Law Firm Diversity Consultant Tells Employees: Consider If You Are Valued
A lawyer turned diversity consultant has advised minority employees who feel underappreciated to get smart, rather than getting mad, by leaving for better opportunities.
Natalie Holder-Winfield, who wrote Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, tells the New York Times the important question for employees to consider is how much they are valued by supervisors.
“A part of being smart is seeing how much an employer is valuing you,” she said. “Some employers are starting to provide professional skills that minorities are looking for, and if a firm showed me that it saw diversity and leadership development as compatible goals, then I might see a future with that company.”
She is encouraged by law firms that are hiring diversity managers “whose sole responsibility is to make diversity not just an occasional event but a true initiative.”
“It’s the difference between buying a table at the Asian, Latino or African-American event, and having more programming to support the career development of their minority associates or employees,” she told the Times. “It is my hope that these managers will be active change agents and not spectators.”
