Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Job Placement: She increases employee retention through career readiness training.

Transcript

Job Placement: She increases employee retention through career readiness training. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I'm Rashaan MacDonald, the host of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now let's get this show roll along.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: My guess is on hold. She is the CEO of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the Collaborative Training Company at CTC, an Atlanta based management
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and professional services consulting firm founded in twenty eighteen. The
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Collaborative Training Company is a professional services consulting firm. They
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: support human resources business units by designing and delivering customized
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: workshops that increase employee retention, which is very important. Please
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: welco with the Money Making Conversation Master Class. Brenda Johnson,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: how are you doing, Brenda?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I'm good, Rashan, how are you? And congratulations on being
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Men of the Year stim Atlanta Women and doctor Max
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and Kine are close friends of CTC. So I'm thrilleding
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: here that.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you. You know we run into each other. I
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: finally got your show, Brenda, I'm so happy as you go.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I'm busy that day. I'm busy that dude, I'm business
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that Tuesday. So finally have you on your show. Tell everybody.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I know I read it in the intro, but tell
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: everybody in layman terms, what exactly does your company does?
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: A collaborative training company.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: For sure, and thank you for the opportunity to be
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: on the show. So we work in the space of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: kind of what we call workforce development, which is generally
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: connecting talent to jobs, jobs that are sustaining, that have
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a career pathway that like you could actually support your
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: family with these jobs. What I do a piece of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: it is learning and development professional development, So I work
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: with companies and nonprofit organizations to make sure that their
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: talent is upskilled enough not only to perform well in
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: their current role, but what's that next step. Right, You've
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: got an engineer, they're doing great, but when we want
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: to transition them to manager, that's a different skill set
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: than maybe this technical skill that you have. So we
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: do a little bit of that we do post hire support.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Companies are moving into what we call the skills based hiring,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: which means a lot of companies have taken a lot
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: of time and consideration to remove some of the four
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: year degree requirements so that they can get this labor
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: pipeline that they need. Often, when you remove the four
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: year degree requirement, you may have really skill talent that
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: are coming from places where they've never worked in a
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: corporate environment. So we will come into the company and say,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: with this cohort of skill talents your prentices, we'll do
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: an extra week of onboarding to help them understand some
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of those professional behavioral norms that might be new to them,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: help them acclimate to the culture. This fit this word fit? Oh,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: we love them, they have the right skills, but we
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: don't know that they will fit. So we help companies
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: unpack what does that fit mean. Does that mean you're
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: a fast paced company and you need people to hit
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the ground running. Does that mean you know you assign
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: people to mentors? What does that fit? So we help
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: companies define what is this ideal employee that you're looking
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: for and then connect these talent sources to that.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Well, now let me ask you this so can someone
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: come to you as an individual? Sir Rushan McGaugh, let's
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: me and you know, and I want to get a job,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: do I come to you? Or how does that work?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: That's more of what we call a talent coach. And
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I get so much of that in my LinkedIn inbox
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: because if you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll see that
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'm always kind of amplifying opportunities for your career talent
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: how to get it these jobs. So I do not
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: do individual talent coaching, but I am a collaborative partner
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: of many organizations who do exactly that. So with the
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: workforce development ecosystem, we've got to partner, right, you need
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: talent coaches, you need people that are working with the
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: companies on that side. You need your community colleges, your
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: high school programs. We've all got to work together to
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: make sure that this talent is a strong candidate when
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: that job opportunity comes. So I do not do individual
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: talent coaching.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Now that that's not you know. Now with that being said, now,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: how do you identify and nurture the unique talent of
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: job seekers who may not fit the traditional corporate mode?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Right now, that's why I'm trying to confuse educate me.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: I understand what you're doing, but you're saying, Rashan, we place,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: we help people adjust. We talking about the corporate side,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the people who do the hiring side. All you talk
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: about because you don't do the individual coaching right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Correct, right. So when you work with the larger companies
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: than many of the smaller ones, they already have talent acquisitions.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: They've got recruiters, they've got campus recruits, they've got that expertise,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and so I am not a staffing firm. We do
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: not do that work. So we let them do that
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: methodology that they have to find the talent, and then
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: we come in after they found the talent to get
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: them more ready for success. I don't know if you've
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: ever had a job that on day one, when you
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: got to that job, you're like, this isn't it. I
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: don't think I'm a good fit. I hate it here.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But you feel that in the first two weeks. There
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: are reasons that that might happen. That just mean anytime
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: we're placing an environment I'm familiar to us, it can
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: be uncomfortable. You can have this imposter syndrome that they
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: talk about so many of the people. If you place
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: some one that's come from a Walmart or Amazon, warehouse,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: fastroom retail, and you put them at a job at
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: at and T, it may feel massively uncomfortable. To an extent,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: they'll go back to that warehouse job right because they
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: feel comfortable I fit. So we let the companies do
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: their own hiring or work with their staffing agencies that
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: they all already have. We really lean into that cohort
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: that you just hired. We want to get them a
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: one to one mentor in that company that has that
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: shared lived experience. So if I get Rashaan McDonald a
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: job at IBM and he's young, early career, hasn't been
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: in corporate, I'm going to look for an older black
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: male because he'll have that lived experience at IBM. This
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: is what I've experienced. These are some things I can
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: help Reshaan navigate. And we use those employee resource groups
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: a lot to tap one to one mentors for this
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: time that's coming in to help them retain at that company.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Wow, I'm talking to Brenda Johnson. She's a CEO Collaborative
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Training Company CTC. It's a professional services consulting firm provides
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: professional development and career readiness training for companies who are
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: bringing people in and making happing them to adjust. Now,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I got to say, the magical world that's just been
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: dominating everybody, AI artificial intelligence, robots going to take my job.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: A robot's gonna take my job. Let me know, Brenda,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: because I gotta find that right now, help me out
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: hip out everybody, because that's the that's the big fear.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I won't say robots, let's say machine learning. I would
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: say there are already jobs that have been replaced by
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: AI components personally. And this is the Brenda Johnson perspective.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Humans are uniquely designed to be creative and innovative. So
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: what machine learning can do is only create an outcome
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: based on existing information, existing data. We can feed it
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: one hundred jobs, right and from the hundred, it can
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: create something. But it can't do that uniquely human thing
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: that we do, which is create something from nothing, have
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a really innovative idea. So what I tell you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: all the young professionals, they're going to check GPT to
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: try to do their jobs right. And I say, if
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: you don't take that output and put your personal fingerprint
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: on that it's garbage because you have lived experience, you
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: have expertise, you have the ability to make it your own.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm a fan of AI and efficiency increasing productivity.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: You can do research a lot quicker with that I
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: but you take that output, and for me, that's my
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: starting point. So there are are absolutely jobs that will
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: be automated, but there are many more jobs that will
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: not be automated, or somebody still has to tell the
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: robots what to do. Right.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something. I was in this restaurant,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: you know, we're based in Atlanta, Georgia. I was in Pascales,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: which is a upscale Black African American restaurant, and they
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: brought my food out. A little robot broke my food out.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Now I was tonned. I'm looking at it just just
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: turned right there. Light came on, pushed my food out,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and I got it that that robot. Nobody knows. The
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: human element was gone, you know. And then then I
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: just it just rolled away. And it was like a
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: side show because everybody in the restaurant was like, wow, wow,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I just serving everybody. And I was coming over here today, Brenda,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and I was in a red light and I saw
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a robot at the red light.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: It looked at robots. It was just sitting there waiting
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: for the I don't know, waiting for the light to change.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Because in my mind, Brenda, I'm gonna go a lot
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to you. I would have run over it. I would
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: have run over it if it were came in my
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: lane because I was like, automation is taking our jobs.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Don't kill the technology. So I got to technology. I
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: won't know, don't kill the technology. They're extensive. There was
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: a fast food chain that piloted like AI taking your
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: order at the order board. A riper of incorrect orders
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: was so high they had to kill that. Self driving cars.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I spent a year and a half out in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Bay Area. You saw the self driving cars being tested.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: The County Commission had a meeting the fire departments. The
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: police department showed up and said, listen, these things short
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: out and stop. Just like a computer, computer freezes up.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Stuff driving driving cars freeze up, and often they're freezing
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: up in front of the fire station, so the fire
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: truck can't get out. None of us can move it.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: We can't program it. But there's a lot to be
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: desired in the technology, it's not there yet, and if
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: the companies will do the diligence of piloting, many of
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: these replacements of humans won't work. It's what you see
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: at a big chain. Oh we want you to scan
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: your own stuff. We don't want you to scan your
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: own stuff. It's that back and forth. So I think
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the business case has to be there. But if there's
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: a dropping quality of outcome, some of that AI stuff
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: is going to world right back to humans.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Now let me ask you this, Brenda, because you know
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: now we're talking about AI because we have to, because
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: you know that's you know, the recent election, that's all
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: they talked about with AI. You know, you have Elon Musk.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: You know he's good drive. You know basically you know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: you can just sit back and take a nap in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the car, take you around. You can see different situations.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: And you're right, there's some traffic jams that have been
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: created because the cars just got confused and it just
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: locked up and just didn't move anymore. But that's taking
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: away potential. You know, Uber drivers and things of that
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: nature are left drivers with these cars. Once they get
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: it right, you just hop in a car, put your
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: credit card in and it'll take you home or take
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: you to the airport. So there are situations that are
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: coming along. But you're saying, Rashan, that is one job option,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: but there is another job option that's going to repair
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that that vehicle, that's going to a program, that vehicle
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: if it goes wacky, if it's going to be able
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to You have to see that. There are other opportunity
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: that don't require four year degrees that you can train
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: people are trained them up. Once these corporations bring you
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: on board, and that's your job as far as CTC
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: correct correct.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I think historically in America, the four year degree requirement
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: was an artificial barrier for certain people not to be
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: able to get certain jobs. Now that we have more
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Americans opting out of the four year degree, there will
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: be a labor shortage. If eighty percent of the jobs
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: in your applicant tracking system require degree, those jobs will
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: sit and you'll see it, Well, y'all had this job
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: poster for nine months, no one's getting the job. So
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: they've got to think differently and say, instead of this
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: piece of paper, let's revisit the job description. Right, this
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: job description has been in our system ten years. Technology
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: has changed, our processes have changed, but we really didn't
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: take the time to sit down and rewrite the job description.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: So instead, I'll sit with someone and say, give me
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: three adjectives for someone who is a star in this role.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Give me three adjectives for someone you would never hire
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: for this role. I'll learn more about what you need
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: from that job than this two page job requisition that
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: hasn't been changed. The hiring manager doesn't have time to
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: do it. Talent acquisition doesn't write the job description. Often
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the companies do not have a person on staff responsible
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: for even who makes the decision to take the for
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: your degree away. What's that process like? So it can
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: be a long journey to just say, let's think about
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: some of the jobs that don't need the four your
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: degree and instead let's focus on five to seven skills
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: of someone who excels in the job sales job pharmaceutical sales.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: That's an interesting conversation, I asked, that's a well paying job.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Do you really need a college degree for that? Tell
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: me why you need a college degree for that?
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Now, Wow, we're going to go to break before I
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: want to ask the question. The simmer on your side
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: of the conversation. Want to come back. Can you share
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: an example when we come back for a break of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: how you have successfully helped the company diversifies talent pipeline
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: while improving business performance. That's of question I'm gonna ask,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: don't go nowhere. We want to break be back with
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: more money Making Conversations with my friend Brenda Johnson.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the money Making
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'm speaking with
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Brenda Johnson. She's the CEO of Collaborative Training Company. Now, Brenda,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: can you share an example of how you successfully help
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a company diversify it it's talented pipeline where I improve
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: in business performance.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm so through that you asked me that. And
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: to preface my answer, when we get approached with the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: companies like we want to diversit fire our talent pipeline. One,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: let's unpack diversity if it's nursing as a second, Does
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: diversify mean more men? Right? What are we talking about?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Because I think when we hear diversity, everyone goes to
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: race and gender. They do, so I think we have
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: to be clear what we're talking about. But the example
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: that I love, I won't name the company. They had
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: like a really well high paying, well I think high
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: paying job. This is out of I won't even name where.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: About a seventy seventy five thousand dollars job that you
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: could get without a degree, And it looked like administrative work.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: You're going to support some executives, You're going to do
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: some travel planning, some calendar management, and they were willing
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: to remove the for your degree requirement when we get
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: that request. This is when we do do talent coaching.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: So when I have a clear job description, I understand
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: the company's culture. We go out in the community, our
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: talent partners, our talent developers and say who has the
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: hard skills in your talent pool that look like this.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: We screen them, we get to know them individually a
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: lot of people have tried to scale matching a person
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: to a job. If you've ever looked for a job.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: It's not really scalable in that way because it's very
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: high touch. So we'll take a group of candidates, get
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: them in a cohort, and we're getting to know them.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Do they have soft skills? Will this person even have
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: what we call wrap around supports? Do you have a car?
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: But they say you're going to You're going to go
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: to this site and done Woodie and this side in
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: the cab and this site downtown. You got to make
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: sure they're stable transportation. Are their childcare issues? We can
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: have our companies having to solve a lot of that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: At this point, I think they could invest in that,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: but at this point we're not. So that's when we
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: do do what we call talent coaching. Prep for the interview,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Let's look at your resume. Let's talk about the job
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: that you had at McDonald's and at Target and what
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: you did there, so we can translate those skills into
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: exactly what they want. So, if I'm gonna send a
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: group of candidates to be screened for a high volume,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: recurring role, those talent I have to touch. I have
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: to see my team spends time with them. A really
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: interesting dynamic we see lately, it's this neuro diversity, meaning
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: we're now where autism is going to be in our
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: talent pool. How does that show up? Because everyone wants
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: to have an access to work, So this is when
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: you get to know, Oh, Okay, this person has autism.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: That's why he's not looking me in the eye. Is
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: this something we can talk through with the company. We've
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: had a lot of success doing that. They feel really
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: rewarded to be able to open up a well paying
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: job for people that don't have a degree. But the
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: companies need to be able to see the results of
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: that and then have they retained how are they performing? Oh,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: let's do it again. Let's do it again in the spring.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: We're going to have this many openings, but it is
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a lot of work and it requires a lot of partnerships.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Wow, that sounds great, but you said something in a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: buzzword that really has had me all annoyed. With diversity, equity, inclusion,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: and whatever we use, the word diversity is always tied
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: to race. Talk to us about you know, how you've
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: seen the shift in diversity echoin inclusion over the last
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: four years, I guess, And what do you see the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: future moving forward for diversity in the workforce.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Correct. So I think that's all. I think there was
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: a milestone moment. But George Floyd, we had many companies,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: many organizations moved to embrace the EI and actually put
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: money behind it, and that looked a lot of different ways.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Then we have the Scholist ruling come out and say
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: you really shouldn't be doing that. We might sue you
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: if you do that. So at the end of the day,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: it has to be a business case that this company
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: needs talent. And historically, if that talent were white men
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: with a four year degree followed by white women with
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: the four year degree down the line, that company's not
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: going to be in business because the demographics of the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: country has shifted and fewer people are opting to get
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: a for your degree anyway. So we talk about diversity,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: I challenge people that think beyond race and gender because
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: now we have four or five generations in the workplace.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: That's a whole different conversation about the way in which
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: we show up. We have the neuro diversity issue, the autism,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: the aspergers, we have the LGBT status. We have accessibility
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: people that need enabling conditions to be able to work here.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: So I think where we are now is you see
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: a departure of a group of companies who have said,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: thank you, we don't want to do that anymore. And
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: you have another group of companies that are still very
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: dedicated to building the pipeline that they need from the
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: broader labor force and are asking people to help with that.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Where can I find the talent because these companies are
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: not necessarily connected into these communities. One of the reasons
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: that they're not with what's your recruiting strategy. I've had
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: companies say, oh, we only recruit from three schools in Illinois.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Tell me about that. Okay, so if you're in Atlanta,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: tell me about your recruiting strategy. Tell me if you
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: have a different quote unquote HBCU recruiting strategy. Why is
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: it different. How much money is in this one? How
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: much money is in that one. So you can't come
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: and say I want to diversify, but you have this
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: separated recruiting strategy. And so if you start to peel
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: back the layers, this is the status quo of America.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: But if you're saying I want to move forward and
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: be different, I really want to tap into a labor
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: pool that's going to meet my business needs. Why do
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: we have an HBCU program? Make that make sense to me?
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Why is it there? Because it's been there, it's a legacy,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: right or we just created it. Oh, but it's not
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: like it's not like our Jorgy tech and UGA program.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Why is it not like that?
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So you have to ask questions because most of these
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: people inherited this from the job. They inherited this is
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: the way our company does thing, and often they don't
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: have the power influence a budget to make those changes.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Wow, you know you've hidden so many mad buttons with
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: me with that presentation, because it's true because I get
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: to do these you know, they have these minority supplier portals.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: They want you to fill out the information. Nobody ever
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: calls you, Nobody ever contacted. I've never been I'll just
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: say nobody's ever contacted with Sean McDonald. And I get
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: frustrated because they're saying they're offering opportunities of diversity, but
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: how and the examples are so funneled down, so low.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: But you know, the key is this country has changed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and it's not going to go backwards. It's going to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: only go farther. It's only going to become more more,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I think, a better country. We just have to accept it.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: But we also have to accept the fact that I
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: don't want nobody Brenda hired me because I'm black. I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: want nobody out of my mouth.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: The visit of doctor Martin Luther King was, could you
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: please see us for our talent, our character, who we
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: are inside we inherit a system that doesn't do that.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: So now we're just saying we don't want to be
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: able to compete equally, like remove the roadblocks, remove the
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: bias from your system so we can compete equally. I've
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: just I've been frustrating in my own career with the
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: resistance for people to want to compete evenly. So we
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: don't want the job because we're black. And the companies
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: who do not abandon these initiatives are going to end
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: up more profitable because they're gonna have the best labor
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: force with the right skills doing the work. The one
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: who want to continue to practice status quo, well this
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: is who we hire. We hire only from these schools
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: and they have to look like this and speak that way,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: probably going to be out of business because that's not
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: the the future of America. I think the chips will
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: followd their lot where they lie, and I think as
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: a country, we're great enough to start to surface. Let's
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: hire the people who can get the job done. Yes,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: relationship matters, network matters. And I'm laughing at you with
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Sean because you're like a supplier, diverse supplier of the year,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: so some kind of way you made that work for you.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: But I also know that you are well connected and
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: relationships matter, So we want to be able to get
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: this talent with mentors and coaches that can pull them
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: into these spaces so that they can compete equally.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Wow, you're fantastic, Brenda. Brenda, how can we get in
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: touch with you? You know what?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: You can visit our website at EPC guy guide dot
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: com and I would think the best way to reach
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: us on social media is to visit our LinkedIn page,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: which is merely the collaborative Training Company.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: And you are amazing. Now, want to thank thank you, Brenda.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: You know I got to bring you back because our
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: conversation became a different conversation the second half, and I
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: think that that's a really good thing because people need
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: to hear how the industry is and there's a shot,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: but you can win being you and don't let nobody
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: under not the media, undermine your opportunities by making you
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: feel like you only got a job because you are black,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: you only got a job because you're a woman, You
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: only got a job because you are this type of person.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: We have to recognize that our skill set matters. Our
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: skill set allows us to compete. If you graduate from HBCU,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: it's no different than graduating from Penn State. Equally talented
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: people qualified to do the job because we have the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: right skill set. Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks for Sean.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Master
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Class hosted by Mayor Rashan McDonald. Thank you our guests
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: in the show today and thank you our listening audience.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: If you want to listen to any episodes or want
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: to be a guest on the show, visit money Making Conversation.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Keep winning. This has been another edition of Money Making
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: our guests on the show today and thank you our
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: listening to audience now. If you want to listen to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: any episode I want to be a guest on the show,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: leave with your gifts. Keep winning.