Develop Junior Talent to Build a Diverse Company

 Fri 23 April 2021

Develop Junior Talent to Build a Diverse Company
For employers to make meaningful progress around diversity, equity, and inclusion, they need to focus less on hiring and more on creating systems to develop, promote, and retain diverse junior talent. Here are five steps to help you do that in your organization.

  (1)   Don’t just track representation, track mobility.
 To evaluate progress toward a truly inclusive workplace, it’s important to understand who is moving up within the firm, not just who is employed.
(2)    Benchmark to set actionable goals. How does your firm’s mobility compare to other firms in your industry? New data sources mine the online profiles of tens of millions of workers to offer benchmarks for specific peers, roles, and locations.
  (3)  Identify internal reservoirs of talent.
Chart the skills your employees have, not just the roles they are in. This will help you identify capabilities that these employees can leverage as they progress in their careers.
 (4)   Assess the health of your pipeline.
Audit and analyze the diversity, or lack thereof, at every level of your organization.
 (5)    Build “talent escalators” for your junior talent.
Invest in training resources and learning opportunities, and proactively roadmap the career paths of your junior employees.

This tip is adapted from “To Build a Diverse Company for the Long Term, Develop Junior Talent,” by Matt Sigelman and Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.