You Hired Black Talent, Now What?

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Written By Neisha Springer

Photo by amazing artist Jessica Felicio

Whether any of what you read helps get you started or supports different points on your journey as an employer, hiring manager, or leader, please build on the fact that you are starting somewhere! Equity is a key component of what I am highlighting in this article. The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality, whereas “equality” means providing the same to all. “Equity” means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and adjust imbalances along the way. This takes accountability and awareness, and empathy for other human lives. All employees from all walks of life need a lot of what I will mention. So please don’t discredit that, acknowledge you must remain strategic and agile in your thinking, resources, process, and programming, to support your full workforce. It’s important for a company to evaluate how they create equitable experiences for their entire workforce. For the purpose of this article and my chosen topic, I’ve included many tips for not only finding black talent but keeping your black talent.

The average recruiting cost in 2022 was approximately $5,000 per hire and this is not considering any agency fees incurred due to leveraging recruitment firms which can account for 16%-25% of the employee's starting annual salary. Nor is it accounting for the time spent onboarding or lack of. Some of those hires were meant to bring diversity and change to your organization but in less than a year your black talent has up and left. This is all too real for many who are experiencing it as a black person; and those who are experiencing it as an employer. This is a huge loss, one that impacts my heart and mind. I love black people; I am a black person. I've taken it on as a part of my life's work to help employers set the conditions that would be right, to help their black talent stay and so I’ve written this article with a few words of advice to help guide you on your journey to “keeping your black talent.”

According to Fortune.com, over the past few years, we’ve seen a greater representation of Black executives leading organizations big and small. At the same time, we’ve also seen Black professionals–women in particular–at the edge of a “glass cliff,” a concept in which professionals are promoted into high-profile roles but, despite their merit, skills, experience, and knowledge, aren’t given the resources they need to succeed. While promoting Black professionals might seem like a great retention and diversifying tool, companies often don’t set them up for success. Adequate support systems, such as mentorship, sponsorship, and learning and development are lacking. We are seeing Black professionals leave the workforce for lack of competitive wages (46%), lack of professional development (25%), and lack of investment in DEI (17%). This is really where companies are left with the work that they need to do to fundamentally understand that without professional development, and true meaningful career growth, it will be very difficult for companies to retain the Black talent that they have. I would add that mentorship and advocacy need to be a part of the equation.

This morning I woke up, determined to push a few things out into the world that would help elevate the state of many black people across the US, and the world at large. With the loss of affirmative action this year, and the pain and sting still in the air with the public murder of George Floyd and the corporate battle cry for Black talent, companies have made some progress but still have a lot of work to do to continue to improve engagement, growth, and retention practices. Many black leaders are still truly hurt and working in conditions where their role may be a head fake, or they have a large charge and no resources or voice to enact change. We have also seen a massive increase in hiring black talent but to many lower-level roles.

Considering that we don’t get to just be employees, and we actually have meaningful and colorful lives - there are many fears that still weigh on our people. What does the loss of affirmative action mean for us…for our children...for Diversity, equity, and inclusion, at large? What is going to happen with diversity program or any mechanism in place to bring equity? These are very real fears many black people face while dealing with microaggressions, false promises, or feelings of being capable but invisible, in Corporate America. Now, assuming good intent (we know not all employers want to fix the problem), I must believe that this is something employers would like to address but maybe they don't have the knowledge or tools, to do so.

Photo by Kim Carpenter on Unsplash.jpg

Challenging the Stigma Around Hiring Diverse Candidates

As a leader who spends time building Inclusive Hiring and Training, I've heard too often that Leaders or Hiring Managers worry that hiring diverse talent means hiring less capable or less qualified talent. This is a myth and one that is dangerous. Inclusive Hiring means that you seek out someone's ability to make an impact versus their experience in just a role or on a specific track.

More and more companies are assessing their talent based on skills versus experience, which is a stronger step in the right direction. It's important to know a candidate's story, to be sure you share similar values but be okay not sharing the same viewpoints. Inclusive Hiring is about hiring for what you don’t already have. If you hear anyone ever saying we have to hire less qualified talent where diversity is concerned, don't be a Bystander - challenge their thinking. It will make both you and them, better people, and make for a better culture and experience for everyone.

Inclusive Hiring or Diversity Recruiting is about hiring people who think differently than you but share the same values and goals. The focus for Inclusive Hiring should be on what you don't have but could be good to have, and the candidates' ability to make an impact or show transferrable skills and experiences. By doing this you are not hiring less talented people you are hiring for potential and capability, and I'd add character to the mix to round it all out. To do this build leaders who are capable of recognizing opportunity (potential) and cultivating it (coaching and growing). You ever hear 10 years a manager doesn't make a good manager?” That mindset helps shape the thinking around the ingredients for what makes a great hire. The ability to make an impact and capability trumps experience and will continue to do so.

Where Are the Black People?

Make it a part of your recruiting process to identify and leverage black organizations, community leaders, and anyone committed to truly doing this work. It takes a village, so be very clear in identifying diversity partners, universities, and if possible black leaders or talent themselves who “want” to help drive. Note “want”, people please stop forcing black people to do their own work in fixing a shared problem. If you are not sure, just ask. Asking invites, them in to do this work but does not mandate it. You should also ask your black people what they think and for perspective to shape your direction and thinking. One of my favorite quotes is by world-famous business mogul Jay-Z. I couldn’t imagine running an inclusive hiring training and not showcasing this mindset shift to help guide leaders for growing potential stems around the ideal “We all have genius-level talent.” Click the image link to be directed to YouTube.

The Conditions We Set As an Employer

Ensuring psychological safety helps your talent spend less time worrying about whether they're worthy of being on their team. Less time questioning sanity or validating the experiences that really feel icky. Individuals on teams with higher psychological safety are less likely to leave. This is another factor, with a direct correlation to engagement. Psychological safety takes role clarity, creating a space where people can agree to disagree and if need be have healthy conflict, diversifying opportunities, mentoring, and building transparent career paths. It takes being intentional about the experiences you as a leader, afford your team. 

It is an employer, team, and leader's job, at the core, to help set conditions for their teams to thrive and excel. It's not enough to get diverse talent in the door or to have a diverse team makeup.

• You must plan for your talent's runway and their experiences.

• Build a psychologically safe environment.

• Put your money behind it, invest in their growth, or in addressing any known or identified skill performance and opportunity gaps.

• Educate your people on micro messaging and undertones in language, that can manifest as microaggressions, microinsults, microassaults, or microinvalidations. Microaggressions, insults, invalidations, and assaults hurt people mentally and emotionally.

• Offer learning and experiences to be more cultured, and aware, and to remove blind spots and biases. Holding people accountable to really and truly “walk the talk.”

• If you hire black leaders, let them lead. Empower them don't ask them to do thankless or resourceless, jobs. It costs them us too much in the end to accommodate.

Advocates and Champions

All people need advocates but those who have been disempowered or have not had the privilege of experiences or education that afford them equitable opportunity, really, need advocates. Having an advocate at work has a direct correlation to engagement. It is a true engagement driver, so if you want more engaged employees, this is a point to focus on or lean into.

Consider the touch points established for your diverse talent. Where do they go when conflict arises that can afford them an equitable review or treatment? Mentorship and Sponsorship are two very critical needs for your black talent. If you don't have an existing mentorship or sponsorship program - build the damn thing.

Manager-Employee Relationships

Managers need help and may not have all of the answers but one of the most compelling things to keep top of mind is that approximately 57% of people leave bad managers versus wanting to leave their employers. According to a 2020 survey from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management).

• 84 percent of American workers say poorly trained people managers create a lot of unnecessary work and stress.

• 57 percent of American workers say managers in their workplace could benefit from training on how to be a better people manager.

• Half (50 percent) feel their own performance would improve if their direct supervisor received additional training in people management.

These numbers have since evolved but the need for people manager development continues to be a key priority in improving workplace culture and engagement. In the Harvard Business Review article “What Do Black Executives Really Want?” Black leaders want leaders who genuinely care about them. They want 3 key things: to feel seen, to feel heard, and to feel supported. To me, these equate to basic human needs. Getting really curious about what this means as a manager, is a part of being in leadership. Professional development remains a top priority and key engagement drive for both managers and employees.

Numbers Don't Lie, Leverage the Data

For companies looking to understand trends in managerial-employee relationships, really try to leverage your engagement and pulse survey data, onboarding and mid-year check-in data, and any other data that helps with a strong look back, such as consistent exit data, if you see more than two people leave a year from under one of your leaders. Ask questions, dig in. That leader may have some challenges that they need to form awareness of and support for growth. We cannot leave our managers without support, it's critical - our talent, and their lives, also depend on this.

Regardless of what data you decide to collect, I've included some stats on black talent for your consideration. Data collected from a 2021 SHRM report on the cost of racial inequities in the workplace shows that:

• Over 2 in 5 Black workers (42 percent) feel they faced race- or ethnicity-based unfair treatment at work in the past five years.

• Turnover due to racial inequity in the workplace may have cost U.S. organizations up to $172 billion over the past five years.

• Absenteeism due to anxiety, worry, stress, or frustration stemming from experiencing or witnessing unfair treatment based on race or ethnicity in the workplace may have cost U.S. businesses up to $54 billion in the past year.

• Lost productivity was even more costly, carrying a nearly $59 billion price tag in the last year.

The inaugural Black Business Leadership Survey, conducted by CNBC in partnership with the Executive Leadership Council shows mixed results in corporate America’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. The survey was conducted June 1-June 14, including members of the ELC, with the majority from organizations of 10,000 employees or larger. Sixty percent of respondents are in the C-suite or at their organization's executive vice president level.

• Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of Black executives surveyed said they saw a positive change in the hiring, retention, and promotion of Black employees since Floyd was killed in May 2020.

• On the other hand, 43 percent of them said the treatment of Black employees at their company has remained the same, and 9 percent said it has gotten worse.

• Half of those surveyed said Black employees still have fewer opportunities than other employees in their organization.

Let Your Black People Be

Microaggressions are just one of the major challenges that black people experience. Other issues stem around, undermining and engaging in behavior to discredit or disempower them. Its important we engage in ongoing learning around language and behavior, and the undertones. Everyone in your company should have a basic understand as to what micromessages are and how they appear; and they should have an equal understanding for microaffirmations and validations, which have the opposite effect and help encourage psychological safety, acceptance, value, and belonging.

As Stephen Young said many years ago, we “Manage the elephants…as the ants walk by.” This means we are so busy focusing on the big things that may seem obvious while your people are being hurt by a thousand cuts (the ants). We have to be educated. The Harvard Business Review (HBR) article titled "An Antidote to Microaggressions? Microvalidations," is a really good written piece for explaining the importance of microaffirmations and microvalidations and speaking to the power it can bring into our way of showing up for each other. According to the HBR article, people from marginalized groups often experience subtle negative actions called microaggressions that, in aggregate, can adversely affect both performance and well-being. Based on a wide body of research in positive psychology and management, the authors propose a counterstrategy: microvalidations.

In a recent KFF poll, the vast majority (71%) of Black Americans say they’ve experienced some form of racial discrimination or mistreatment during their lifetimes – including nearly half (48%) who say at one point that they felt their life was in danger because of their race. This is a very real thing, and not one imagined nor made up. 

Be curious about your talents journey, their story, what makes them, them. Struggle doesn’t mean lack of ability, it just means lack of exposure and accessibility. Many people have to get to where they are by methods and ways that others may or may not understand. I recommend as leaders you bring a natural curiosity to hearing people out, being ok when they may not be ok but lending encouragement and empowerment to do what they feel is right to persevere, and just be a beacon towards hope, endless possibility, and a often reminder for grace.

What accelerated my career is having advocates who are white, black, asian, hispanic, you get my point, advocates across so many cultures and backgrounds. I have a village to pour into, and one who pours into me. Beautiful isn’t it? This is what your people need.

Leadership, Stand-Up, Take the Lead

Leadership is about being and less about doing. It's about your ability to empower and unleash potential in others while driving the business forward, finding resources for your teams, creating a psychologically safe environment, and affording equitable experiences. This is a skill and a way of being. Not an outfit to put on Sunday morning for church. We have to be vigilant about growing as leaders and leading other leaders to embody both the Competence and the Character to truly build diverse, high-performing, and innovative teams. Leadership is not for the faint-hearted. It takes genuinely giving a damn about your people, and truly seeing the potential in them, and knowing how to help cultivate growth.

Take Your Talent on An Inclusion Journey, United You Stand

Allow them to understand that everyone has bias. That is a fact, not a question or comment. We are humans, we have a brain, and therefore we will all have biases. The key is “knowing.” When you Know better, you can do better! That said, start somewhere and take your talent along the journey toward taking ownership of and being a part of a more inclusive environment. To start, think about the company you want to be versus who you are now, and state that publicly, draw a clear line in the sand, and invite your talent to join you. Make it a part of your value proposition, and then build it into the fabric of your organization. Provide training on psychological safety, building inclusive teams, and how to be the best human beings they can be. Why? Character goes a long way and is synonymous with Diversity and Inclusion.

While the public outcry and terrifying situation that started when George Floyd died under police custody may have jolted corporate leaders into admitting how widespread racism still remains. I must reiterate that none of this work is easy but it is worth it. It takes character and grit, doing what is right as a human being. I’d also back that up by saying it's good for business and innovation. With the mass movement and continued cry for equity, the exodus of black leaders and diversity officers, and some false promises made, the road can and will still be bright as long as we show up fully for this collective challenge. Don't let any of this defeat you if you are at the start of this work, instead I ask that you take a stance, make a serious and financially backed commitment. Do the good human thing. We are all capable of it. Replace assumptions with curiosity and care. Ask questions, versus making speculations.

For more direct conversations, guidance on pouring into your people or just guidance or support with navigating organizational and societal challenges, visit our website: www.rosesgrow.com. Let’s chat!

The opinions expressed in this commentary piece are solely the views of its author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune, CNBC, SHRM or the Executive Leadership Council (ELC).

Sources

Neisha Springer
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