• Expert shows why workplace diversity efforts fall short
• “If you want to hire diverse people, let them be diverse”
(Total Recorded Time is 20:20)
Despite decades of effort, workplace diversity still seems almost ephemeral. Michelle Silverthorn, an organizational diversity expert, is on a mission to change that.
She says that no matter how much organizations say inclusion matters or diversity counts, leadership in America looks the same as it did a century ago. In the Fortune 500 companies that compile diversity numbers, less than 4 percent of their workforces are racially and ethnically diverse. Additionally, the 2020 Women in the Workplace study of 279 companies found thar white workers occupied 86 percent of C-suite positions.
But hiring a diverse workforce is not the ultimate goal.
“If you want to hire diverse people, let them be diverse,” says Ms. Silverthorn. “Let them use those differences to succeed because that’s why you hired them in the first place.”
Ms. Silverthorn offers ideas to make organizations truly diverse in this Bizgnus Podcast.