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Jarred by the death of George Floyd and the issues of racial injustice raised in its wake, the chief executives of three dozen companies are starting an initiative to provide a million jobs for Black workers in the next decade.
The effort, called OneTen, is led by Merck’s chief executive, Kenneth C. Frazier, and IBM’s executive chairman, Ginni Rometty. It includes leaders at 37 companies like American Express, ATT, Bank of America, Cisco, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Johnson Johnson, Nike, Stryker, Target and Wal-Mart.
The companies hope to draw in a more diverse community of workers through a recruiting start-up that will identify potential job applicants with the help of community colleges, nonprofit groups, and other organizations known for cultivating Black talent.
Organizers said the jobs would have a wide range, from nurse practitioners to roles relying on specialized technology skills. The hope, they said, is to put more Black employees into better-paying, more secure jobs that will help sustain working families and provide better access to the upper echelons of corporations.
“The primary creator of wealth in the United States is the private sector,” Mr. Frazier said. “We can rebuild our country coming out of this pandemic. And if private companies decide that they’re going to hire, as we rebuild our economy, with an equity lens, then we’ll change the country.”
Mr. Frazier, one of only a few chief executives in the Fortune 500 who is Black, said the OneTen effort began after the killing of Mr. Floyd last May by a Minneapolis police officer. The event set off angry protests over racial inequities and “soul searching” in corporate America as well, Mr. Frazier said.
Talking with other chief executives, business organizations and Ms. Rometty, who has emphasized the importance of a diverse work force at IBM, Mr. Frazier said he came to believe that, as employers, their best tool for combating systemic racism was to attract new Black talent into well-paying jobs at their companies. Given that only about 22 percent of Black people over the age of 25 in the United States have attained a bachelor’s degree — a markedly lower percentage than white and Asian people — Mr. Frazier and Ms. Rometty said that drawing more Black talent would probably require dropping certain college-education requirements.
“As an employer, if I state that every job has to have a college degree, I am predetermining the outcome,” said Ms. Rometty. “The talent is out there; I must find another pathway for it to come to me.”
OneTen — the name refers to hiring one million workers in 10 years — is set to begin its work in January. A chief executive has not yet been named.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/10/business/us-economy-coronavirus/