- In America's businesses, there's a "concrete wall" that's blocking Black and brown employees, especially Black and brown women, from moving up the corporate ladder.
- The "concrete wall" is composed of a range of factors, including racist hiring practices, lack of sponsorship opportunities, and workplaces that are not inclusive.
- To dismantle the "concrete wall," C-suite leaders must hold mid-level and senior-level managers accountable to specific
diversity and inclusion targets, experts told Business Insider. - Business Insider is launching a newsletter on gender identity and career success. Sign up here to receive Gender at Work in your inbox.
Systemic
A sibling of the "glass ceiling" that holds women back from climbing the corporate ladder, the "concrete wall" is the set of obstacles that keep Black professionals and workers of color, especially women of color, from senior management roles and leadership positions. A constellation of factors make up the wall, from racist hiring practices to unconscious bias in promoting. Overcoming these obstacles (which are often outside of one's control) is nearly impossible.
Now is an opportune time to chip away at this concrete wall. America is amid a corporate "awokening," where executives are re-committing to previously empty diversity and inclusion promises. This is because of a few main factors: the coronavirus shining a light on massive inequality in the US, the world's witnessing George Floyd's killing, and more employee demanding equality.
Companies are hiring more Black people, but they're not advancing into senior positions
First coined in the book "Our Separate Ways," by researchers Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo, the effects of the wall are most plainly seen in the sheer lack of diversity in executive leadership.
You can count the number of Black CEOs on one hand, and none of them are women. In addition, joint 2019 research by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org showed that for every 100 men who were promoted to managers, only 68 Latina women were promoted. That number was even less for Black women, at 58.
The fact that more Black and brown people are not senior managers is one of the biggest failures of modern diversity and inclusion efforts, said Stephanie Creary, assistant professor of management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a founding member of the Wharton IDEAS lab (Identity, Diversity, Engagement, Affect, and Social Relationships).
Some companies have made great gains in hiring more Black and brown people into entry-level positions, Creary said. But they're still largely absent from senior-level roles.
"Even the most advanced companies, with regards to diversity and inclusion, are still struggling to advance Black and brown employees from middle management into more senior positions," she said.
The building blocks of the 'concrete wall' include everything from microaggressions to racist hiring practices.
There are many parts that make up the "concrete wall."
The ways companies hire at all levels, including for senior roles, often excludes many Black and brown candidates. Research has shown that résumés with white-sounding names get more call backs than résumés with Black-sounding names. And companies often rely on employee social networks for referrals, which can be problematic if your company is largely white. One survey found that three quarters of white employees don't have any non-white friends.
Even if they get through the door, professionals from marginalized backgrounds face more problems. A 2019 study titled "Being Black in Corporate America" surveyed over 3,700 professionals of all races and found that 58% of Black people indicated they felt racism at play in the office. Racism on the job, whether it's in the form of overt racist remarks or acts, or subtle ones like microaggressions, makes people feel unsafe and outcast. That leads to lower retention rates.
Black and brown people are also much less likely to have a work sponsor, or someone who champions them in conversations that decide who gets promoted, research shows. People are more likely to mentor those with whom they have more in common, experts said. And that's a problem given America's majority white C-suite.
The change starts with mid-level managers
Company leaders need to focus more on middle management, and hold them accountable for ushering in change, Creary and other researchers told Business Insider.
"There's a huge disconnect between all of the investment that has been made in talent and in Black and brown employees and what is trickling down to middle managers who really are extremely influential over these individuals over these workplace experiences," Creary said.
More often than not, middle managers have a say in who's hired for their department, who gets important assignments, and who gets promoted. They're also the gatekeepers to more senior positions. Employees who get more training and mentorship early on in their careers are more likely to stand out for senior roles later on, Creary explained.
But currently, middle managers are not being held accountable for diversity and inclusion targets, said Tina Opie, researcher, consultant, and associate professor of management at Babson College.
"As long as we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion as a nice to have, but there are no metrics, but there's nothing at stake, bonuses are still paid out despite the fact that a division of a law firm or a hedge fund has zero women, zero Black people decade after decade after decade, that is problematic," Opie said.
How to chip away at the 'concrete wall'
The upside is that there are concrete steps business leaders can take to break down the wall.
- Invest more in trainings for mid-level managers. Fund mandatory trainings for middle managers on a range of topics. Trainings should include not only how to reduce bias in the recruiting and interviewing process, but also on how to develop and mentor employees, including those from different backgrounds.
- Have company leaders publicly commit to making change. When a company's CEO talks, managers and employees listen. It's not enough for a company's HR team or diversity and inclusion leader to announce the company is set on increasing diversity and inclusion, it has to come from all senior leaders.
- Make mid-level managers accountable by tying performance reviews and bonuses to making their teams more diverse and inclusive. For managers to make real change, there has to be something at stake, Creary said. Tying diversity and inclusion targets to a manager's performance review and/or bonus can spur action.
For example, a manager's employees could be asked how inclusive of an environment they feel their manager is fostering. That feedback could be given to the manager in their performance review. Of course, the method is controversial. But the risks of not acting outweigh the risks associated with backlash, Creary said.
"Progress needs to be measurable," she said, and until it is, the words diversity, equity, and inclusion "will remain buzzwords."