Diversity MBA Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 49) EXECUTIVE a need for innovative solutions. Currently, the most common options companies use to access Hispanic professionals include career expos and executive search firms. Career expos provide a large number of targeted candidates in a brief period of time, but may require an entourage of interviewers. If the event occurs when job openings are available, this option can present a quick-fix solution. However, for a more continuous flow of qualified candidates, some firms hire executive search services that have access to an extensive network of potential candidates and active jobseekers. Some search firms focus specifically on attracting candidates directly from a client’s competitor. Surprisingly, these tried-and-true options haven’t rendered favorable results with Hispanic candidates –– some of the problems? First, career expos targeting Hispanic candidates are also attracting many more candidates from other ethnic groups, resulting in lower-than-expected qualified Hispanic candidates. Moreover, many executive search firms, particularly the larger ones, are too impersonal to attract qualified Hispanic candidates. DEVELOPMENT that specialize in hiring Hispanics. They tap their personal networks to gain access to a larger pool of potential Hispanic professional candidates. Even after spending substantial resources to attract Hispanic hires, companies are also faced with the daunting task of retaining them. Without a comprehensive and culturally sensitive support program, Hispanic hires can easily get lost in a faceless corporate business environment. Some companies have launched mentoring programs to give new hires more meaningful access to a company’s career opportunities. According to the June 2007 Business Journal on Hispanic Research, Hispanic mentors were found to be less effective than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Some of the reasons cited ranged from a potential mismatch among Hispanic cultures to a mentor’s lack of influence at key decision-making levels, and that non-Hispanic mentors may have greater influence within an organization, but could lack the culturalsensitivity and appreciation needed to mentor a new Hispanic hire. To fully appreciate the increasing complexity of hir- Contrary to popular belief, the pool of available bilingual Hispanics with sufficient professional working experience continues to grow smaller, not larger. So what have some companies done to attract and retain Hispanic professionals? One Fortune 100 firm in the financial services industry decided to take a different approach. Rather than focus its resources to attract Hispanic professionals, it chose to invest in its existing pool of employees by hiring an outside firm to teach its non-Hispanic employees some of the basic cultural selling skills needed to close and maintain a transaction with Hispanic consumers. In part, it chose to ‘Hispanisize’ its non-Hispanic workforce. Hispanisizing a non-Hispanic workforce can help position Hispanic consumers as business case managers and salespeople can readily understand and follow. It can also open new channels of communication among employees and their managers who in the past may have felt uncomfortable addressing Hispanic-related issues. The businesscase approach allows various skill-sets within an organization that tweak the traditional approaches to improve Hispanic consumer appeal. To achieve a high level of acceptance within an organization, the participation among the workforce must include the direct involvement and financial commitment of senior-level managers. Other firms turn to smaller executive search firms M arch 2008 Top 5 0 Co m p ani e s ing Hispanic professionals, one can begin to see that unless a non-Hispanic mentor is fully sensitized or Hispanicized, the chances of retaining a new hire may be reduced substantially. ■ Tom Kadala 49
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