*Would you believe that the percentage of Black CEOs in the US has dropped from 3.9% to about 3.5% in the past decade? While the data leading up to your current perception may be bleak, it is, in fact, true that Black people are rarely seen in senior executive positions or in top management.

So how can we build better workplaces for Black employees? Well, let’s find out.

Encourage Your Employees to Speak Freely About Race

The explicit conversations about race are almost always considered taboo in most organizations. This is why business leaders also choose to keep silent about race issues in their workplace. This cloak of silence starts from the top and then eventually enfolds all the employees in an organization.

On the flip side, we know that 78% of Black employees in a survey said that they had faced racial discrimination in their workplace. 38% of the same population also thought it wasn’t acceptable to share their experiences of discrimination in the workplace because of the fear of bias in opinion.

Usher White Colleagues into Conversations about Race

Black leaders shouldn’t be the only ones involved in a diverse culture right – so White employees also need to stop pretending that these tensions don’t exist. Even if they are worried that they may end up saying the wrong thing, you can’t just rely on a small group of Black employees to raise the flag. They need the support of their White colleagues too.

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Tackle Systematic Inequality

Many organizations have already kickstarted inclusion and diversity programs so they can try to retain and recruit minorities. These initiatives often, however, fall short because these programs only help Black employees reach a status-quo with the existing culture.

Now, if you’re talking systematic inequality, you need to pierce through the existing corporate culture of the organization. Companies shouldn’t just be looking to ‘manage Blackness.’ They need to focus on managing injustice in order to start treating their employees equally and fairly.

Keep Confronting the Bias in Hiring Activities

Since the biggest names in the industry are all about diversity and inclusion nowadays, they need to think about revising their hiring and recruitment process to include ZERO racial bias. Once this has been done, these companies should also think about reinforcing and investing more resources for retaining Black employees and professionals.

By following all of the above strategies, companies won’t just expect Black employees to survive on their own in the deep end of the pool. Instead, they will stick around and guide them through their battles by providing them with the support they need to succeed.

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