Asian Americans are most likely to participate in employee affinity organizations, but don’t feel sufficiently supported within their companies, a new survey shows.
Research recently released by AAPI Data revealed that despite their particularly high levels of participation in employee-led resource groups (ERGs) — twice the rate of workers overall — Asian Americans continue to feel left out of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The study, which examined diversity across American life, found that Asian Americans participate in employee-led groups at 16%, far exceeding the 8% of workers overall. While more than half were motivated to do so to connect with others, 44%, said they were driven by professional growth opportunities and 39% cited the opportunity to raise awareness and inclusivity within their organization.
Still, almost one-quarter of Asian American workers reported feeling excluded from discussions about diversity and inclusion at their workplace. These feelings of inadequate support are also seen in discussions of leadership roles, as roughly only one-quarter said they have seen themselves represented in leadership positions at the workplace, a lower proportion than any other race. A similar percentage of Asian Americans surveyed reported feeling supported to take on leadership opportunities
While ERGs most often exist to foster a sense of belonging and connection in the workplace, they can also help build momentum toward leadership and offer mentorship opportunities. But this doesn’t always translate for Asian Americans, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder of AAPI Data.
“The pattern they see is, regardless of whether they’re involved in these ERG’s, they’re not seeing much in the way of progress in terms of people being promoted to leadership and executive positions within the company,” Ramakrishnan said.
Citing leadership statistics, Ramakrishnan said that Asian Americans “feel excluded because they…
Read the full article here