{"id":1735,"date":"2021-04-13T16:23:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1735"},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:23:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:23:13","slug":"the-new-diversity-approaches-corporations-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=1735","title":{"rendered":"The New Diversity Approaches Corporations Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/span>\u00a0Erik Sherman\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Untold millions of dollars plowed into six decades of corporate diversity training and consulting have failed to transform businesses, their cultures, and the makeup of executive ranks, researchers say.<\/p>\n

Multiple diversity experts who are people of color told Zenger News that what\u2019s in place now doesn\u2019t work. Whether companies will succeed, they said, depends on whether C-suite executives and their teams do the hard work that might give them performance and financial advantages over competitors who don\u2019t adapt.<\/p>\n

The current state of diversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although diversity programs have largely been responses to employees and the public, maneuvers to mitigate potential regulatory pressure, a diverse employee body and management team can deliver other benefits. \u201cThe reason we want people of different gender, race, and age at the table is because of their unique experiences,\u201d said Yinnan Shen, a fellow at Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership. Studies have shown positive correlations between diversity and such factors as financial performance, employee morale, and productivity, she said.<\/p>\n

Six decades of diversity have failed to deliver on their promise.\u00a0Research from the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> and the University of Melbourne examining the effects of online diversity training showed \u201cevidence of attitude change and some limited behavior change\u201d but concluded as others have found: \u201c[O]ur results suggest that the one-off diversity training that is commonplace in organizations are not panaceas for remedying bias in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Multiple data sources agree. CEO representation among people of color has improved somewhat, according to the\u00a02019 volatility report<\/a>\u00a0from executive recruiter Crist|Kolder, based on surveys.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Fortune 500 leadership remains stultified. More than 90% of CEOs are still white men, according to\u00a0an analysis<\/a>\u00a0by Richie Zweigenhaft, an emeritus professor of psychology at Guilford College. And just\u00a034% of director seats at the Fortune 500<\/a>\u00a0are held by women or minorities, according to Deloitte.<\/p>\n

More broadly,\u00a0Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data<\/a>, analyzed by Zenger News, shows the lion\u2019s share of managerial and professional jobs remain held by white people.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The New Diversity Approaches Corporations Need.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diversity falls apart<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experts speaking to Zenger point to a feel-good checklist approach to the diversity offered by high-paid consultants \u2014 an approach that fails to create real change, leaving those with power in corporations maintaining it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a money-making scheme,\u201d said Dr. Kimya Nuru Dennis, formerly a tenured university professor and now founder and owner of consultancy 365 Diversity. \u201cBusinesses, schools, and institutions hire people who aren\u2019t going to have them change. The power majority does not want to lose power. When they do this training, they want to be told they\u2019re doing the right thing. \u2018You\u2019re awesome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And when the pressure to change is on, those in charge grasp at straws trying to show forward motion, according to Paul T. Harper, a clinical assistant professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh\u2019s Katz Graduate School of Business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think sometimes, when I\u2019m being somewhat skeptical of this in the short term, that people are [being asked] to do something\u201d and they need to show results, Harper said. For a business, conducting a meeting becomes a metric \u2014 a woefully insufficient one, with no support to do more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s generally no budget or accountability connected to these efforts,\u201d Harper said. \u201cTo those more analytic like I am, these are some of the ways to sniff out real effort. If you don\u2019t see systems of accountability and don\u2019t see a budget, that already tells you this is something the organization does not take seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing possibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result, turnover rates among those hired to fill diversity targets are high as they leave companies where they perceive only a surface interest in their goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need justice,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThose people you hire, even if they\u2019re from marginalized groups, they [need to] feel they\u2019re treated fairly and with respect and justice inside this firm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future implications of ineffective-as-usual diversity programs can be daunting.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the average age of a lot of those tradesmen and laborers who are nearing the retirement age, 46 and 47,\u201d said Paul Robinson, founder of ConstructReach, a construction industry workforce development initiative and consultancy. \u201cYou have a need to backfill the industry with younger talent, but the younger demographic is the most diverse than it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

The construction can\u2019t afford to push away younger people who could be vital to its future, according to Robinson. And the Brookings Institution reports that national demographics are shifting toward a likely majority-minority population by 2045. When African-Americans currently represent 6% and women 9.1% of the industry, as Robinson says, recruiting the next generation of workers is an even greater challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry has to think not only is it sustainable but do we have the culture for a diverse demographic,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

High-tech is another off-putting industry, according to Allan Jones, founder, and CEO of the human resources services company Bambee. \u201cI\u2019ve been in tech for 15 years,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been an executive at two other companies. I\u2019ve never seen a CEO truly care about diversity.\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

New possibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good news, experts say, is that some corporations are developing a new attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is not only a heightened awareness but an urgency on the part of leadership in various companies to actually do things differently and think a little differently,\u201d said Michelle Crocket, the chief diversity officer and a partner in the labor and employment group at the law firm Miller Canfield.<\/p>\n

Bridge Partners, an executive search firm with a focus on diversity and inclusion, has seen a great number of calls for recruitment help. Companies are looking to fill \u201cchief diversity officer\u201d and \u201cdirector of equity and inclusion\u201d positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, the events of the [2020] summer and murder of George Floyd were a significant harbinger for many organizations,\u201d said Toya Lawson, a partner at Bridge. She noted that last year, 90 of the Fortune 500 companies made public statements about racial justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is great, of course,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cWe welcome that. But we\u2019re slightly taken aback that many organizations were talking for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiring alone doesn\u2019t change corporate culture: No one wants to be a token executive hire, and savvy professionals ask hard questions upfront that many companies find difficult to answer.<\/p>\n

Dennis won\u2019t start a consulting assignment without first seeing extensive data from a potential client about its business and the makeup of its board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them when they contact me, \u2018You all already have the data,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou have a lot of information. It\u2019s in someone\u2019s basement dusting up or on someone\u2019s bookshelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say, \u2018I do evaluations and assessments and I can help you,\u2019 and that\u2019s when they [frequently] disappear. They listen to experts who tell them something that they can find on a Google search,\u201d said Dennis. \u201cThey tell businesses, \u2018You can pay all this money and get a certificate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s useless, she said. \u201cI tell people, \u2018You can waste your entire life talking about bias\u2019\u201d without changing a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not baking a cake here,\u201d said Harper. \u201cThere\u2019s not some quick recipe that will make racial harmony in an organization. The old paradigms made companies over-confident about what could be accomplished. It took a hell of a long time to get here. It\u2019s going to take a long time to get out of it. These are cultural issues at corporations. It\u2019s going to take generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0Zenger News<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Erik Sherman\u00a0 Untold millions of dollars plowed into six decades of corporate diversity training and consulting have failed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t