You Don’t Have to be Black, Latinx, or Native American to Care About Diversity

As a seasoned Canadian-American professional, I’ve been a part of endless conversations about representation in corporate Canada and America — yet have seen few leaders truly overcome the lack of diversity on their teams in either country. A 2016 report from the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) found that “the Hispanic hiring rate has remained constant at 12 percent” since 2009. Retention is also a struggle. According to HACR, the average attrition rate for Hispanic employees was 20%.

There is also a downward trend among black corporate leaders. In 2018, black men and women held 6.7% of the 16.2 million management positions in the United States. There are only three black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Per Forbes, the situation is even bleaker for Native American workers, who comprised 0.1% of senior executive roles in 2017. By comparison, white men and women make up 73% of the senior executive workforce. Clearly, talking about change isn’t enough to create change.

Three months ago, I decided to live by my values and transition into a career in diversity recruitment at Jopwell, a company that focuses on these historically underrepresented ethnic groups. Although I don’t ethnically identify with any of these groups, I am passionate about Jopwell’s mission. I was born and raised in Dubai but my ethnicity is Bangladeshi. I immigrated to Canada 17 years ago and then recently moved to the U.S. Growing up in different countries gave me the opportunity to experience diverse cultures. On a personal and professional level, having a social network of people from a variety of backgrounds has made me appreciate and value differences more than similarities.

When I moved to the U.S. last year, I decided to spend my first three months adjusting to my new home. I also made a positive change last April by deciding to wear a hijab. Although I felt confident in my choice and had thought a lot about it, I worried nonetheless. I was choosing to be visibly marked as a Muslim woman in public, and I had concerns that doing so might impact my life. I had never experienced discrimination before and had always found professional opportunities quickly. I wondered if that would change.

Despite my fears, I landed a job at Bloomberg within a month of my job search and felt welcomed and included by my leaders. During my time there, I developed a hiring plan for recruiting better candidates for a few hard-to-fill tech roles. I have no doubt that having a diverse background enabled me to identify problems that needed closer attention and helped me figure out how to solve them. After coming up with a plan of action, I took the initiative to present my findings to my team members and leaders. Moving forward required openness on both sides: My “outsider” perspective helped me see the issues we had more clearly, but the “insiders” at the company helped me implement solutions. My experiences at Bloomberg showed me the value of both new and established perspectives when it comes to implementing positive changes at work. Multiple voices lead to new ideas and encourage out-of-the-box thinking.

Representation in corporate America seems to be improving in some ways. Over the last few years, more companies — especially those in the tech space — have been willing to publish their diversity and inclusion numbers online and brainstorm solutions to improve upon their published findings. As professionals in the workplace, we must support, honor and respect our colleagues who come from different backgrounds. We do that at Jopwell by sharing a common goal: to transform the professional landscape so that we can all see ourselves reflected at work.