Barriers and solutions: How to improve diversity in metro Phoenix’s municipal workforce – The Arizona Republic

Reyes Medrano became one of the youngest city managers in the Phoenix area when he took the reins inTolleson in 2005, atage36.

He was and still is one of the few Latinocity managers in a Valley that is 31% Latino.

In Tolleson, just west of Phoenix, 86% of the city's roughly 7,200 residents are Latino.

His experienceand that of others led to the creation of the Tolleson Teen Council, which fostersthe community's young talent and introducesthem to city work.

"My goal is to cultivate future generations of leadership, including directors, so that if I were to get hit by a Mack truck tomorrow the council would have plenty of choices," Medrano said.

While promoting homegrown talent is a solid approach, that'splaying the long game. The Arizona Republicspoke with several human resources professionals and a diversity expert who suggestother solutions, includingrethinking recruitment andrevising job descriptions and requirements that could hold some back.

Whatever the strategies undertaken,Delia Saenz said it must be intentional.

It's not enough to say diversity is a priority;measurable goals must be set and detailed actions need to be outlined to meet those goals, said Saenz, a professor and chief diversity officer for Arizona State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Republic's examination of data on gender, racial and ethnic diversity in the municipal workforce in metro Phoenix's 12 largest cities shows gaps in representation when compared with the overall community, and overall low diversity in top leadership positions and gaps in key departments, including police and fire.

"The message that's being put out there is that employers are pushing for more diversity, but the data is in stark contrast to that," she said. "There's a difference between rhetoric and reality, and in reality, the actions that would lead to equity are not happening."

Saenz said cities should start by assessing their workforce and recognizing where there are problems. Cities should be transparentand publicly post demographic data of the community and the workforce so that people are aware of where disparities exist.

Tolleson, for example, noticed a gender gap in certain departments and in leadership, so city officials were intentional about recruiting and hiring women for those roles. Now, women make up about half the city's leadership team, there are more women in the Police Department and the city recently hired another female firefighter, Medrano said.

A similar process recently began in Phoenix. The city developed a program over the past year to review equity in its hiring and promotion,said Vielka Atherton, a city spokesperson.

Atherton said data shows the city generally attracts a diverse candidate pool and hires a representative number of employees in entry level and line supervisor positions.

There are greater disparities at the leadership level, she said.

In response, Phoenix is creating a strategy to increase diversity in leadership that will look at how the city recruits and hires for those positions, prioritizing leadership development and mentoring.

Andre Miller, a pastor and community activist in Mesa, said minority candidates can face an uphill climb when trying to enter the municipal workforce.

He knows this firsthand. He has applied for 36 jobs with Mesa over 10 years and only gotone interview despite having eight years of municipal work experience and serving in the U.S. Army, he said.

There's often a lack of understanding about opportunities in the public sector. Though government work is usually stable, pays well and comes with good benefits, it can seem out of reach for women and minority workers, especially because it was historically dominated by white male employees, Miller said.

Where cities recruit for jobs can limit reach.Casting a wide net means advertising jobsin a host of publications, including those geared toward minority audiences, Miller and human resources experts said.

Officials from Phoenix to Avondale also suggest recruitingfor candidates at diverse job fairs, such as those geared toward veterans, women or LGBTQ youth.

The job description itself can also turn away prospective candidates if it's not written inclusively, Saenz said. Some job ads may contain coded language,such as using words like "aggressive" or "dominant" in job ads for male-heavy fields or "empathetic" and "supportive" in women-dominated professions,or pronouns that may discourage people from applying.

Some jobs may require a degree, licenses or technical skills thatcan make them hard to fill. The candidates' education and employment history may disqualify them from a job, too, human resources professionals said.

When recruiting, cities should reevaluate job descriptions and requirements, which are often unnecessarily stringent at the government level and can edge out minority candidates, human resources experts said.

Phoenix's human resources staff, for example, reviews job postings for inclusivity and job criteria to ensure the ad doesn't disproportionately disqualify some candidates, such as a clerical job that may require a bachelor's degree when it's not needed for an entry-level position, Atherton said.

Criminal and background history may be a barrier for some. Avondale was one of the first cities to support the "ban the box"movement, and the city no longer asks candidates about their past criminal convictions during the initial screening process, which could disproportionatelyimpact minority candidates.

Once past those initial hurdles, candidates can run into other barriers, such as bias in the screening process.

A 2016 study of Asian and Black students seeking jobs and internships by professors at Harvard Business School, University of Toronto and Stanford University found that applicants who scrubbed their applications of information that would reveal their racial identity, such as changing their ethnic-sounding name to a more American-sounding name or removing references to certain professional organizations, were more than twice as likely to get an interview than those whodidn't, although they had the same qualifications.

Similarity bias gravitating to people who look similar may lead hiring managers or panels to hire candidates who look like them, Saenz and human resources experts said.

Even after women and minorities make it through the door, it can be hard to stay within an organization if the workplace culture does not support inclusion and equity, Saenz said.

Sometimes employees face disparate treatment, have no support system and find it hard to move up in the organization, she said.

Miller said while working for a Valley cityyears ago, a colleague made a discriminatory comment about his race in front of the staff and their supervisor. None of his peers spoke up and the employee was not reprimanded, which made him feel unsupported, he said. He quit later that week.

"The kind of work environment that cities foster can push minority employees out if they are not supported," he said.

Saenz suggested several ways to support diverse employees:

"There are many resources to understanding how racist practices affect the system and individuals. Bring in people from the community to help, or hire a consultant if you don't have the internal mechanisms to do so," Saenz said. "There is no excuse."

Monitor progress and hold employees tasked with diversifying the workforce accountable, Saenz said. Shesuggested tying performance reviews, promotions or even raises to efforts to diversify the workforce and highlighting leaders who are active on this front.

"We do it for so many actions if you get certain sales, complete a certain project. We could do the same thing with increasing employees from minority communities," she said.

But ultimately, city leaders have to be willing to make improvements, Saenz said.

For Tempe City Manager Andrew Ching that has meant talking to employees over the last year about the importance of diversity and what it adds to the workforce and community.

Cities shouldn't wait until a moment of social reckoning to have these conversations, government leaders should be proactive in addressing diversity and equity, he said.

"If you're not already thinking about those things, then you should probably be, because I think that that is exactly where the focus of our public is now and will continue to be for, I think, the foreseeable future," he said.

As a boy, Medranosaw his dad serve on the local school board and Tolleson City Council in the late 1970s.

Still, the man who today is Tolleson's top executive didn't immediately jump into government work.

Inspired by his dad's activism on issues like bilingual educationand his later work at the local community college, Medrano wanted to pursue a job in education.

He earned a degree in management and cycled through jobs with the county and an aerospace company while starting a family. Hit with the possibility ofa layoff, he got a part-time job at Estrella Mountain Community College, where he met then-Tolleson Mayor Adolfo Gamez. Gamez,who worked for the college,encouraged him to apply for a police dispatcher job with the city.

Medrano landed the job in 1992 and worked in the department five years while he finished his master's degree in education.

Thoughhe intended to return to the community college scene, he instead climbed up the city ranks. He moved to the City Manager's Office as a management assistantand two years later was promoted to assistant manager.

Medrano credits city leaders who mentored him and encouraged him to grow within the organization for his nearly 30-year career in Tolleson. But he knows the process can be made easier through programs like the Teen Council.

"I wanted to formalize the process that I went through, streamline the path toward public sector," he said.

Reachreporter Paulina Pineda at paulina.pineda@azcentral.com or 480-389-9637. Follow her on Twitter:@paulinapineda22.

Support local journalism.Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Originally posted here:

Barriers and solutions: How to improve diversity in metro Phoenix's municipal workforce - The Arizona Republic