According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Black leaders in 2018 held only 3.3% of all C-suite and executive or senior leadership roles, defined as those within two reporting levels of the CEO, in the United States. Filling such a substantial equity gap in the C-suite requires that employers make an intentional effort to forge a path to senior leadership roles for Black and brown professionals.
A diverse C-suite can yield short-term advantages, like access to unique and wide-ranging perspectives, but can also produce long-term benefits, like increased talent retention. Black and brown professionals are more likely to stay at a company where they see senior leaders that look like them. This month, we take a closer look at the importance of diversity in the C-suite with insights from Bridge Partners, an executive search firm with a unique mission to diversify senior leadership teams.
Diversity in the C-suite can be viewed as a virtuous cycle.
Building on the knowledge that a diverse senior leadership team is critical for business, Bridge Partners helps employers build C-suites that not only reflect their employee base, clients, and constituents, but also encourage innovation and progressive decision-making. Their Philadelphia team reflects a commitment to drive diversity in all its forms, embedding this core value in every aspect of the company’s culture and practice. Bridge Partners views DEI as a virtuous cycle of favorable outcomes, forming the foundation of a successful DEI strategy.
Diversity in the C-suite ensures a wide range of ideas and perspectives are in the room when strategic decisions are being made; inclusion ensures everyone in the room feels that they belong and that their contributions will be heard and valued; and equity treats everyone in the room fairly and respectfully, with the knowledge that equal treatment does not always yield equal results. Diversity tends to be the first step into this cycle, but it’s important that employers make an intentional effort to ensure it’s not the last.
Re-examine current strategies, or lack thereof, to start setting measurable goals.
Bridge Partners sets the expectation that businesses begin by asking tough questions to seek answers and set actionable goals. Once businesses clearly understand the past and accept the current makeup of senior leadership at their organizations, they can create S.M.A.R.T. – specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, and time-related – goals to start forging paths for Black and brown leaders to more leadership opportunities. Once goals are set, employers can begin to rethink current strategies to achieve them.
Many employers begin by re-examining their current hiring practices. Making an intentional effort to attract candidates with nontraditional education or backgrounds can make a difference. Your organization can start by writing more inclusive job descriptions. Bridge Partners cautions against the use of long lists of “requirements.” Thinking critically about if the MBA, CPA, or the 20+ years of experience is really needed for a candidate to be successful in the role opens the door to a more diverse talent pool.
There are internal initiatives and external resources you can begin to implement now.
Start by ensuring your recruitment and human resources teams are diverse. Bridge Partners recommends having Black and brown leaders in the room during selection, hiring, and promotion processes. Keep in mind that representation matters. Your teams that manage recruitment and talent management should reflect and model what you would like to continue to create internally. When it comes to hiring, diverse candidates are more likely to join your team if they see individuals like themselves who have had successful careers and can speak to the opportunities for growth at your organization.
Another initiative could be to start an employee referral program that incentivizes employees to recommend people from their networks to apply. If your organization has a team of diverse high performers, there is a strong likelihood that they know others of similar talent. A client of Bridge Partners currently has a program that offers a $2,500 finder’s fee to a non-management employee who refers a potential candidate, who is then hired, and also remains employee with the company for six months. This program, and others like it, can produce strong pipelines for Black and brown professionals.
In addition to that, external resources, like associations, are abundant. Employers can work to build long-term relationships with professional associations and organizations that focus on providing support, education, and resources to Black and brown professionals. Industries from accounting to engineering and information technology all tend to have their own associations. Having your recruitment team attend a meeting and get acquainted with their leaders and members can serve as yet another bridge to senior leadership and the C-suite.
Finally, businesses looking for diverse candidates can reach out to an executive search firm, like Bridge Partners, that focuses on providing diverse and inclusive candidate lists for their clients. For any firm you evaluate, it’s important to ask how they develop their recruitment and outreach strategies, the types of candidates they have in their network, and what their annual search statistics are as it relates to the placement of Black and brown candidates. This information will help you understand their commitment to diversity and their ability to provide you with a list of strong candidates.
Last year, the Chamber and leaders across the region made a commitment to equity, pledging to identify areas for change to hold ourselves accountable to a high standard of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplaces and throughout the region.
As the Chamber continues our longstanding commitment to the fight for equality, we’re highlighting ways our business community can implement new strategies to meaningfully increase diversity, equity, and inclusion to bring about lasting change in the workplace. Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative drives economic competitiveness, highlights diverse employee populations, and promotes inclusive growth throughout our region.
FULL ARTICLE: https://chamberphl.com/2021/01/equity-in-action-diversity-in-the-c-suite/
