* Companies working to add more racial minorities, women to their IT workforce
As many of you know, the IT industry hasn’t made many inroads in embracing diversity. The Information Technology Association of America reports that the percentages of women and African Americans in the IT workforce have declined.
But as my colleague Linda Leung reports in this week’s Management Strategies article, corporations such as HSBC North America, Scripps Networks and Atlantic Health System are working to add racial minorities and more women to their IT workforce. You can find out about their recruitment initiatives and outreach here.
True diversity encompasses all types of employees, including older workers, the disabled and the gay community, for example. National retailer Home Office Solutions Group of Northbrook, Ill., is one such company with an open and welcoming work environment.
“My vision for the company was that it would always be a free and open place in which to be employed,” says Mark Levin, founder and CEO. As testament to that, a casual comment by one employee ended up landing that worker’s husband a job with the firm.
Gene Storm, a general manager of two stores, mentioned that his husband, John Storm, didn’t quality for his health insurance. Levin just so happened to be looking for a talented IT expert, whom he found in John. John moved up through the ranks of the company and now holds the post of vice president and chief technology officer.
John views this openness as a refreshing change. “More often that not, it’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ” he says. “I have a friend, for instance, who’s an IT manager at a downtown law firm, and he’s not closeted, per se – but in a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ workplace environment, he can’t be the least bit open about his outside-work life. I’d have a very hard time in a working environment like that, which is why it’s such a pleasure to be employed at Home Office Solutions.”
