2020. What a curveball you have thrown us!
We are dealing with record-setting unemployment rates (from 3.6% in January to 14.7% in April), a pandemic, and another Black life taken too soon, sparking protests around the country and the world.
At this time, it seems that everyone is speaking out no matter where you stand on a situation. But if you aren't speaking out you are being silent, and that in itself has also become a statement.
The same holds true for companies big and small.
Companies have always been under an added level of scrutiny when it comes to speaking out about social causes. In a recent article posted on Medium, Leigh Stine quotes "We looked to corporations to implement social changes because we lost faith in our public institutions to do so."
As a career consulting agency that specializes in working with young professionals, I wanted to see how young professionals are feeling about companies speaking out. Furthermore, I wanted to see what impact a companies social media pages and websites had on how young professionals viewed that particular company and if it would affect their job searching decisions.
Here were the results:
I also asked young professionals to be open and honest while answering these two questions:
1) What are things you look for on an organization's social media pages and website when choosing which jobs to apply for?
2) What is something you want employers to know in regards to how they choose to communicate about social causes?
You can read all of their responses here, but these were a few that stuck out to me:
"I’d like to see that they’re active and engaged. That their organization won’t ignore major socio-political events. However, I think it’s distasteful to base advertising and marketing around, particularly tragic events. For example, a car company has no place advertising off of COVID-19. In that case, a public statement or a page on their website should suffice."
"Be honest, be bold, and be human. No one is asking you to be perfect, but we want to know that you care and create space for social consciousness within the business."
"Communicating isn’t enough. If you’re going to publicly say that you support social causes, the actions your company takes should reflect that (ie. donating to a cause, having a diverse workforce and leadership team of supporting BLM/inclusivity of all, the goal of reducing carbon footprint or using less paper if supporting environmental causes). Words need to be followed up by actions."
Although these are difficult times, I truly believe this time in history will create space for real change to be made in workplaces across the country. I can only hope that companies realize the responsibility they have to create inclusive and equitable workplaces for all.
Want to see which major companies have spoken out or made donations? TPInsights, a newsletter highlighting black tech stories, has been tracking companies and CEO's statements since the beginning. Check out the article here.
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