Representation

Recognizing possible cultural barriers

Mentorship and role models:

• Have you experienced a lack of representation and/or influence in leadership to provide resources for Asian Americans aspiring to make it into higher level roles?

How to navigate those barriers

What are some things I can do to help the company optimize their DE&I initiatives?

• If your company does not have a dedicated DE&I community or an ERG geared toward AAPI awareness, take the initiative in talking to your HR team about starting one.
• If your company does have a DE&I or equivalent ERG, leverage that program to cultivate meaningful narratives for the AAPI community. Based on the findings of “Coqual: Strangers at Home”, this could include:
  • Breaking the monolithic cohort of the AAPI community into subgroups to bring perspective toward the make-up of the AAPI workforce and to allow those subgroups to connect and represent their different experiences.
  • Cultivating solidarity interracially and intergenerationally by creating safe listening spaces facilitated by experts and community leaders.
  • Requesting “targeted education and reverse-mentorship programs for middle managers and senior leaders” where they can learn the “strength of different approaches to leadership, demonstrate how to advocate on behalf of employees with great leadership potential (but who may not feel comfortable with self-advocacy), and hold leaders accountable to follow through on commitments to advocacy”, as well as educating managers on how to recognize racism towards AAPI employees and promote active inclusion.
  • Organizing events, resources, and programs to encourage collaboration and community-building with other ERGs.
  • Reinforcing strong response to anti-AAPI violence and rhetoric by requesting more “mental health resources, safe spaces within ERGs, and public commitments with transparency about the company’s level of investment in community.”
• Include dialogue on disparate impacts in which discrimination occurs unintentionally or systemically. One area of focus could be the correlation between the adverse treatment of other minority groups/protected classes and race.

What kind of information or data should the company be keeping?

• Companies of a certain size or within a certain industry are obligated to maintain data and records of employee demographics. Although some of this data is not publicly accessible, these reports are specifically required from companies to comply with anti-discrimination laws. Some reports include Environmental, Social, and Governance reports (ESG), DE&I data, Equal Opportunity Employment reports (EEO-1), Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), and the occasional report to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • You can explore aggregated data based on the EEO-1 reports here: https://www.eeoc.gov/data/job-patterns-minorities-and-women-private-industry-eeo-1-0

How do I increase visibility and representation in leadership roles for myself and others?

• Utilize programs such as Leap: https://www.leap.org/, that help to facilitate workshops, presentations, and leadership programs geared toward the AAPI community.
• As a means to promote more representation within leadership roles, here are some recommendations on how to find a mentor:
  • Read this article to learn more about finding a mentor: https://asana.com/resources/tips-find-mentor
  • There are also mentorship programs geared toward the AAPI community that you can join for a fee. A few include:
    • MJAA Mentorship Program for mid-career Chinese Americans in the Bay Area – https://mjaamentorship.org/
    • Ascend Global Leaders for Pan-Asians looking to network for growth and advancement – https://www.ascendleadership.org/