|
|
Diversity consultant and founder of QUEST Diversity Initiatives LLC Natalie Holder-Winfield, wants to make something clear: “When I say ‘diverse,’ I don’t mean it as a stand-in or as another word for ‘minority.’ When I refer to a diverse workforce, I really do mean people of all different ideas, thoughts, cultures, backgrounds, and sexual orientation — that to me makes up a diverse workforce.”
The High Costs of Ignoring Diversity
We recently ran across a May 2008 posting from the now-defunct New York Times “Shifting Careers” blog. The topic is still relevant today — exactly a year later.
Author Marci Alboher interviewed Natalie Holder-Winfield, an employment lawyer turned diversity consultant, about her book, Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce
Marcial Avila worked for Jostens, Inc., a yearbook publisher, in its Topeka, Kansas, facility from 1995 until September 2003. His duties included counting yearbooks, packing them into boxes, and printing and affixing shipping labels. He is a legal resident of the United States but was born in Mexico and spoke Spanish as his primary language.
In February 2003, Avila’s supervisor, Jim Keeffe, issued him a warning for boxing 900 calendars without drilling a top hole in them as required. A few months later, in May, Avila received another warning, this time for failing to do quality checks on a shipment, kicking boxes, and glaring at a coworker. Avila disputed the allegations in the warning, so a meeting was held with Avila, his interpreter, Keeffe, a Jostens employee relations representative, and a union rep. During the meeting, Keeffe told Avila’s interpreter to be quiet and told Avila to “speak American.”
In 1978, a joint congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history: the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed on May 10, 1869. In 1992, Congress expanded the observance to a monthlong celebration. Per a 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive, the Asian or Pacific Islander racial category was separated into two categories: one being Asian and the other Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
Here are some facts about each group from the U.S. Census Bureau:
|
|||||||
