Minorities leaving jobs at increased rates

If your organization values diversity, why are they leaving?

That headline appeared in a May-June Society for Human Resource Management newsletter. It touched a nerve in many workplaces, where concerted efforts to hire African-American, Latino, Asian and American Indian workers are frustrated by rapid turnover.

"Multicultural professionals are leaving their companies in alarming numbers," wrote Vanessa J. Weaver, president of Alignment Strategies, a Washington consulting firm that specializes in diversity recruitment and retention. Minority professionals are quitting their jobs at rates two and three times higher than Caucasian men and women, Weaver said. Two studies, one by the National Society for Black Engineers and one by the Women's Center for Policy Studies, found that between one- third and slightly more than two-thirds of multicultural professionals were actively looking for new jobs or seriously considering it. Why are they leaving? In some cases, money talks. Larger markets and bigger companies often lure qualified minorities away from their current jobs. Top multicultural talent is a scarce resource, and diversity-conscious organizations will pay well to nab the best and brightest. But Weaver contends money isn't among the top reasons that minority professionals jump ship. Mainly, she said, they leave because they don't feel recognized as valuable resources. Weaver said two decades worth of consulting on corporate diversity had uncovered six reasons that talented minority professionals leave: * They say their organizations talk the diversity game but don't play it; they feel excluded from mentor-protege relationships or peer groups. * They feel limited by negative race, religious, accent or English-as-a-second-language stereotypes. * They say their supervisors aren't comfortable dealing with multicultural employees, or their supervisors change so often they can't build relationships. * They say no one talks to them about their current and potential roles in the organization. * They become dissatisfied with "safe" assignments that don't challenge or develop them. * They tire of fighting the inference that they were hired only because of affirmative action. Of course, some of those are reasons any employee leaves. Almost every worker craves feedback and rapport; without it, work isn't as much fun. As for retaining minorities, Weaver said organizations with good minority-retention records had continuing diversity-awareness training -- not just a one-day thing once in an employee's tenure. Above all, it seems to me that it's important to have honest and open communication about each individual's career potential. Employers should be careful about setting up undeliverable expectations. Employers also should take periodic staff surveys to test perceptions and realities. Feedback will tell organizations where their diversity goals are in conflict with actual practices.

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