However, a recent report by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4A’s) was a reminder that there is room for improvement both in hiring and retaining diverse talent.
Lack of action is at the heart of tokenism
To avoid tokenism, we need to see companies and leaders commit to talent for the long term. We don’t just want to be hired to fulfill a short-term diversity goal. Regardless of how we self-identify, we want active participation from managers to get to know our individual motives, values and nuanced professional experiences in order to guide our professional development.
Let Latine employees choose if they want to share their cultural identity, or lead with another area of interest. Managers can help by co-creating a space of belonging by allowing employees to self-identify as they choose versus making assumptions that can feed into negative stereotypes.
Seek to learn from multiple lived experiences
Ensure employees aren’t called to be a lonesome representative of their entire group. Teams strike gold when they have representation from multiple Latine lived experiences and perspectives versus having one or two perspectives in the room.
Make our contributions relevant all year. Work from within the community by tapping into your employee resource groups for feedback, or make time to learn from people in the communities you are trying to reach.
Conducting ethnography sessions in a respectful way in the neighborhoods you are trying to reach is a practice that should be a part of every marketing communications institution. It teaches us to actively listen, learn, and build perspective and character by putting a voice and name to our data.
Reward excellence with excellent compensation
The pay gap among talent of color is real, regardless of how one self-identifies. Motivate diverse talent to stay with equitable monetary compensation that reflects their contributions to the business. A level up is to build reward systems by way of leadership roles and ownership opportunities.
Once we start seeing more longevity in companies by seeing more Latine talent and holding C-suite positions, we will have made a dent in avoiding tokenism. Until then, companies risk being seen as organizations that extract our cultural contributions without proper compensation and recognition.
