Whats the Demographic Makeup of the Local Area?
First, ask yourself –- and the employer –- how the staff measures up to the local workforce along the dimensions of diversity that are important to you. This might include age, gender, sexual orientation or disability, as well as race and ethnic background. For starters, “organizations should do all they can to ensure there’s a numerically based decision on diversity goals,” says Mike Hyter, CEO of J. Howard & Associates Inc., a multicultural consulting firm in Brighton, Massachusetts. “You can look at census data as an indicator of the makeup of your labor pool” and set diversity goals accordingly. Workforce census data is available for metropolitan areas and states, for example. But since it is gathered only every 10 years, this information periodically becomes outdated, Hyter notes. Ask a prospective employer whether the human resources department uses private market research to update the company’s diversity goals. How Diverse Are the State and Region? “When the hiring company move
