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Feature: Diversity: The Obama Effect

Diversity: The Obama Effect

Experts believe the election of the first African-American president of the
United States will redefine workplace diversity, placing a greater emphasis on
multiculturalism and socioeconomic status.
By Jessica Marquez
Comments 4 | Recommend 16

n many ways, Subha Barry believes her job will be easier now that the
United States has its first African-American president. She was having lunch
at a diversity conference in Hong Kong when the organizers broadcast
President-elect Barack Obama’s November 4 victory speech in Chicago.

"I remember thinking that the job of any supporter of diversity is going to
be much easier because we now have this visual symbol in the most powerful
role in the world," says Barry, managing director of global diversity and
= Member Only
inclusion at Merrill Lynch.
But Barry also realizes that with Obama’s presidency comes a new set of
challenges—the most game-changing of which will be how his position raises
the bar in defining diversity. No longer will it be sufficient for companies to
simply consider race, sex and religion in silos, Barry says. Experts believe
there will be more focus on multicultural as well as socioeconomic diversity
within the workplace.
Feature Contents
1. Appeal for Diversity
To better serve their multicultural customer markets, corporations
are putting pressure on the law firms they hire to diversify. But
advocates say minorities have made only moderate gains in the
legal profession.
2. Companies Must Set Diversity Goals
While many people think diversity in the workplace is a numbers
game—think headcounts and quotas—the truth is measuring
diversity involves more than simple math. This series focuses on

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But before companies can even think about working on these more
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challenges that are expected under Obama’s administration. These include Candidate Sourcing

increased criticism of affirmative action policies by opponents as well as Discrimination and EEOC Compliance

greater enforcement of affirmative action policies by the government.

All of this comes as companies face the biggest economic crisis in years. A E-mail this document
Conference Board survey of CEOs released in October found that having a
Printer-friendly version
diverse workforce fell in importance by four rankings since last summer, while
reducing health care costs jumped seven rankings. Write to the Editor

"It’s probably going to be more difficult for HR to get the CEO’s attention Reprint Information
on these kinds of issues right now," says Toni Riccardi, senior vice president
of HR and chief diversity officer at the Conference Board. "It’s not that
diversity is less important to employers; it’s just that other things are more
important."

Election’s impact
Within days of the election, HR executives already were hearing arguments
from critics of affirmative action saying that Obama’s victory was a sign that
there isn’t a need for diversity policies, says Lewis Benavides, vice president

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for HR at Texas Woman’s University and a member of the Society for Human
Resource Management’s special-expertise panel on workplace diversity. A
similar concern was raised by several SHRM diversity panel members at a
meeting November 10 in Alexandria, Virginia, Benavides says.

"There is an acknowledgement that when the highest officer of the land is

= Member Only
an African-American, there will be people who will say, ‘Why do we need
To bookmark this
these programs anymore?’ " he says.
page, use Ctrl+D
It’s an issue particularly for companies with voluntary diversity programs,
experts say. Companies may also see an increase in reverse-discrimination
lawsuits from white males, Mehta says.

"Given the economic conditions, it might not be hard for opponents of

affirmative action to find possible plaintiffs for these cases," he says.

At the same time, companies with affirmative action policies in place can
expect that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of
Federal Contract Compliance Programs will have more resources under
Obama and be more aggressive about enforcing affirmative action policies.

The majority of Fortune 1,000 companies have contracts with the

government, and thus have affirmative action policies, experts say.

Under the George W. Bush administration, agencies like the OFCCP saw
their budgets cut, so they weren’t as effective as they could have been, says
Renee Dunman, president of the Affirmative Action Association, a group of
diversity and affirmative action officers from private and public organizations.
In fiscal 2008, President George W. Bush requested a budget of $84.2 million
for the OFCCP, down from $85.2 million in 2006 and significantly down from
the $92.3 million requested in 2001. "I think Obama is going to look at that
budget and say, ‘No wonder you can’t do the compliance piece,’ " she says.

Experts also predict that under the Obama administration, the OFCCP will
have more support from the Office of the Solicitor General, which tries Sponsored Tools
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information on companies’ compensation data and affirmative action
programs. The program was dropped in 2006, but Mark Bendick, partner at Get Listed >>>
Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants, a Washington-based diversity
consultant that helped evaluate the tool in 2006, believes the Obama
administration will bring back the survey.

"It would mean that the federal government is going to be in a better

position to know when there are glass-ceiling problems and wage
discrimination going on within companies," Bendick says.

For HR and diversity executives confronting push back about spending

money on diversity issues, this increased enforcement may help explain the
business case behind these measures, Bendick says.

"HR staffs within companies that have affirmative action will now have
more ammunition with which to go to the CEO and make their case, because
enforcement is going to be more stringent," he says.

Redefining diversity
Opponents of affirmative action cite a television interview with Obama last
spring as a sign that he agrees with their stance. In that interview,
commentator George Stephanopoulos asked whether Obama thought his
daughters should get affirmative action protections. Obama responded, "I
think that my daughters should probably be treated by any admissions officer
as folks who are pretty advantaged."

Obama added: "I think that we should take into account white kids who

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have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves
to have what it takes to succeed."

While diversity experts don’t believe that this is a sign that Obama will do
away with affirmative action edicts, they do agree that it may mean that the
administration will encourage more emphasis on recruiting candidates from
various socioeconomic backgrounds.

Focusing on socioeconomic status is "very cutting edge" and just now is

starting to be part of the diversity discussions at some employers, Bendick
says. "Companies that are really trying to establish diversity initiatives around
the business case are finding that they have to be more sophisticated about
how they define diversity," he says.

Bendick offers the example of a retail client that has traditionally hired
African-Americans to work in its stores in inner-city neighborhoods.

"The assumption was that African-American customers would relate to

African-American salespeople," he says. But the client hired middle-class
African-American college graduates and soon discovered these salespeople
had no cultural connection with the customers.

"The salespeople were as much strangers to this low-income minority

neighborhood as their white colleagues," he says. So Bendick is working with
the client to hire salespeople from a similar background to that of its
customers, which might have nothing to do with race, he says.

For many companies, hiring a workforce from different socioeconomic

backgrounds will mean going beyond the list of universities and colleges
where they usually recruit, says Peter Bye, president of MDB Group, a
Livingston, New Jersey-based diversity consultant.

Often to attract minority candidates, companies will go to historically black

colleges, which are excellent sources of talent, he says. "But now let’s also
consider the City University of New York, which has more African-American
students than all of the historically black universities, and they have as many
Latino students, but they are more diverse from a socioeconomic standpoint,"
Bye says.

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Merrill Lynch has been trying to focus on socioeconomic diversity through

its recruiting, Barry says.

For the past five years, Merrill has been the lead sponsor of a summer
program for inner-city high school students through Rice University in
Houston. Through Rice’s Summer Business Institute, each year 40 to 50 high
school students from 10 of Houston’s inner-city schools are invited to take two
weeks of business courses. Merrill invites the students into its offices and has
created a mentorship program. "A handful of exceptional students get
internships at Merrill," Barry says.

Merrill has hired four students as interns from the program. Now that
Merrill has been acquired by Bank of America, Barry and her team are
looking to establish this model abroad with similar arrangements with Hong
Kong universities as well educational institutions in London, Barry says.

"My goal is to do this in major centers where we have large operations,"

she says. "We believe there is a huge opportunity to create a pipeline for future
talent while also having a positive social impact."

Socioeconomic diversity is on the radar at Citigroup as well, although no

formal plans have been established, says Duarte McCarthy, the company’s
chief diversity officer.

Right now the focus at Citigroup is on multiculturalism, and diversity

executives believe that having a biracial president will raise awareness around
this topic.

"It’s helpful that Obama seems to be comfortable discussing some of the

race issues very explicitly and matter-of-factly," Bendick says, noting that
when a reporter asked Obama what kind of dog the family was going to get,
he responded that he wanted "a mutt like me."

"I thought that comment was very helpful in expressing a tone that says,
‘It’s all right to talk about race,’ " Bendick says.

Citigroup has been trying to focus on multicultural issues for some time.
Duarte McCarthy is trying to get the company’s employee affinity groups,
which are organized by race or ethnicity, to interact more. Not only would this

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help each group pool its resources, but it also addresses the fact that there are
many employees who could be members of several affinity groups.

"We are really trying to get more of these groups to do more together, more
unity-type programming," Duarte McCarthy says.

Merrill Lynch is also trying to get its affinity groups to hold more events
together to promote multiculturalism, Barry says. "I’m really thinking about
approaching things with this multicultural lens as opposed to having silos
based on race and gender," she says.

Barry wants to establish cross-network groups that could organize events

for the various affinity groups within the company. She also is looking into
ways that the company could measure employee attendance at these events. "I
have seen this at other firms," she says.

Ideally, Barry wants to establish a requirement of how many events an

employee has to attend per year and that would become part of the employee’s
performance evaluation. "People may initially attend events because they have
to check a box, but they stay and learn and it benefits everyone," she says.

The economy
While diversity executives are energized by Obama’s election, they say that
in this economic climate, getting diversity initiatives to be front and center in
top executives’ minds can be challenging.

But these are the times that it’s more important than ever for companies to
prove their dedication to diversity issues, executives say.

Citigroup is making it a point to continue with diversity events that it sees

as core to its business, Duarte McCarthy says. In fact, on November 17—the
same day that the company announced it would be laying off 52,000
employees—the firm held its annual Women’s Leadership Development
Program, which invites 31 female employees to its Armonk, New York,
development center for three days of seminars.

"Some people were surprised that we continued with the program," Duarte
McCarthy says. "But we feel it’s important to send a strong message that we
are going to continue to focus on developing talent. And that might mean in

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2009, there will be more potluck dinners and brown bag lunches," she says.

At Merrill, the activities might shift, but not the intent behind them, Barry
says.

"We now focus on retention as much as we are focused on recruiting," she

says. "So the focus may change, but the ability to be nimble and adapt makes
us smarter."

Workforce Management Online, February 2009 -- Register Now!

Jessica Marquez is New York bureau chief for Workforce Management.

E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.

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bridgepartnersllc wrote:
It is refreshing to see that the election of a leader who represents many aspects of
diversity – multiculturalism, ethnic and cultural background (and even in the group that
consists of past and present Presidents, age) – has inspired at least some US companies
and public sector institutions to take a broader approach to diversity. Maybe this could
even be defined as a less US-centric approach, embracing global diversity imperatives
such as socioeconomic status and multiculturalism. However, while the election of
President Obama may have served as the catalyst for this change, we believe the work
will fall mainly on the shoulders of progressive institutions - and society as a whole - to
proactively make an impact with regard to diversity and social responsibility in every
aspect of their day-to-day operations...regardless of, or even in spite of, economic
challenges. Bridge Partners LLC, an executive search firm that focuses on the recruitment
of diverse, senior-level executives, believes that federal initiatives such as EEOC and
OFCCP have served an important function in the past. However, in a corporate setting,
compliance can only go so far in establishing a successful, diverse work environment.
There is a strong business case and economic imperative for companies from all sectors
to embrace diversity initiatives, both of which need to be highlighted to ensure success.
Ultimately, if attracting and developing diverse employees isn’t a company’s primary
concern, there is nothing that the mere existence of President Obama can do to
strengthen that company’s reputation as an employer of choice. Tory Clarke, Partner,
Bridge Partners LLC http://www.bridgepartnersllc.com
Thursday, February 12, 109 1:25:20 PM
Recommend 0 Report Abuse

ozhr wrote:
Ok, so perhaps I am a little naive but doesn't it - in this day and age - just come down to
the right person for the job? It seems to in Australia in my humble opinion. From what I
have read, President Kennedy first introduced affirmative action in 1961, it was very
important at the time and over the next few decades but as we now live and work in a
global village, haven't we started to reap the rewards and embrace everyone's
differences? How boring it would be if we were all the same! I have only ever hired the
best person for the job; their colour, religion, sex, socioeconomic background and so on
doesn't make the slightest difference to me as long as they can do the job that I am
recruiting for. President Obama, for all intents and purposes, was voted by the American
people to be the right man for the job; I think it would be insulting to him if he thought he
was voted in just because he was African-American? I work for a successful small
company with 40 or so full time employees plus another 30 part time or casual employees;
of these we currently have 14 nations represented and a fairly even split of men and
women employees - we have a pretty much even number of male and female managers
too. It works really well for us; we have diversity management issues at times but on the
whole any issues usually come down to a communication problem and are easily rectified.
We have a great team; great social club and great morale - people enjoy coming to work.
The election of the first African-American president of the United States will not redefine
our workplace diversity, or place a greater emphasis on multiculturalism and
socioeconomic status for us; it just confirms that we are on the right track and gives hope
for a more united global future.
Tuesday, February 10, 109 9:35:25 PM
Recommend 2 Report Abuse

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amribe wrote:
". . .when a reporter asked Obama what kind of dog the family was going to get, he
responded that he wanted 'a mutt like me.'" A lot goes into a mutt and mutts often have a
more diverse set of experiences than the so-called pure bred. President Obama's
campaign and election created a huge window of opportunity for the diversity
conversation. In fact, in my opinion it has actually created a real "diversity" conversation
vs. what we have been conversing about post-Civil Rights--race relations. While our
intention has been inclusive, our actual dialogue has been less than inclusive and not at
all significantly transcendent. In making the transition for transformation, we have to
acknowledge our dichotomous dynamics of race and not cease in seeking equity on this
basis. Simultaneously, can we go deeper into what it means to innovation, team dynamics,
the empowerment of many vs. the few, and global competitiveness? Yes we can! I am
looking forward to it! Amri Johnson
Tuesday, February 10, 109 3:58:38 PM
Recommend 0 Report Abuse

strat_think wrote:
"There is an acknowledgement that when the highest officer of the land is an African-
American, there will be people who will say, ‘Why do we need these programs anymore?’ "
he says. What else should people be saying? Shouldn't we celebrate the breaking of a
barrier as being symbolic of a movement that has reached a high water mark. We should
spend less time worrying about how to continue these programs under the old banners
and more time determining what the next frontier looks like. Why not focus on identifying
and driving the skills that make diverse team effective. That would add to the productive
capacity of every organization in the country. If the government were to sponsor the
creation of research and free training in this area, a bunch of consultants might be
unhappy, but our businesses could leapfrog the rest of the world. Diversity applied to
getting work done? Sounds pretty cool to me.
Tuesday, February 10, 109 12:28:24 PM
Recommend 0 Report Abuse

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