Author: mny104

The words “diversity” and “inclusion” have become buzzwords in the past couple of years and particularly since George Floyd’s murder. Hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #StopAAPIHate and similar catchy phrases have exemplified the rhetoric taking place all over the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted economic disparities between different racial groups in the United States.  A 2020 poll by the Washington Post found that 20 percent of Hispanic adults and 16 percent of Blacks had been laid` off or furloughed during the pandemic, compared to 11 percent of White employees. Responding to the public outcry for a more diverse workforce, several companies scrambled to create diverse and inclusive teams. Did your company jump on this bandwagon? Has your business integrated a diversity and inclusion strategy into its business plan ? Are your diversity and inclusion efforts just a feel-good corporate policy or are they just a strategy for your business? How should your business think about diversity and inclusion?

In most of North America, diversity is associated with racial diversity. This is in large part due to the nation’s racial historical underpinnings. However, diversity encompasses more than just race. Diversity also includes the breath of differences between people based on their gender, education, religion, language, abilities, income, sexual orientation, skills, and a plethora of other characteristics. Inclusion is also a journey organizations and individuals embark on to ensure that different groups or individuals with different backgrounds are treated equally.

A McKinsey study revealed that racially and ethnically diverse companies outperform industry norms by 35%. Additionally, according to Boston Consulting Group, companies that have more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenue. This data demonstrates the importance of a diverse workforce. Diversity efforts at the work-place, however, should not only be reduced to a business strategy with positive outcomes that translate into high dividends for a company’s shareholders; they should be used as a tool and a means to empower minority groups that have constantly been excluded from accessing markets and services, so that they can also empower their communities. Before delving deeper into diversity and inclusion efforts that empower underrepresented groups, let’s take a look at some of the underlying legal structures and laws regarding hiring and keeping a diverse employee base.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency that regulates workplace discrimination. It enforces Federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. These laws protect employees against employment discrimination when it involves unfair treatment and harassment because of an employee’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.

Pennsylvania Regulations

In Pennsylvania, the Human Relations Commission enforces state anti-discrimination laws. For employment discrimination to be illegal in PA, it must be based on a person’s race, color, sex, age (over 40), ancestry, national origin, or religious creed. It also prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person’s disability.

Now that we have covered some of the legal structures that exist to ensure diversity and inclusion in the workplace, let’s discuss how your diversity and inclusion efforts can be both a business strategy and a tool to empower diverse groups that have constantly being excluded from accessing markets and services.

1. Make Diversity and Inclusion a Part of Your Company’s Mission and Vision– What does your brand say about your company culture? Who are you hiring? Whose experiences and inputs are considered valuable? If you want to create a truly diverse and inclusive team, you need to have everyone on board. When you link diversity and inclusion to your business’s goals, it becomes more than just a strategic plan. It becomes one of the core elements that drives your business. Employees will begin to embody these values and your clients will also recognize the place diversity and inclusion occupies in your business. This will also ensure that diverse employees feel a sense of belonging and that their contributions matter.

2. Create Task Forces and Keep Leaders Accountable – Start by hiring diverse employees and then create task forces that focus on the strengths and weaknesses of each diverse group. Identify and understand the strengths and differences among the groups and find ways to incorporate this into your business’s strategic plan. Ensure that the leaders and management of your business are setting the tone and exhibiting empathetic leadership. Inclusion is an ongoing journey, not a one-off process. By equipping your team leaders with the skills needed to champion diversity, you will ensure that you are building an inclusive environment that empowers diverse groups.

3. Invest in Your Diverse Employees – This could come in the form of pay equity which will build trust in your leadership, increase your employee’s engagement and reduce turnover. Another option is for you to offer training, development programs and leadership opportunities to underrepresented groups in order to build talent pipelines. You can also create conditions that promote inclusion on a daily basis and identify ways to measure the impact.  For example, you can provide a childcare center or accommodations for mothers with children in order to ensure that employees with children can still deliver quality results at work without the added worries of childcare. By creatively thinking of different avenues for your employees to thrive and enjoy working in your company, you will be impacting their lives and in turn, yielding a high return on investment.

To make your diversity and inclusion efforts an empowering tool, consider making diversity and inclusion a part of your company’s mission and vision, creating task forces to hone in on the strengths and weaknesses of your diverse employees, keeping your leaders accountable and investing in your diverse employees.

Sources:

• Berkeley Greater Good Magazine, “What Is Diversity?” Greater Good Magazine, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/diversity/definition
• BCG Henderson Institute, “How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation”, https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation
• Global Diversity Practice, “What Is Diversity and Inclusion”, https://globaldiversitypractice.com/what-is-diversity-inclusion/
• Harvard Business Review, “Diversity as Strategy”, https://hbr.org/2004/09/diversity-as-strategy
• Kristina Matic, “Top 5 Workplace Diversity Statistics”, Talentlyft, https://medium.com/hr-blog-resources/top-5-workplace-diversity-statistics-2f4ba1d03a2e
• McKinsey & Company, “Why Diversity Matters”, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters
• Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, “Employment Discrimination”, https://www.phrc.pa.gov/File-A-Complaint/Types-of-Complaints/Pages/Employment.aspx
• Sharon Florentine, “Diversity and Inclusion: 8 best practices for changing your culture”,https://www.cio.com/article/3262704/diversity-and-inclusion-8-best-practices-for-changing-your-culture.html
• U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Employees & Job Applicants”, https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants
• Upstate Medical University, Diversity and Inclusion Summary of State and Federal Laws,https://www.upstate.edu/diversityinclusion/policies-and-procedures/eeo/fedstatelaw.php#:~:text=Executive%20Order%2011246%2C%20as%20amended,action%20programs%20for%20minorities%20and
• Washington Post, Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid pandemic, poll finds, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/06/layoffs-race-poll-coronavirus/

Picture Sources:

Black Enterprise,Workplace Diversity is Still A Major Problem Although Nearly 80% of HR Professionals Believe Their Company Is Diverse, https://www.blackenterprise.com/inclusion-diversity-80-of-hr-professionals-believe-their-company-is-diverse/

EsgClarity, BlackRock Tops Refinitiv’s top 100 Most Diverse Firms, https://esgclarity.com/blackrock-tops-refinitivs-top-100-most-diverse-firms/

Forbes, New Research: Diversity + Inclusion = Better Decision Making at Work, https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriklarson/2017/09/21/new-research-diversity-inclusion-better-decision-making-at-work/?sh=5784fd0f4cbf

 

 

As stores unfortunately go out of business and several organizations mourn their losses, we cannot underestimate the dire effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses.  The bewildering and ferocious virus continues to expose why brick and mortar organizations may become a thing of the past if they do not restructure and redesign their business models to reflect the changing times. For entrepreneurs, particularly in industries such as information technology and product manufacturing, one of the things to consider in order to keep your business running in these disconcerting times is hiring skilled remote foreign workers. Whether you actively recruit foreign workers, or they happen to apply for vacancies in your organization, considering the benefits of hiring them will go a long way to adding value to your business. This post will discuss the advantages of hiring foreign workers during the pandemic.

Foreign workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen of. Hiring a foreign worker should not be confused with the debate over hiring immigrants which is not the subject of this post discussion.

Multinational companies such as Wal-Mart and Microsoft that employ a fifth of all American workers hire foreign workers alongside local labor. This demonstrates the  inter-connectedness of our world today.

Proponents of local hiring are of the view that hiring foreigners will mean jobs being taken away from local workers in communities and the country as a whole. However, this belief has been proven to be false. Au Contraire, foreign workers, raise the productivity of U.S. businesses and stimulate the economy.  Now here is why you should consider hiring skilled remote foreign workers in such unsettling times:

Save Your Business A Lot of Money

Hiring skilled foreign workers to work remotely saves your business a lot of money. According to the Internal Revenue Service, wages earned by foreigners for services performed outside of the United States for any employer are foreign source income and therefore are not subject to reporting and withholding of U.S. federal income tax. Additionally, as an employer in the United States, your business will save money by not having to pay the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) contributions. These include U.S. Social Security Taxes (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%). That’s a savings of 7.65% for you as an employer according to the current rates. By having your foreign employees work from home in their respective countries, you save money, and you do not have to provide physical structures to accommodate them.

Promote Diversity of Thought

A necessary element for innovation and problem-solving is diversity of thought. Hiring skilled foreign workers will promote diversity of thought in your business. All your customers or clients are not like you and will not be like you. They represent different backgrounds, educational status, economic backgrounds and experiences. Hiring foreign workers means that the needs of these different groups of people are catered for. Having a mix of skilled workers will bring in creative and fresh perspectives as the foreign workers will also contribute what they know and learn from their countries.  Their different set of skills will go a long way to add to your business profitability.

Expand Your Business Globally

The United States is not an island. If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that we are so deeply connected to all the countries in the world as a result of globalization. The health of one economy affects the health of the other. In this era, businesses are not only competing locally but globally as well. Having skilled foreign workers on your team will provide the necessary networks and resources needed to expand onto the global market much more seamlessly.

 

 Bring in Skilled Labor to Boost the Economy

Bullhorn’s 2018 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report states that 73 percent of organizations serving manufacturing industries, and 65 percent of those in information technology and accounting, finance, and insurance fields listed skill shortages as one of their top challenges. In manufacturing alone, the National Association of Manufacturing and Deloitte projected that the United States will need to fill about 3.5 million jobs by 2025; yet as many as 2 million of those jobs may go unfilled, due to difficulty finding people with the skills in demand. By hiring foreign workers, you will be ahead of the curve. You would have potentially found a solution to a difficult situation that looms in the near future, positioning your company to have a competitive edge over other companies.

Avoid Visa and Immigration Requirements

If you are a small business, you may be concerned about the legal and immigration hurdles of hiring skilled foreign workers. The good news is that, if the foreign worker will not be living in the United States or performing work on American grounds, you do not have to worry about the acquisition of work-visas. If you decide to bring a foreign worker into the United States, then you would need to obtain a visa and the proper documentation.

Because immigration policies change all the time, it is always a good idea to seek legal assistance when you are drafting contracts for foreign workers and setting them up to work.

If you are not tied down to hiring an employee from your country, city or state, you should consider hiring skilled remote workers living abroad, especially during these times and you would be sure to reap the benefits.

Sources:
https://www.emerson.com/en-us/news/corporate/2018-stem-survey

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/persons-employed-abroad-by-a-us-person

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/foreign_national

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704821704576270783611823972

https://www.allbusiness.com/ins-outs-hiring-foreign-remote-worker-small-business-104746-1.html

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-security-tax.asp

Image sources:

http://rlegacy.co/5-ways-manifest-black-girl-magic-finances/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_States

 

About Me: 

Maame Boateng, at the time of this post, is a 2L at Penn State Dickinson Law. Maame is from Ghana and is interested in corporate law and international law. Maame currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Dickinson Law Review, Vice-President of the Business Law Society, and Treasurer for the Black Law Students Association.