While many workplaces and industries claim they are trying to increase their employment of people of colour (POC), POC have experienced a series of setbacks in the workplace, including a lack of institutional support, underrepresentation, and fewer pathways to success in nearly all industries. This is despite companies investing billions into diversity and inclusion initiatives recently. These initiatives are built to improve the inequities POC, people from lower-class backgrounds, and disabled people face in the workplace and to increase the representation of marginalised workers.
These initiatives, as proven by data, are thought to have been significant within the tech industry and have shown promising results. For example, before Elon Musk took over Twitter (now called X) in 2022, the company was recognised for hiring more black employees.
However, when the tech industry faced a series of layoffs last year, marginalised people, particularly POC, were most vulnerable.
Layoff trackers show that over 150,000 employees were laid off in 2023 from more than 500 tech companies worldwide, and surveys found that women, POC, disabled workers, and other marginalised groups were disproportionately affected by these layoffs despite being underrepresented in the industry.
Research conducted by Zippia shows that men hold 79% of executive positions and that white workers hold 83%, whereas in the US tech sector, there were only 7% of Black American employees, 8% of Latinx, and 20 % of Asian Americans. Such statistics acted as a catalyst as to why POC were more vulnerable to the mass tech layoffs of 2023.
Data made available for 2022 conducted by Revilo Labs shows that Black and Latinx workers represented 7.42% and 11.49% of the tech layoffs in 2022 despite making up only 6.05% and 9.96% of the industry.
So how did companies go about laying off so many POC?
Last in, first out
According to an article by the BBC, several companies adopted layoff policies that used position and tenure as deciding factors for whom to lay off. With workers of colour having less seniority and tenure within the industry, this meant that POC were statistically more likely to be the first to go during the mass layoffs. Moreover, companies decided that the last people in should be the first people out, stated Corey Jones, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PrismWork. This also means that if companies had only recently introduced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring policies, then POC were likely to have been the “last in” within the industry.
Jones, along with his colleagues Rebecca Weaver and Diana Middleton, suggested in their Harvard Business Review article that business companies should “embed DEI efforts into every state of the employee lifecycle - including separations”.
Laying off POC affects DEI in the workplace
Laying off POC dismantles the DEI initiatives that we have long fought for in the workplace. According to the BBC, Tech company Lyft, “which cut 13% of its workforce in Q4 2022, also eliminated its diversity and inclusion teams”. Revelio Labs revealed that companies cut DEI positions “at a faster pace than non-DEI roles, beginning in 2021 and continuing to accelerate during layoffs in 2022”.
The Chief Strategy Officer at PrismWork, Diana Middleton, noted that companies stepped away from the diversity commitments made in 2020. “There was a real focus on DE&I initially, then all of a sudden post layoffs its ‘we’re past that, no more DE&I, not important anymore, not a priority’,” she says.
According to the jobs site ZipRecruiter, recruiters, HR, marketing, and sales professionals were disproportionately affected by cuts. And these roles are mostly held by people from marginalised backgrounds.
How layoffs affect POC
POC already face barriers at the initial job entry stage, which white people do not, so seeking a job after being laid off will make the job search even harder for POC. This may cause anxiety for POC looking for jobs within the industry for fear that having been laid off could hinder their employability and that they may be easily laid off again.
Furthermore, Stan Kimer, IBM’s former LGBTQIA+ diversity manager and the current president of Total Engagement Consulting, says that POC “may face the same biases in the interviewing and hiring processes as they did in being laid off. [...] In addition, the baggage or stigma of being laid off can erode a person’s self-esteem as well as raise questions about the person’s skills with hiring managers who may question if performance was a factor in being laid off.”
A 2023 study on the State of Inequity in the workforce from US-based diversity-advancement organisation, Hue “found that one in two workers of colour reported that they do not have the professional connections to get the job they want”. Hue’s founder and CEO, Fahad Khawaja, said that “It would take longer to recover as the economy starts to stabilise” and that ”As jobs start to become available again, you are now coming from a position of disadvantage, which will only make it harder to come back up at level footing with others.”
Companies need POC
Research has shown that companies do better when hiring more people of colour. Not only does it bring in a wider range of skills and experience, it also helps companies to become more financially successful. Moreover, a more inclusive workforce will generally make the workplace a happier place to work for employees and opening up to hiring people from different ethnic backgrounds will increase the talent pool when searching for employees. If employers limit themselves to employing people from one particular section of society, they miss out on talents who may be excellent for and even better suited to the job than the people they are limiting themselves to. Finally, by hiring POC and from different ethnic backgrounds, companies can increase their likeness and relate more to their customers, clientele, and audiences. People won’t want to engage with a company they have no representation in.
While this blog has focused on the tech layoffs of last year, my exploration of how such layoffs affected POC highlights how they are more likely to be laid off by any company in all industries in the future. There is also the wider issue that by just having companies implement DEI hiring policies is not enough, as POC and those from other marginalised groups still face inequities in the workplace. Society needs to do more, and our fight for equality must not end here.
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