One of the most in-demand management jobs is now diversity and inclusion managers. The careers pay well, and there aren’t many professionals trained in the field.
Human resources departments have made progress on workforce diversity through proactive recruiting and hiring, but making minority employees — and, increasingly, nonminority employees — feel they are part of the organization is not so straightforward. That is what HR departments consider “inclusion.”
“The art of bringing all of these diverse people together and making them feel included and belonging as a concept is an area of expertise,” Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management in D.C., told WTOP.
Though filling diversity and inclusion management roles is a priority for a growing number of employers, finding qualified professionals for those positions is a challenge.
“We need really, really sharp people to fill these rolls, and unfortunately, there are not a ton of schools that produce D&I professionals,” Taylor said. “So, we’ve got to find them. Usually out of human resources, and get prepared for what is now the new norm, and that is a majority-minority workforce.”
Demand for diversity and inclusion managers is surging. According to Glassdoor, such job postings jumped 30% in 2019 alone.
And the pay for those careers is good. The average annual pay for a chief diversity officer is around $130,000 a year, according to a salary search by PayScale for CNBC.
Diversity and inclusion policies may also be good for employee retention. As CNBC recently noted, a 2018 Deloitte survey finds younger workers are more than twice as likely to stay with a company that has a diverse workforce than ones that don’t.
