Minorities in the Chemical Workforce Diversity Models that Work: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (2003) / Chapter Skim
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9 Diversity in the Industrial R&D Workforce: Challenges and Strategies
9 Diversity in the Industrial R&D Workforce: Challenges and Strategies
Pages 106-123
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From page 106... ...
employees, I saw very few women or people of color. Unfortunately, we heard from the speakers yesterday that this is still an accurate cultural description for departments of chemistry in most of the academic institutions in our country.
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From page 107... ...
Valuing people first is clearly a natural springboard to valuing diversity With this as a backdrop, when people are your most important asset, I submit that it is much easier to bring about a cultural change and develop a more diverse workforce when such a workforce may not currently exist. This also fits well with other cultural goals, such as "hiring the test" and "promote from within." By attracting the best applicants, regardless of majority or minority status, and giving them equal access to higher level positions, we build upon any hiring successes we may have and turn them into retention successes.
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From page 108... ...
Such efforts provide us with the opportunity not only to show corporate support, but also to allow our employees the possibility to be a mentor, to network, and to make a difference at the personal level in regard to attracting minority scientists to industrial research careers. Last, diversity efforts, such as those previously discussed, have resulted in numerous diversityrelated awards.
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From page 109... ...
First, the total supply has been relatively flat over this time period, roughly averaging about 2,000 doctorate degrees awarded per year. Last, the gap between the top versus the bottom line is a direct measure of the number of doctorate degrees in chemistry that is awarded each year to foreign national students, and this gap has been widening over the past few decades.
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From page 110... ...
citizens or permanent residents only, the significant lack of underrepresentation in science for Asians could be highlighted even more dramatically if I were to also account for those advanced degrees in chemistry awarded to foreign national students who are of Asian descent. A more compelling case for underrepresentation can be made by considering the number, not the percentage, of advance chemistry degrees awarded each year to minorities.
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From page 111... ...
SOURCE: NSF/NIH/NEH/USED/USDA/NASA, Survey of Earned Doctorates, Doctorates Awarded to U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Fine Field: 1990-2000, Table 3, National Opinion Research Center, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2000; and Population Estimates Program, U.S.
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From page 112... ...
However, our ability to attract and hire the best minority scientists is directly impacted by the fact that the number of minority candidates with advanced science degrees is woefully small. P&G cannot immediately or directly fill this academic "pipeline," but we can help by providing a demand for such candidates, and thus indirectly attract more minority students to pursue science careers.
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From page 113... ...
turning my attention to graduate students, which is my area of focus, P&G has a number of successful efforts in place to attract minority students to industrial careers. P&G is one of the few companies to offer, to both minority and majority doctoral students alike, summer internship opportunities where they can conduct independent and original research in an industrial setting.
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From page 114... ...
It is a conference intended to provide participants the chance to learn more about how industrial research is conducted and managed, network with minority scientists and scientific managers and learn about key factors for success, appreciate the value of team research and its role in bringing about innovation and technology development, evaluate their interview and resume-writing skills, and understand the value of diversity in a corporate culture. The conference is highly rated each year by participants and self-described as one of the more informative conferences many have attended.
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From page 115... ...
, 1995 to 2001. 60 55 50 45 40:3530252015 10 5O 'D5-'96'96-'97 ~~-~S'98-'9D'99-'00'00-'01 Fiscal Year FIGURE 9.7 Annual hiring rate of female doctoral candidates, 1995 to 2001.
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From page 116... ...
for this group. This is a conservative estimate, with our hiring rate increasing to about three times the academic supply value if doctorate degrees awarded to foreign national students are included in the analysis.
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I mentioned RTCI previously, the summer conference designed to highlight industrial research careers for minority scientists. We have hired a number of individuals through this conference, and they use this experience to remain close.
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From page 118... ...
More importantly, we do not see dramatic turnover rate differences when we look at women or minorities as employee subgroups. So in conclusion, building a diverse workforce is not easy, but it can be done.
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From page 119... ...
The vast majority of those who participate in our postdoctoral program are eager to apply for fulltime employment with us once they have fulfilled their contractual obligations, and we certainly consider them if their skills meet current hiring needs. Thus, to answer your question, I would estimate that we average hiring about two to three of our postdocs in any given year, which means that, relative to an average hiring rate of 60 per year, these individuals make up less than 5 percent of our new hires.
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From page 120... ...
I want to commend P&G for being an early and consistent supporter of the ACS Scholars Program.
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From page 121... ...
I recently reviewed proposals in the National Research Council/Ford Foundation predoctoral minority fellowship program. Several applicants were ACS Scholars.
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From page 122... ...
I would also add that another way we let the world know about the quality of our science is by having patents granted. Obviously, patents signify original research, and we want to take credit for this.
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From page 123... ...
We now have a women' s innovation network, an Asian development network, an African American network, a Hispanic network, and a gay and lesbian network across the company, which we have found to be effective in providing the type of environment that you talked about and that has been discussed in other venues here. These are supported quite heavily from the top in our corporation and have been effective in helping change the culture and environment across Dow Chemical Company.
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