Anyone else look at the org chart and see a class model? Minorities at the SME lowest level, whites in the SD, VP, ELG, SLT?
Really makes you wonder, are these ERG’s just a good will cover?
3 replies (most recent on top)
White people make up 75% of the United States, so if you are truly pursuing a workforce that "looks like the communities we work in," then that's what you get.
I can vouch for the previous poster as well, speaking as a non-white male leader. Promoting white males is highly scrutinized and sometimes discouraged behind the scenes. Because there are gender/race quotas for having a certain number of women and POC in senior positions, it's common practice for leaders to "prioritize" them in order to hit their goals.
I don't think incompetent people are getting promoted, but white males need to be significantly more competent than their diverse colleagues to land the job. "Slightly above average + diverse" will beat "highly above average + white" most times. There is also a race hierarchy of sorts - black/hispanic people are tracked specifically and get more attention, while Asians (including Indians) are barely considered a minority (something that annoys me personally).
People will say it used to be the reverse back then, so now it's just them catching up... either way, don't delude yourself into thinking minorities aren't getting a fair shake. If they're average at their job and show interest in furthering their career, it's a golden ticket not only to the next role, but also to tens of thousands of dollars of leadership training, support groups, conferences, etc. All of those are handed out with race and gender being a primary factor.
Not sure there is a class system but I was held from a promotion p2 to p3 because of gender and race. I was told by my leader and HR it would be 2023 when there is more quota. Definitely weird times at the company.
Quite the opposite. Too many unqualified minority leaders in high level positions merely because of ERG's and WIT.