Networking, Inclusion and Solidarity
I am a creative and marketing professional who has served in leadership positions at top agencies and corporations in New York City and the Washington, DC Metro area. I have also worked with staffing agencies as an independent professional for over a decade. Throughout, I have experienced unconscious bias that has slowed my career growth; Now, more than ever, it seems imperative that diverse, independent professionals have solidarity to create opportunities for everyone. In 2020 I helped found Tartan Advisory Partners (TAP) to establish a new institution where inclusion leads to better staffing, more job gains, and more diversity.
All Americans now face a human and social crisis, but also an economic one. With such pervasive job losses, independent professionals should ask themselves: is it possible to sufficiently rebound as an individual, or could I be part of something bigger? I believe the strengths of a diverse network of talent and working in teams is how professionals can thrive despite today’s challenges.
Here are some insights from where I stand.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US, panic rippled through the nation, as momentous as the economic chaos sparked by Black Friday 1893 or the stock market crash of 1920. Today, we are in the midst of profound and widespread breakdown of industries, with high unemployment, fear, and suffering. By June 8th, the National Bureau of Economic Research marked that the US was in recession, and that as unemployment figures rose in June, the impact was disproportionately affecting Black people (according to data released by the Labor Department).
Further, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job loss is universal, but jobs for minorities have rebounded more slowly.
In a recession, it is more difficult for independent professionals to find work. For minority workers, these challenges are exacerbated based on existing systemic racism and unconscious bias in staffing and hiring. Structural inequality along racial and socioeconomic lines is sharpening. As competition within the American workforce seems to be devolving into fiercer competition and racial inequality. Railroad magnate Jay Gould once bragged that he could “hire one half of the working class to kill the other half;” in 1886, but could easily be describing the US today. Even as Wall Street stocks are booming, Main Street continues to be deprived of the aid it crucially needs because talks in Washington have degenerated. Independents have been left in the lurch, left to our own ingenuity to protect ourselves and our livelihoods.
Cartoon depicting Wall Street as "Jay Gould's Private Bowling Alley"
I spoke with the district president of a large staffing firm and asked why they place caps on hourly rates for their talent. “It’s about control,” he explained; the more tightly his workforce is kept in line, the more profit accrues for people at the top. From where I sit, one striking problem is that a staffing firm’s profit margin double dips, charging both the client and their independent talent. It’s obvious to me that this is one place to start: by addressing the inequities in this business model, and at the same time, tackling the fundamental imperative of unconscious bias, equity and inclusion.
As businesses turn to staffing firms to find qualified talent, it will be those agencies committed to inclusion in their placement efforts who will gain competitive advantage and be at the forefront of change.
At Tartan Advisory Partners we focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in: Business Transformation, Finance Transformation, Digital Enablement, and Sales and Marketing Transformation.
Here’s some of what we’re doing:
Sourcing Diverse Talent
Building strong working relationships with independent professionals of color.
Talent Benefits Network
Establishing a network for our talent to join and have regular access to our leadership and the ability to go from opportunity identification to on-boarding within weeks.
View the benefits
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Onboarding
Training and educating new members to build an inclusive community that works together to identify opportunities for everyone equally.
Corporate Leadership
Recently, some Fortune 500 companies have moved to increase leadership and hiring people of color in the US, but the road to a more equitable workforce reflective of the diversity of our society remains a challenge.
Here’s what we’re doing to help our clients effect change:
Value Realization Advisory
Advising on realized value from diverse perspectives, ideas and abilities.
Managed Services
Helping companies operate high performing sales and marketing organizations from the “front of the shop”, how to engage with customers, to the “back of the shop”, how teams work together.
Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Training
Offering training and educational resources to build an inclusive community that respects every person’s individuality
To overcome the human, economic and social crises that face us today, we need to ask ourselves “how do we need to work together?” Employers, advisors and managers can work with us. Independents can join our network and bring their skills to bear on interdisciplinary project teams. With solidarity, we can work towards a common goal: Putting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) measures into practice.
“Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
