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STAFFING SOLUTIONS
Diverse Staff Brings benefits |
By Deborah DeVoe |
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Take a close look at your IT staff. If you don't see a diverse mix of genders and ethnic backgrounds, you may be foregoing a competitive edge. By recruiting women and underrepresented minorities, companies ensure that they are hiring from the largest possible pool of qualified workers. This can help ease the current IT staffing crunch. (For more on the skills shortage, see Labor pains .) |
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The benefits of a diverse staff go beyond meeting the demand for Skilled workers. Varied perspectives foster greater innovation. In addition, many companies' customer and employee bases are made up of very diverse populations. Having an IT staff that reflects that diversity enables the staff to better understand the needs of the people they serve. And the existence of a diverse staff is more likely to attract the current generation of workers.
"One of the values of the new workforce is diversity," says Kip Harrell, director of university relations at U.S.West, in Denver. "When they come looking for jobs right out of college and see the diversity here, it helps us to fill our positions."
To diversify staffs, companies need to make considerable efforts. These include implementing in-house programs that target underrepresented groups and also building partnerships at all levels of academia.
"Education is a major issue," says Jaleh Daie, president of the Women in Science and Technology Alliance, and a biology professor at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. Daie recently served on a national task force that addressed recruiting underrepresented groups to the IT field. 'We have problems all the way from girls and minorities not being encouraged to go into these fields when in school. Some kids don't even have access to computers to see if they like to work with them.'
To solve these problems, companies can team up with universities, especially those with large populations of minorities, to organize internship programs. Programs at high schools and middle schools can show students positive role models of people working in the IT field.
Companies also need to create a comfortable work environment for women and minorities.
"If I were an African-American or Hispanic and looked at a group of all upper middle class white guys, I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable there," says Kent Hughes, associate deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of the Secretary, in Washington. "If a business can create a place where minorities and women want to work, they're going to have a competitive edge' '
This includes rectifying the dearth of women and minorities in high-level positions.
"We need to make sure there are women and minorities at the top to be role models and bring change to policy," Daie notes.
U.S. West has implemented a program that addresses this problem. The Edge Program seeks out a pool of MBA students that includes at least 50 percent underrepresented minorities to enter a management development program. Edge participants spend four to six months in a variety of business units; the goal is to hire the candidates at more senior positions.
The added value of initiatives such as U.S. West's Edge Program is placing minority candidates in higher-profile jobs. As a result, prospective employees that are typically underrepresented can see role models like them, reflecting room for advancement and the possibility for mentors from a similar background.
Last but not least, having a diverse staff furthers the goal of equal opportunity and the elimination of discrimination. Anita Brown, another task force participant, founded Black Geeks Online to provide African-Americans with a community for networking and support within the technology arena.
"If women and people of color are not [part of your staff], whatever is considered the norm continues on," Brown says.
Deborah DeVoe is a free-lance writer in Big Sky, Mont.
© Copyright 1998 by InfoWorld Media Group Inc. Reproduction is with express written permission.