Top CEOs Back Push to Create One Million Jobs for Black Americans
December 10 2020 - 6:14PM
Dow Jones News
By WSJ Noted.
More than 30 chief executive officers from companies including
Merck & Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Nike
Inc. are backing a new nonprofit startup called OneTen, which will
focus on training Black candidates for corporate roles. Black
people make up 12.4% of the U.S. population, but 8% of
professionals, a number that has stayed steady since 2013,
according to a study by the nonprofit research group the Center for
Talent Innovation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. OneTen aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans
over the next 10 years.
One of the startup's founders, Merck CEO Ken Frazier, said the
organization will focus on helping Black Americans who have high
school diplomas and other certifications, but who don't have
four-year college degrees. The nonprofit aims to help them find
"family-sustaining jobs," or roles with a salary of at least
$40,000, depending on the region. Nonprofits, community colleges
and credentialing organizations will provide training to help these
workers be successful in business, and the CEOs who are backing the
organization are committing to hiring these workers.
2. The killing of George Floyd prompted CEOs to come together to
re-examine initiatives for Black Americans, says Frazier.
Frazier said the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man,
in police custody in May and the ensuing protests prompted
corporate leaders to re-examine their initiatives for Black
Americans and join forces. "What brought people together is that
they looked at our country and said, it is this generation of CEOs
who don't want to pass this down to the next generation," Mr.
Frazier, one of four Black CEOs in the Fortune 500, said in an
interview.
3. The startup also aims to improve representation of Black
workers in the pipeline for middle and upper management roles.
Frazier said OneTen aims to improve how companies are hiring and
developing college-educated people so that they can address the
lack of Black representation in middle and upper management. "All
of us would agree that what we're doing now isn't working to the
extent that we want it to work," he said.
4. Companies will take a "skills-first" approach to hiring as
part of the effort.
Nearly 80% of working-age Black Americans don't have a four-year
college degree, which is a structural barrier for meaningful
employment at many companies, says Frazier. Ginni Rometty,
executive chairman at IBM and another founder of the startup, said
companies will take a "skills-first approach" to jobs, and evaluate
whether certain positions require four-year college degrees. These
positions might include entry-level work in health care, business
and finance operations, cloud-computing and advanced
manufacturing.
Read the original article by Khadeeja Safdar here.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 10, 2020 17:59 ET (22:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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