Dive Brief:
- CareerBuilder has been partnered with iHeartMedia’s Black Information Network for about eight weeks now, aiming to connect Black talent with open entry-level and junior roles via their 100,000 Careers initiative. Since then, the organizations say they’ve received positive feedback from stakeholders.
- Tapping into iHeartMedia’s network of more than 100 R&B, hip-hop and gospel stations, the partnership broadcasts career spotlights and testimonials. Along with job listings, the 100,000 Careers platform also offers resume-building tools and upskilling content for its users. As the name suggests, the goal is to match 100,000 Black Information Network listeners with what CareerBuilder CMO Kristin Kelley called “meaningful” careers.
- “Since launching the 100,000 Career platform in May, we've been able to introduce listeners to this new resource through aired spots and various interviews — including a discussion on Black Information Network's Our Daily Story podcast,” Kelley told HR Dive. She also pointed to the reach of TikTok influencer-created content from DeAndre Brown, which had garnered more than 8,300 likes and 123,000 views at press time.
Dive Insight:
100,000 Careers appears to be as much for employers as it is for the Black community. Moreover, as Black Information Network President Tony Coles said in a press release, one of BIN’s highest priorities “has been to call attention to the disproportionate income and unemployment gaps the Black community faces." In the two months since the program launched, he told HR Dive, the organizations have heard from “listeners, businesses and community organizations who are all excited about both the program and the potential impact. “As businesses deal with the ongoing Great Resignation and the potential disruption a recession could cause, they are more focused than ever on having the best and most diverse workforce,” he said.
HR managers may be able to take some cues from Coles. To solve the problem of homogenous hiring, sources have previously told HR Dive it’s important to acknowledge the ways in which institutionalized racism affects Black and brown workers’ access to opportunity; in practice, this means active anti-racism is a critical component of effective equity and inclusion work.
In “A State of Inequity: Unsafe. Unheard. Unvalued,” a 2022 report by Hue, 84% of employee respondents noted “a lack of meaningful progress” in their workplace. Meanwhile, 82% of HR professionals surveyed felt their industry had done a good job of implementing diversity-related initiatives. These stats echo reports by Challenger, Gray and Christmas and the HR Policy Association, published in March and April 2021, respectively: the majority of employers surveyed said they were homing in on diverse hiring initiatives that year.
As racial unease and political discord continue, stakeholders have told HR Dive it’s critical that company leaders make their workplace the kind of psychologically safe environment in which Black employees can thrive.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, Kristin Kelley’s name was misspelled.
