Career and Personal DevelopmentRecruiting, Retaining and Developing African
Americans
As our workplace becomes more diverse, more African Americans are getting an opportunity to move to higher levels in the Corporate ranks. Businesses however, seem to struggle to understand what it really takes to recruit, retain and developed a highly motivated and productive African American workforce. The following are some of the proven "best practices".
The more you know about our people, culture and heritage, the better you can fully leverage our talent and capabilities. Invest the time and energy to understand our personal aspirations and needs. Be candid and open-including sharing frustrations. These things all serve to build trust and confidence in your relationship.
Honestly evaluate our contributions and let us know how we are doing. Too often we rely on the old cliché "You know you’re doing well if you don’t hear anything from me". In many instances, this behavior only suggests that the person in charge either does not care or is too scared to deliver the message. Be specific on what needs to be done to improve our contributions to the business.
In general, African Americans are warriors and winners who thrive on challenge. Set high performance standards and remove the artificial barriers that get in our way of achieving them (i.e style differences, appearances, etc.). Give us room to own our business and demonstrate our true capability.
Use your organization’s salary and promotion system to clearly demonstrate to us how the company values our contribution. Do not let "old tapes" and stereotypes impact our personal growth or our ability to accept increasing levels of responsibility.
SuccessGuide Millenium
