I remember the first time I spoke in
public about careers I was 14 years old
and I was leaving a party at the East
End United Community Center in Uniontown
Pennsylvania my friends had congregated
on a wall outside of the event and
someone posed the question what do you
want to do when you get out of school I
was 14 so one by one my forget my
friends began to jump off the wall and
acknowledge what it was that they wanted
to do when they got out of school my
best friend Tori Epps was with me and
when he jumped off the wall he said that
he wanted to be a professional football
player and playing the NFL and I
remember saying to myself wow
professional football player that’s
outstanding but what are the odds of
that like how astronomical are the odds
of someone becoming a professional
football player so I called myself
playing it safe when I jumped off the
wall I said I want to be a businessman
you know a CEO and that started my
career journey for workforce diversity
you see my name is Kenneth L Johnson and
I’m the president of East Coast
executives the world’s leading diversity
recruitment firm now some of you may be
wondering what’s the diversity
recruitment firm and that’s easy I can
explain companies reach out to us when
they’re interested in adding diverse
talent to their recruitment pipelines I
love my job I honestly believe that
we’re more successful at placing diverse
talent at great companies the whole
workplace gets better but it’s
interesting what I discovered through
this process is that companies have
started to come to us and say hey can
we’re really interested in working with
your firm because we understand the
business case for diversity we know that
diverse teams outperform non
verse teams and have an impact on the
bottom line we know that diverse teams
outperform homogeneous teams and have an
impact to the bottom line we know that
if our workforce is diverse we can
connect with our customers and end users
and have an impact on the bottom line
all of that’s true and that’s
outstanding
but it made me wonder why is it that
when companies want to hire people of
color or people from underrepresented
groups there has to be some type of
financial gain on the back end why is it
that there has to be some financial
variable for people to hire diverse
talent I started my firm as a
recruitment firm on September 3rd 2001
this is what I call my transparency top
you see 8 days later on September 11th
2001 we were experienced the attacks on
the World Trade Center so I was sitting
in my living room in South Philadelphia
and I’m watching the TV other
disparities taking place in lower
Manhattan and finally I just couldn’t
take it anymore I had to turn the TV off
but I grabbed a magazine on my table to
read and it was a Black Enterprise
magazine and basically as I’m reading
the magazine I come across an article on
a gentleman named Kenneth Chennault you
see a couple months prior mr. Chenault
had accepted or earned the role of CEO
of American Express Wow a black man was
CEO of American Express I was ecstatic
and then as I continued to read on I
realized that mr. Chenault was only the
third african-american male that becomes
CEO of a fortune 500 company ever I was
shocked
hold on in the history of the fortune
500 there’s only been three African
American CEOs right ok
so much for my decision
to jump off that wall and say I was
gonna be a CEO right Wow uh I just
it was amazing to me but its history and
racism would prove I shouldn’t have been
shocked at all because even today in
2018 there are still only three
african-american males that lead fortune
500 companies now don’t get me wrong I’m
not trying to make this a black and
white witch issue at all the numbers are
equally as depressing for other
underrepresented groups right so what I
decided to do I said to myself well you
know it doesn’t look like I’m gonna be
CEO but just to understand the odds my
friend that I spoke about the jumped off
the wall and said he wanted to be a
professional football player well he
actually made it rest in peace my
brother he actually made it to the NFL
right so in 2001 and 2001 when we
decided that we were going to be a
diversity recruitment firm I basically
said if I can’t be the CEO of one
I’ll work extremely hard to ensure that
other people get the opportunity to
achieve their career aspirations and
dreams right so every year
for the last 16 years to celebrate our
anniversary every September 11th we
start the process of calling every
company in the fortune 500 just to see
if they’re interested in working with
the small boutique diversity recruiting
firm out of Harlem New York every
company we call 500 companies in
September just to see if they’re willing
to work for us now again I’m 100 percent
clear that the higher levels at the
fortune 500 companies are overwhelmingly
male and overwhelmingly white but again
it’s not a black-and-white issue at all
let me explain
so as that mentioned to you less than 1%
of Fortune 500 CEOs are African
Americans right
less than 2% are Latino
less than 2% are Asian less than 5% or
women so what do we do
all right so typically if you want to
solve a problem you start to gather all
the information you can and then you
address the issue accordingly right so
here’s what happens we know that the top
we know what the top ranks of the
fortune 500 looks like we know what’s
happening in the c-suite but how about
all the other employees that work for
fortune 500 companies where does that
picture look like fortune 500 companies
employed 28 million people so we just
wanted to know what the ranks look like
from a diversity data standpoint so
fortune magazine decided to reach out to
all the fortune 500 companies to receive
diversity data which shouldn’t have been
hard because all of these companies are
required to report diversity data to the
Department of Labor and by diversity
data that’s data on gender race and job
category all 500 have to report it to
the Department of Labor so here’s what
happened when Fortune reached out it was
a game of hide-and-seek 16 of the
fortune 500 companies released complete
diversity data three percent of the
companies in the fortune 500 cared
enough about the issues of diversity and
inclusion to release the data 400 of the
companies released no data at all so
what do we do all right well I guess
it’s time to hold the CEOs accountable
you see you can go to any of these
companies websites and pull up their
diversity and inclusion mission
they’ll tell you that there are strong
proponents of diversity and inclusion
they’ll tell you and their mission about
how diverse their workforce is and how
important that is to them they call
themselves equal opportunity employers
but they don’t want to release the data
to prove that to be either true or false
in 2017 450 CEOs came together and they
formed what they call the diversity and
inclusion action initiative what makes
this a little different is that instead
of looking at diversity and inclusion
from a competitive standpoint from a
financial advantage they decided that
they wanted to look at diversity and
inclusion and look at its societal
impact now that’s a platform that we can
work with you see when East Coast
executives started we’ve always been the
firm that looked at diversity for its
societal impact we always believed that
that everybody if everybody had an
opportunity to work a career and to grow
in their career it would just be better
for the workplace in society as a whole
so these CEOs have gotten together and
they’ve made a pledge to look at
diversity and think about its societal
impact now I think that’ll actually work
if the commitment is real what can we do
individually well what I’m going to ask
from you guys is that when you return
back to your workplace take a look at
your company’s diversity and inclusion
mission and if you think your company’s
doing a great job it’s fine that’s great
but if you think they’re falling short
in any way I’m gonna ask you to hold the
leaders of your organization accountable
I’m gonna ask you to start the
conversation about diversity and
inclusion I’m going to ask you to
support diversity
initiatives not only in your workplace
but in your community I honestly believe
that if we do that and we combine that
with the work of the CEO diversity and
inclusion action initiative we can all
become the face of workplace diversity
my name is Kenneth L Johnson I believe
I’m the world’s number one diversity
recruiter and I’ve just recruited you to
be the face of workplace diversity thank
you [Applause]
public about careers I was 14 years old
and I was leaving a party at the East
End United Community Center in Uniontown
Pennsylvania my friends had congregated
on a wall outside of the event and
someone posed the question what do you
want to do when you get out of school I
was 14 so one by one my forget my
friends began to jump off the wall and
acknowledge what it was that they wanted
to do when they got out of school my
best friend Tori Epps was with me and
when he jumped off the wall he said that
he wanted to be a professional football
player and playing the NFL and I
remember saying to myself wow
professional football player that’s
outstanding but what are the odds of
that like how astronomical are the odds
of someone becoming a professional
football player so I called myself
playing it safe when I jumped off the
wall I said I want to be a businessman
you know a CEO and that started my
career journey for workforce diversity
you see my name is Kenneth L Johnson and
I’m the president of East Coast
executives the world’s leading diversity
recruitment firm now some of you may be
wondering what’s the diversity
recruitment firm and that’s easy I can
explain companies reach out to us when
they’re interested in adding diverse
talent to their recruitment pipelines I
love my job I honestly believe that
we’re more successful at placing diverse
talent at great companies the whole
workplace gets better but it’s
interesting what I discovered through
this process is that companies have
started to come to us and say hey can
we’re really interested in working with
your firm because we understand the
business case for diversity we know that
diverse teams outperform non
verse teams and have an impact on the
bottom line we know that diverse teams
outperform homogeneous teams and have an
impact to the bottom line we know that
if our workforce is diverse we can
connect with our customers and end users
and have an impact on the bottom line
all of that’s true and that’s
outstanding
but it made me wonder why is it that
when companies want to hire people of
color or people from underrepresented
groups there has to be some type of
financial gain on the back end why is it
that there has to be some financial
variable for people to hire diverse
talent I started my firm as a
recruitment firm on September 3rd 2001
this is what I call my transparency top
you see 8 days later on September 11th
2001 we were experienced the attacks on
the World Trade Center so I was sitting
in my living room in South Philadelphia
and I’m watching the TV other
disparities taking place in lower
Manhattan and finally I just couldn’t
take it anymore I had to turn the TV off
but I grabbed a magazine on my table to
read and it was a Black Enterprise
magazine and basically as I’m reading
the magazine I come across an article on
a gentleman named Kenneth Chennault you
see a couple months prior mr. Chenault
had accepted or earned the role of CEO
of American Express Wow a black man was
CEO of American Express I was ecstatic
and then as I continued to read on I
realized that mr. Chenault was only the
third african-american male that becomes
CEO of a fortune 500 company ever I was
shocked
hold on in the history of the fortune
500 there’s only been three African
American CEOs right ok
so much for my decision
to jump off that wall and say I was
gonna be a CEO right Wow uh I just
it was amazing to me but its history and
racism would prove I shouldn’t have been
shocked at all because even today in
2018 there are still only three
african-american males that lead fortune
500 companies now don’t get me wrong I’m
not trying to make this a black and
white witch issue at all the numbers are
equally as depressing for other
underrepresented groups right so what I
decided to do I said to myself well you
know it doesn’t look like I’m gonna be
CEO but just to understand the odds my
friend that I spoke about the jumped off
the wall and said he wanted to be a
professional football player well he
actually made it rest in peace my
brother he actually made it to the NFL
right so in 2001 and 2001 when we
decided that we were going to be a
diversity recruitment firm I basically
said if I can’t be the CEO of one
I’ll work extremely hard to ensure that
other people get the opportunity to
achieve their career aspirations and
dreams right so every year
for the last 16 years to celebrate our
anniversary every September 11th we
start the process of calling every
company in the fortune 500 just to see
if they’re interested in working with
the small boutique diversity recruiting
firm out of Harlem New York every
company we call 500 companies in
September just to see if they’re willing
to work for us now again I’m 100 percent
clear that the higher levels at the
fortune 500 companies are overwhelmingly
male and overwhelmingly white but again
it’s not a black-and-white issue at all
let me explain
so as that mentioned to you less than 1%
of Fortune 500 CEOs are African
Americans right
less than 2% are Latino
less than 2% are Asian less than 5% or
women so what do we do
all right so typically if you want to
solve a problem you start to gather all
the information you can and then you
address the issue accordingly right so
here’s what happens we know that the top
we know what the top ranks of the
fortune 500 looks like we know what’s
happening in the c-suite but how about
all the other employees that work for
fortune 500 companies where does that
picture look like fortune 500 companies
employed 28 million people so we just
wanted to know what the ranks look like
from a diversity data standpoint so
fortune magazine decided to reach out to
all the fortune 500 companies to receive
diversity data which shouldn’t have been
hard because all of these companies are
required to report diversity data to the
Department of Labor and by diversity
data that’s data on gender race and job
category all 500 have to report it to
the Department of Labor so here’s what
happened when Fortune reached out it was
a game of hide-and-seek 16 of the
fortune 500 companies released complete
diversity data three percent of the
companies in the fortune 500 cared
enough about the issues of diversity and
inclusion to release the data 400 of the
companies released no data at all so
what do we do all right well I guess
it’s time to hold the CEOs accountable
you see you can go to any of these
companies websites and pull up their
diversity and inclusion mission
they’ll tell you that there are strong
proponents of diversity and inclusion
they’ll tell you and their mission about
how diverse their workforce is and how
important that is to them they call
themselves equal opportunity employers
but they don’t want to release the data
to prove that to be either true or false
in 2017 450 CEOs came together and they
formed what they call the diversity and
inclusion action initiative what makes
this a little different is that instead
of looking at diversity and inclusion
from a competitive standpoint from a
financial advantage they decided that
they wanted to look at diversity and
inclusion and look at its societal
impact now that’s a platform that we can
work with you see when East Coast
executives started we’ve always been the
firm that looked at diversity for its
societal impact we always believed that
that everybody if everybody had an
opportunity to work a career and to grow
in their career it would just be better
for the workplace in society as a whole
so these CEOs have gotten together and
they’ve made a pledge to look at
diversity and think about its societal
impact now I think that’ll actually work
if the commitment is real what can we do
individually well what I’m going to ask
from you guys is that when you return
back to your workplace take a look at
your company’s diversity and inclusion
mission and if you think your company’s
doing a great job it’s fine that’s great
but if you think they’re falling short
in any way I’m gonna ask you to hold the
leaders of your organization accountable
I’m gonna ask you to start the
conversation about diversity and
inclusion I’m going to ask you to
support diversity
initiatives not only in your workplace
but in your community I honestly believe
that if we do that and we combine that
with the work of the CEO diversity and
inclusion action initiative we can all
become the face of workplace diversity
my name is Kenneth L Johnson I believe
I’m the world’s number one diversity
recruiter and I’ve just recruited you to
be the face of workplace diversity thank
you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: