFORMATION POTENTIAL CANDIDATES WANT TO HEAR

Realizing we first needed to sell our agency and generate interest, we scrapped the disqualifier poster and replaced it with one containing information on pay, benefits and working conditions. We laminated a smaller version for recruitment team members to memorize and reference (see PDF below). We tossed the disqualifier presentation and started from scratch.

We now present information on our department history and community information, pay, benefits and working conditions. We will find out later if someone’s background isn’t clean or their vision isn’t correctable to 20/30. We gather intelligence on our audience and tailor each presentation to their wants and needs (more on that in a later article).

When we are finished presenting, we ask anyone who wants to learn more to meet with us. We meet people in the back of the room; we’ve even invited interested students for pizza at the end of the day. How did we justify buying 10 large pizzas? We didn’t, the professor paid for them.

EMBRACE THE POWER OF STORYTELLING

As you give your presentation on pay and benefits, tell stories for context. Talk about the community future officers will be working in and the police family they’ll be joining.

I listened as Lieutenant Chris Head of the Liberal (Kansas) Police Department stood in front of an audience and said he couldn’t offer everything that larger agencies could. He promised though, that if you worked for the Liberal Police Department you would be part of a family. He told the story of a married police couple whose child was born with kidney complications. A lieutenant at the agency wanted to help but wasn’t compatible. He donated his kidney anyway, which put the child at the top of the recipient list. The child soon received a much-needed kidney. As fate would have it, the lieutenant’s kidney was received by an officer at a nearby agency. You could hear a pin drop in the room. That story left a lifelong impact on the audience. Potential applicants won’t remember your starting pay, but they will remember your stories.

Recruiting with your agency’s disqualifiers may have worked 20 years ago. Things are different now. Don’t get caught up thinking you’ll be wasting time recruiting someone the agency can’t hire. More often than not the applicant can work for you in six months or a year. The worst-case scenario is that you make your presentation and sell your agency to an audience and no one enters the hiring process. However, someone in the audience will tell a friend or family member about you and your agency. Now  they  are telling your story for you.

About the Author

Sergeant Matt Cobb has served with the Topeka Police Department for 17 years. He currently administers the Topeka Police Academy. Sergeant Cobb is a Marine Corps and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baker University, maintains numerous law enforcement instructor certifications and owns three businesses.

Recently from First Arriving's Police Recruitment Blog

New attitudes for successful law enforcement recruitment in 2023, 22 law enforcement recruiting tips for 2022, everyone is a recruiter – law enforcement edition, how results-driven recruiting will help your agency hire cops, first arriving bolsters law enforcement team with addition of three industry veterans, how to recruit at colleges and military bases (it’s not what you think), how lateral thinking can help you hire cops, connect with us.

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Key Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Educators of Color

Thursday, november 30, 2023 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm est.

Presented by LaCreasha Stille, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Gainesville Independent School District (TX); Jeannie Aversa, Executive Director of Recruitment, Selection and Retention, Syracuse City School District (NY); Dr. Peter Leida, Partnership Manager, Insight Education Group; and Crystal Hercules, Senior Associate, Insight Education Group

Sponsored by Insight Education Group

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Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

Over the past five years, the Empowering Educators to Excel (E3) networked improvement community, comprised of four school districts (Colonial, Decatur, Marion, and Gainesville), has transformed their recruitment and retention strategies with remarkable success.

In a parallel network established three years ago, IGNITE, four additional districts (Jackson, Syracuse, Greenville, and Palm Beach) have collaboratively worked towards enhancing their systems for educator recruitment and retention.

The impact of these paradigm-shifting initiatives is evident in the increased number of educators from diverse backgrounds in each district. The establishment of sustainable partnerships and pipelines promises to shape the educator workforce of each of these districts. In this edLeader Panel, two district leaders and two educational experts deeply immersed in this work share their experiences in revitalizing recruitment and retention strategies through research, innovation, and collaborative efforts.

This recorded edLeader Panel is of interest to K-12 school leaders, district leaders, and district human resources professionals.

About the Presenters

LaCreasha Stille is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Gainesville ISD. LaCreasha is a distinguished educator with 30 years of experience in education. Her dedication to student achievement has been a lifelong commitment. She started her educational career as a paraprofessional and spent ten years teaching students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She has taught special education, English as a second language, ESOL, and English I, and was an assistant volleyball and softball coach. LaCreasha also has experience teaching higher education with the University of Phoenix.

For the last 20 years, she has been supporting students, families, and educational professionals as an assistant principal and principal in Crowley ISD, Andrews ISD, and most recently, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD. LaCreasha has a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from East Texas State University and a Master of Education degree in educational leadership from Texas Christian University. She is also a proud GHS alum. Her educational background and personal experiences have helped shape her philosophy of education. LaCreasha believes all students are capable of learning at the highest level possible and our educational system will provide our children with the skills needed to be successful in our global economy.

Jeannie Aversa has been serving as an educator for 34 years, working for NYS in the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, the Enlarged School District of Troy, and since 1996, in the Syracuse City School District. Previously, she was a teacher, building administrator, Director of Staff Effectiveness, and now Executive Director of Recruitment, Selection, and Retention. Jeannie currently is responsible for all work around intentional recruiting and retaining staff, particularly those of Color to reflect the diversity of our student population. She has helped to create partnerships with various colleges and universities (Syracuse University, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Cortland, Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College) to build pipelines for career and promotional opportunities for staff. She has also managed several NYS and US Department of Education grants with Education Partners through Insight Education Grant, Public Impact, and Education First to provide diversifying teacher leader positions and building leadership capacity from within.

Jeannie has been a recent past board member for the SCSD Educational Foundation, SCSD Together We Can (initiative for faith-based communities to provide support within the schools) and is currently a member/mentor of the Fellowship of Women Christian Athletes and Links, Inc. Jeannie serves as an Adjunct Professor at Le Moyne College in the Educational Leadership Program. She is active in the Syracuse community at large and enjoys spending time with her family (Mom and 6 siblings) and Blessings (Nicholas, Paul, and Sam) attending Syracuse University sporting events, watching sunrises/sunsets, traveling and enjoying nature. Jeannie loves to laugh and have fun with the special people she has in her life.

Dr. Pete Leida is a dedicated Partnership Manager at Insight Education Group, specializing in strategic planning, recruitment and retention, and leadership coaching for school districts. With an impressive background in education leadership, Dr. Leida brings a wealth of experience to his current role. Before joining Insight, Dr. Leida held the position of Deputy Superintendent at the Colonial School District in Delaware. In this capacity, he played a pivotal role in the successful implementation of the Empowering Educators to Excel Grant, while also providing crucial support to the Curriculum & Instruction and Schools Divisions.

Dr. Leida‘s extensive career in education includes serving as the Director of Schools, where he focused on leadership development, support, and evaluation of school leaders. Over 11 years, he held positions as an elementary assistant and principal in three different schools, all within the Colonial School District. His educational journey began as an elementary and special education teacher, demonstrating his deep commitment to the field. In addition to his impactful work, Dr. Leida shares his knowledge as an adjunct instructor at Wilmington University, further contributing to the development of future education leaders. His wealth of experience and dedication to educational excellence make him an invaluable asset in his role as a Partnership Manager.

Crystal Hercules is a Senior Associate at Insight Education Group, specializing in service delivery. With a strong commitment to educational excellence, she provides vital support to school districts in the areas of educator effectiveness, recruitment and retention, equity audits, and strategic planning. Crystal’s journey in education began as a dedicated classroom teacher, serving students from kindergarten to sixth grade. Her passion for educational equity led her to become the Founding Program Manager of a non-profit organization in Wilmington, DE. In this role, she played a key part in bridging the gap between community leaders and educators, ensuring a high-quality educational experience for local students.

Following this, Crystal took on the role of managing operations and teacher development for an AmeriCorps program, further expanding her impact in the education sector. Most recently, she served as a school leader in Philadelphia, where her focus on data analysis, instructional coaching, and professional development was instrumental in driving student achievement. Crystal’s core belief is that all students deserve enriching educational experiences that cater to their academic and social-emotional needs. Her diverse experience and dedication make her a valuable asset in the pursuit of educational excellence.

Join the  Leadership Practices for Innovative Leaders community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.

For over two decades, Insight Education Group has been committed to partnering with education leaders in their pursuit of transformative change. We empower leaders with the strategic vision and confidence to lead bold initiatives, providing the embedded support required to drive meaningful change.

Our seasoned team has worked extensively with schools, districts, charter management organizations, and state education agencies, addressing their most pressing challenges. With backgrounds as former teachers, school leaders, and high-level district and state administrators, we bring a unique understanding of the complexities, nuances, and opportunities associated with change implementation. We are experts in forging close partnerships that allow us to provide practical solutions that promote equity and academic achievement for all.

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