Corporations must have diverse perspectives or will be unable to serve: Mind Money Media CEO

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi speak with Mind Money Media CEO & President Stacey Tisdale about how the U.S. can increase diversity in the workplace, and what COVID-19 has shown us about the income and skills gaps and the black American worker.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Both the coronavirus pandemic and protests over the killing of George Floyd have highlighted the inequalities that continue to weigh on the black community. Although the unemployment rate in May dropped to 13.3%, unemployment among African Americans actually rose to 16.8%.

Joining us now to discuss this is the CEO and president of Mind Money Media Stacey Tisdale. Stacey, good to have you on the show. Tell us in what ways has this pandemic sort of highlighted what you call the skills gap for the African American community.

STACEY TISDALE: Hi, Alexis. Hi, Brian. It's great to be here and to be having this conversation.

I think people were surprised when they saw the pandemic take hold that when we started to see the essential workers who were really having a hard time and were contracting the virus more that it had a black face on it. And I think that what we saw was why is that happening? And as we dug deeper into that, it was the types of jobs that the black community had that were much more at risk-- service-sector jobs, restaurants, health-care workers.

And when you look at not just within the black community but overall, I think that really unveiled that there is a skills gap because what we had to do postcorona is move to a virtual economy, essentially, and we saw who was not participating in that. We saw who was not prepared for that. And the message that we really all have to take from that is that we are moving to a virtual economy.

I think-- Microsoft, I think, had an estimate that within a decade, 70% of all the jobs-- and this was pre-COVID-- are going to be virtual. So if we have a whole segment of the economy not prepared for that, this is a wake-up call that we really have to take.

BRIAN SOZZI: You know, Stacey, part of, I imagine, helping to close that skills gap is the culture inside some of these big companies. How do you-- what are the actual steps to improve corporate culture on diversity?

STACEY TISDALE: Corporate culture has to understand the moment that we're in now. I mean, could we have even dreamed about this coronavirus pandemic and then what's really shaken in the wake of George Floyd's murder and how that's really woken us?

Right now, you know, there were big diversity problems in corporate America. You had, you know, black workers really feeling like-- I saw some research that they had to hide aspects of themselves to fit into corporate cultures. You see "Harvard Business Review" found that five years after mid- and large-cap companies implement mandatory diversity programs, the number of minorities and women actually goes down.

So corporate cultures have not been a conducive place. They're having retention issues. Employees are not feeling really part of those cultures, and that's having impacts on productivity. It's estimated that US companies lose about half a-- $500 billion a year in lost productivity alone. So we have to rethink what is happening in corporate cultures that are making these groups feel so marginalized.

But the real wake-up call here is-- you know, I've done many speeches, had many discussions about let's talk about the business case for diversity. But the script is flipping. It's are you ready to be prepared for the opportunity costs that you might have if you're not prepared to serve what the United States is going to look like? You have the Census Bureau telling us that within 20 years minorities are going to be the majority of your population. So if you don't have those diverse perspectives at the core of your organization, then you're not going to be in a position to serve.

So corporations really have to take this wake-up call and not only create inclusive corporate cultures but they have to really create cultures where all voices can be heard and get some help creating those.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Stacey, at the top here we talked about the skills gap affecting-- disproportionately affecting the African American community. Talk to us a little bit about the income wage gap as well because there's-- we have to make some progress there as well.

STACEY TISDALE: There's some interesting dynamics going on. Black households in the United States earning $60,000 and more, $100,000 and more-- I'm sorry, $200,000 and more are actually the fastest-growing income group, according to Nielsen. And when you look at the history of black wealth in the United States, that's an incredible story of resilience.

What's very interesting to me when you break down that number, a lot of it has to do with black-- a lot of that growth is coming from black immigrants, immigrants who come from Africa, immigrants who come from the Caribbean who are coming to the United States to get an education, coming to the United States to start businesses. But most important, they don't carry that same psychological and emotional conditioning that African Americans have.

So you have the skills gap, but also you have a dynamic where, because of the history of blacks [INAUDIBLE] United States, people aren't-- blacks aren't really-- black Americans aren't really stepping into their power.

And just to give you a little sense of what that history has been, you know-- I didn't mean for this to turn into a history lesson, but the black economy really started when President Lincoln started the Freedman's Bank. And when he started the Freedman's Bank, it was for freed slaves to get money and learn about money. And within 10 years, those freed slaves amassed $60 million. So they-- that money was taken to build the Freedman's Bank. That would have been over $7 trillion in the black community today.

You had practices like redlining in which blacks weren't allowed to participate in the housing market. And, you know, by law they couldn't buy in certain neighborhoods. And when you consider-- and I know we know this, Alexis, that most wealth is passed on through homeownership. That was a huge hit. You had predatory lending practices.

All of these things have created a disastrous financial backdrop. There's also an emotional toll, a psychological toll. Blacks don't trust the financial-services industry. You only have 7% of black Americans working with financial advisors. You understand why.

And don't look at today's numbers, but, you know, the growth in the stock market has really-- you know, it's something that the black community isn't participating in at a large enough level.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Stacey, I--

STACEY TISDALE: And it's something that they're going to need to do.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: I've got to jump in here. I'm sorry. There's so much more to discuss, and we'd love to have you back on to just do that, but we need to wrap up this hour. Stacey Tisdale of Mind Money Media, thanks so much for being with us.