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3:01 a.m., Apr. 22, 2009 |
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Conference challenges businesses on workplace diversity
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Detroit area businesses were challenged to exchange ideas about why diversity matters in their workplaces at the sixth annual “Innovation Through Diversity Conference” held today at the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit.
The conference was sponsored by Crain’s Detroit Business, the Detroit Regional Chamber and the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion.
Alexis Herman, who served as the first black secretary of labor in the U.S. during the Clinton administration, delivered the keynote address.
Executives must break the “cycle of sameness” by applying diversity across all aspects of business, Herman told Crain’s in an earlier interview.
Louis Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., told attendees, “If we don’t get more diverse, we’re toast.”
Glazer had proof, displaying statistics revealing that young, educated professionals are leaving the state in record numbers.
He said the major jobs growth in America is in the “knowledge economy,” industries where 30 percent of the positions require a college degree. The knowledge economy represents 58 percent of the wages in this country and 60 percent of the job growth, he said.
Glazer said the state’s reliance on the auto industry has limited its economic growth.
He said industries requiring no post-secondary education lost nearly 4 million jobs between December 2007 and January 2008. Industries within the knowledge economy requiring higher education added 163,000 jobs.
“One of the problems is that the old economy was so good to us,” he said. “We were the epicenter of high-pay/low-skill jobs.”
Lewis Bender, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University, led an interactive discussion on generation gaps in the workplace.
Bender said that while previous generations have always focused on financial stability and the common needs of the family, younger generations are increasingly more interested in balancing their professional life with their social life.
“You’re not going to motivate the new generations with money,” he said. “Young people want time off to do what they want, not money.”
Bender pointed to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as the answer to why the generations are so different.
Older generations worked to provide the basic needs — shelter, food, security — while today’s youth were born with those needs already secured. Now, they work to satisfy social needs. But together, these generations — because of their differences — can provide broader ideas, he said.
A panel consisting of state university faculty members discussed enrollment and hiring since the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or Proposal 2, legislation that eliminated affirmative action in the public sector that passed in 2006.
Jeanne Arnold, vice president for inclusion and equity at Grand Valley State University, said, “Proposal 2 is having an impact and it’s not a good one.”
She said GVSU had 30 percent fewer minorities this year in its freshmen class. She said the problem is an inability to provide scholarships to minorities the way universities could before Proposal 2.
Anthony Walesby, associate vice provost for academic and faculty affairs at the University of Michigan, said the rules of Proposal 2 do not affect the private sector and urged the conference’s attendees to create a partnership with public universities through offering scholarships to minorities.
Arnold said universities “are getting creative about finding ways around Proposal 2.”
Edward Egnatios, senior program officer at the Skillman Foundation, spoke to the conference about inclusion and minority groups.
“The era of hold hands and singing “Kumbaya” around the campfire is over,” he said.
Egnatios said creating a thriving Detroit is about concentrating efforts on the skills needed to succeed in a multiracial, multicultural world. The businesses that survive align themselves with the marketplace.
In other words, the businesses that have a diverse workforce have diverse customers. He said inclusion and diversity is not only a moral imperative, but an economic imperative.
Egnatios said the city needs empower its young people through scholarships and providing employment for children under 18.
The event also featured speakers Kurt Metzger, director of the Detroit Area Community Information System; Lisa Webb Sharpe, director of the Michigan Department of Management and Budget; and Mary Kramer, publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business.
The conference concluded with Kramer announcing the awards for the company with the best diversity initiatives.
The winners included: Henry Ford Health System Multicultural Dermatology Center, Arrow Strategies L.L.C., Bowman and Brooke L.L.P. and DTE Energy Co.
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