by michele_heyward | Apr 25, 2022 | DEI
2020 was a significant year for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As the global pandemic erupted, the inequalities against people of color grew. Women, especially of color, exited the workforce disproportionally, and that raised some fundamental questions on where we stand on diversity retention. While the politics on race and color is still going on, 2020 proved the merits of having a diverse team. Numerous studies have shown that the business case for diversity is strong, and such teams outperform their non-diverse counterparts. There are more than 200 studies that prove how imperative diversity is for businesses. It leads to greater profits, employee engagement, innovation, revenue turnover, and company growth. What’s more is that 90% of CEOs report diversity being their top priority, but unfortunately, the progress toward it has been slow.
Despite the recovering job market, the plight of the unemployed black and Latino women is the same. Black and Latina women were disproportionately laid off with reported jobless rates of 9.9% and 8.5%, respectively, in February 2021. Unfortunately, the employment for Black women is still 9.7%, although lower than it was in February 2020.
The people or demographics that are hit the hardest take the longest time to recover, which goes on to show that women of color will have to start from the bottom again. They were already climbing a ladder with broken rungs and the pandemic has taken away the progress they had so far. At this rate, women will not reach leadership equity with men until 2073. But when you look at underrepresented women in STEM, it has reached a crisis. The real question now is that women of color with degrees in STEM are here, but why aren’t they being represented? Even if they are hired, why don’t they end up in leadership positions? Why is their talent not identified?
It can easily be surmised that the problem isn’t with diversity anymore. Plenty of companies and CEOs understand its importance and realize that actions ought to be taken fast for their companies to grow and have equal representation. For years, the lack of diverse employees is justified by the supposed lack of resources or what we call the ‘pipeline problem’, but that’s not the case anymore. It is completely untrue and dismisses the effects of racism on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color’s careers. The issue isn’t diversity but is inclusion. The real problem is retaining diverse employees, especially underrepresented women of color in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Although the number of women in computing professions has increased since 2017, so has the number of women who leave tech companies and careers. Pushing the numbers to reach the target is important, but the real challenge is to stabilize the workforce. There are more than 48,000 open vacancies for directors and vice-directors of DEI, which shows just how important it is for the companies to have an inclusive culture and to make their diverse talent stay.
In this paper, we aim to focus on how recruitment isn’t the real problem for diverse talent especially Black. Latinx and Indigenous women, but retention is. It intends to shed light on not just women being hired but going up the employee pipeline especially in lieu of the progress associated with the concurrent effects of the pandemic.
by michele_heyward | Apr 25, 2022 | STEM
The debate surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion is a trending topic in corporate America today. Every company is talking about recruiting more diverse candidates (and maybe how to retain them), but more than half the companies aren’t doing the actual work to create inclusion. There is still a need to engage more recent Black women graduates and help them advance the corporate ladder. So, how to do that?
Too often the lack of diversity in STEM is defined as a talent pipeline problem. There are more talented Black women with STEM degrees than many are willing to admit. But why are there still fewer Black women in the workforce? In actuality it’s a culture issue. We can learn about this in the data companies have about employees. We can also see how they are using it.
Using data effectively is the solution to bringing more Black women in STEM into the workplace. It can also lead to advancing their careers, one of the main reasons they exit their technical careers. Here is how your company data can help you get more recent Black graduates to your company talent pipeline:
Where Are You Recruiting Your Interns?
Failure at building an early career pipeline which is diverse is one misstep many organizations make. If you want to hire more recent Black women graduates from STEM programs, your internship data is the way to go. First, look into your internship demographics and see who you are hiring? This means dissecting your interns data with intersectionality in mind.
Identifying where you recruit your interns most often, lets you investigate the diversity of those colleges, universities or particular programs. Are they from Ivy League schools and predominantly white universities and colleges? Are you only sourcing from a handful of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Native Colleges or Hispanic serving institutions (HSI) or none at all?
Why focusing on only Ivy League schools won’t lead to diversifying your employees? Only 8% of Black people make up the diversity in Ivy league schools. The percentage of Black women at Ivy league colleges being far less than that.
It’s important to pay attention to this data. Making sure that you are breaking your stats down to see where you are recruiting interns from and the representation of Black women. If you want to make the selection criteria diverse, you also have to diversify the pool for internship applicants. You have to cast a wider net which attracts Black women. It should also educate them about internships at your organization. You can only achieve this goal if you proactively and consistently look at your internship data to make changes or adjustments to your recruiting strategy.
Engage with & Cultivate The relationships?
Diversifying your inten talent pool is good but you should also engage with them. During their internship, they should be assigned mentors. The mentos will be able to help them adjust to systems, processes and culture of the organization.
Understanding your interns experiences at your organization is critical. Be sure to provide opportunities for them to share their experiences. Having weekly o bi-weekly check-ins is good. Don’t wait until the end of their internship to ask about their experiences. Worst yet is not asking at all.
Also, what percentage of your interns return? According to your data, determine the demographics of interns who return.
After this analysis, review informal and formal mentoring sessions’ notes. Did the intern share issues she had? The sessions you have with interns about their experiences are important and the mentor notes are essential.
In addition, contact the intern to find out why she decided not to return. If and when interns have a bad experience they might not return but they may not share issues either, especially while interning.
During their internship with your company, be in consistent contact with them. It should be a deliberate action that you took in multiple phases, so you can be sure that they are treated well throughout the process. Simultaneously, you can also do an exit interview or get in touch with them after they have left.
Are Your Interns Your Future Full-time Employees?
The second step in building a diverse talent pipeline is to assess the percentage of interns you offer a full-time position. Also assess those who accept the offer and those who decide to turn it down. Next, evaluate the data and numbers that you get. The answers you obtained may require more research and analysis. But note overall how well are you doing with your interns in terms of recruitment.
Check demographics in the percentage of interns you offered full-time employment in various manners. Review the data using an intersectional lens i.e. the division between genders and races, age and gender, etc. Does there exist a gender discrepancy, especially from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color?
Moreover, find out which interns decide not to opt for full-time employment. Depending on that, gauge their experience as interns.
Were they given household duties like getting coffee, taking meeting notes and performing other less technical work? Where did you recruit them from? What were their everyday tasks? Who were they reporting to?
Finally, you can also look into initiatives and ways through which you can get these interns back. It can be as simple as asking them what would make them intern or work for you again.
When you answer these questions authentically using data, you will eventually find out why you are unable to retain your Black female interns as future full-time employees.
More and more Black women are opting for STEM degrees every day. But, that does not mean there is no disparity in the workforce. One of the most promising solutions to the diversity crisis in your organization by retaining fresh and young talent. Engaging more Black women graduates and retaining them will ensure that you open doors for more diversity and inclusion.
