Employers are Partnering with HBCUs to Recruit Workers

According to the Financial Times, the share of financial service employees who identify as Black has been decreasing over time.[1] Research shows that Black individuals account for 13% of all finance staff, but in the highest level jobs in the industry, they are the only demographic whose share fell to 2.62 percent from 2.87 percent from 2018 to 2007.[2] Additionally, Black employees in finance have only seen growth in the most junior positions in the industry, making up 18.9 percent of these roles compared to 17.4% in 2007.[3]

To address this inequity and other inequities across many U.S. industries, some of the nation’s largest employers have partnered with HBCUs to recruit workers, expand collaborative programming, and meet diversity promises within their companies. Employers such as Google, IBM, Northrop Grumman, Novartis, NBCUniversal, the airlines United, Delta and Southwest provide HBCUs with technology, money, mentorship, to develop student talent. The NFL, teamed up with four historically Black medical schools to boost the number of Black team physicians and medical professionals.[4]

Employers here in Texas have increased partnerships with HBCUs as well. The Texas Bankers Association launched the CREATE (Community Reinvestment and Trust Enterprise) program in Fall of 2021. They partnered with the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Texas Southern University to start a ‘state-of-the-art’ banking program. The Texas Bankers Association hopes initiatives like theirs will provide more diversity in the banking industry for years to come.[5]

HBCUs are responsible for 22% of current bachelor’s degrees granted to African Americans, according to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.[6] If employers want to improve the gaps in diversity at their companies, they should seek out more recruitment opportunities and partnership efforts with HBCUs. Recruitment efforts at HBCUs are especially important today, where worker shortages have become increasingly common.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/887d064a-bd5e-4ce6-9671-9057e12bd5c7?utm_source=morning_brew

[2] ibid.

[3] ibid.

[4] https://hechingerreport.org/to-recruit-new-hires-big-employers-team-up-with-historically-black-colleges/

[5]https://www.texasbankers.com/TBA/Education/CREATE/TBA/Education/CREATE.aspx?hkey=1605bbca-5993-48f5-b81e-cdf1ac8bd368

[6] https://www.tmcf.org/about-us/member-schools/about-hbcus/