Asian Avenue magazine

All employees want to feel comfortable in their own skin wherever they are working, but many Asian Americans can sometimes feel very much out of place at work. Many will face some form of discrimination in the workplace during their careers, and Asian American employees will also face a unique set of challenges at work on a daily basis.

The key for the Asian American employee is to find a workplace that is welcoming for people of all diverse backgrounds and cultures. It becomes a little trickier to find an employer that does more than talk about diversity, and actually creates a culture of inclusion for their employees.

Luckily, the bulk of the leg work has been done. Each year DiversityInc compiles a national list of the Top 50 Companies for Diversity that includes corporations with a proven commitment and track record for hiring a diverse workforce. The annual listing is selected after statistical analysis of a detailed survey. Within this list, are also several specialty sub-lists, including the Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans.

When selecting the Top 10 Companies for Asian Americans, DiversityInc considered these key points in comparison with their Top 50 Companies for Diversity in 2008.

#1 At the top of the list is healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson. The company reports that 10 percent of its U.S. managers are Asian, while 12 percent of management positions were held by Asians. Thirteen percent of all female managers in the U.S. were Asian, while 14 percent of management promotions went to Asian women.

#2 Coming in second is IBM, a top provider of computer products and services. The company’s U.S. workforce currently is 12 percent Asian, but that is clearly changing since 23 percent of its new hires were Asian. DiversityInc also found a trend in generational diversity – of IBM’s current workforce, 6 percent of those age 55 and older were Asian, 13 percent between the ages of 25 and 54 were Asian, and 18 percent younger than 25 were Asian.

#3 At Merrill Lynch*, a provider of investment banking and brokerage services, 60 percent of managers are in the mentoring program. Twelve percent of U.S. managers and 16 percent of managers receiving promotions were Asian. Thirteen percent of female managers were Asian, but only 19 percent of those managers receiving promotions were Asian.

#4 At Deloitte, one of the nation’s “Big Four” accounting firms, 20 percent of the firm’s workforce was Asian, but 27 percent of its new hires were Asian. In addition, their board is 9.5 percent Asian, compared with a national average of less than 1 percent.

#5 Thirteen percent of HSBC Bank USA’s American workforce was Asian, and 17.25 percent of new hires were Asian. Twenty percent of direct reports to the CEO were Asian and 11 percent of the top 10 percent highest-paid U.S. employees were Asian.

#6 PricewaterhouseCoopers, another “Big Four” accounting firm, employs Asians as 14.5 percent of its workforce, with 17.5 percent of its new hires Asian. In addition, 9 percent of the top 10 highest-paid U.S. employees were Asian.

#7 Abbott Laboratories, one of the U.S.’s top healthcare-product makers, has 50 percent of its managers in mentoring programs and 21 percent of its workforce in employee-resource groups. The company also reports that 9.5 percent of its managers in the U.S. were Asian.

#8 Accenture, the world’s largest consulting firm, reports that 14 percent of its managers in the U.S. were Asian and 15 percent of promotions within management went to Asians.

#9 At Ernst & Young, another arm of the “Big Four” accounting firms, 16 percent of its U.S. workforce was Asian, with 20 percent of new hires being Asian. Eighteen percent of its female employees in the U.S. were Asian, while 22 percent of new female hires in the U.S. were Asian.

#10 Although only 8 percent of Prudential’s U.S. workers were Asian, 13.5 percent of new hires were Asian.

Becoming a top company for diversity takes more than simply hiring ethnic minorities. These top companies collaborate with the community and create programs so that their employees can have the resources to successfully build their careers. Education is also a key factor in eradicating discrimination and facilitating tolerance of different cultures.

Jie Zheng, President of the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP), suggests that in order to achieve true diversity, companies need to understand and get involved in the dynamics within the company and the external community as well. One way is to get employees involved in employee resource groups.

NAAAP Colorado offers several workshops and sessions that work with Asian employee resource groups within Colorado companies, in order to help Asian American professionals bridge gaps with management and build leadership.

Zheng also stresses that a company must create a strategic focus on talent development for Asian Americans in terms of management rank, internal programs and external partnerships.

Vui Nguyen, a senior software engineer at Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems and President of the Aurora chapter of the Raytheon Asian Pacific Association (RAPA), testifies that employee resource groups, such as RAPA, make a big difference in making a company diversity-friendly. Nguyen says that RAPA promotes the upward mobility of Asian Americans within the company by providing leadership education, teaching the campus about Asian cultures, and holding workshops in collaboration with NAAAP –all aimed towards career development for Asian American professionals.

Raytheon, although not in the Top 10, has been very good about promoting diversity and inclusion. Nguyen adds that, “The company doesn’t just say that they value diversity like a lot of other places do, but they offer employee-resource groups and have activities throughout the year, like Diversity Week, to promote diversity and educate people. All these things make for a very positive place for Asian American employees.”

The importance of a company’s involvement in the external community is paramount. Successful companies know that diversity and community involvement are both tied to business success, and requires more than just sponsoring events to support local issues. It means the company should view serving diverse communities as a comprehensive business advantage.

Joneil Custodio, Prudential’s West Coast Diversity Relationship Manager, works with Prudential leaders and community leaders in non-profits, churches and professional organizations that serve underserved communities to bolster the community as well as connect these community leaders with leaders within the company. These connections in turn create a synergy of community building that benefits everyone.
As for the results? Custodio is proud to boast that the Bay area has a 56 percent Asian workforce, a significantly higher rate than the national average.

Denver is behind compared to cities like Seattle and San Francisco, but Custodio is working on changing that by collaborating with organizations like NAAAP.

A testament to Prudential’s stellar and diverse workplace, in the West coast region at least, is the San Jose office’s 60 percent female workforce – with nearly 100 percent of them Asian. “This is a remarkable statistic considering that the financial service industry is dominated by males,” states Custodio, “And I’m happy to say that we’ve been able to successfully establish a sustainable culture that is conducive to women, specifically Asian women.” He hopes to create the same sense of culture here in Denver, not just for Asians, but for all cultures.

Denver still has a ways to go in terms of diversity, and there are many challenges for Asian employees to overcome. As a group in general, Zheng cites lack of self-confidence and lack of collaboration amongst other Asian Americans as common obstacles that Asian Americans need to overcome in the workplace.
Custodio notes that there is a common misnomer that Asians may not possess leadership characteristics to lead multi-cultural teams. Because of this, Asians have a lot of work to do in order to shatter the stereotype. “Many Asians have the technical talent, but when it comes to people skills, communication, visionary leadership and strategic execution, they don’t bring it to the table,” says Custodio.

This could be a contributing factor to why Denver has practically zero Asian top executives. According to Zheng, even at these Top 10 companies, Denver still does not have the diverse workforce, especially in management, that many other large cities do. Consider these numbers from Prudential: Asians make up 75 percent of their mangers in Seattle, 66 percent in Northern California, and zero percent in Denver.

One could argue that the west coast has a considerably larger Asian population than the Rocky Mountains, but zero percent – really? Now that’s just sad. Denver’s Asian population is quite substantial too, but for some reason Asian Americans are extremely underrepresented in the Denver market.

Jenny Guo, a tax senior associate for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, began her career in the Denver office and transferred to the Los Angeles office after one year. She was the only Asian American in her department in the Denver office. All other co-workers were Caucasian. Upon transferring to L.A, Jenny immediately felt more comfortable in an office that was nearly 50 percent Asian. “It’s nice to work with people who understand your background and who you can really share your background with,” says Guo, but adds that, “I would definitely like to see more Asian Americans in managerial positions.”

Nguyen finds that Asian American employees face a two-prong problem in the workplace. One part is that they do not see themselves as managers and therefore do not seek out that career path. Another part is due to stereotypes and preconceptions of what Asians can do – “A lot of people think Asians are hardworking, strong and silent types who are good at math or engineering, but in terms of leadership, being able to talk to people or communicate effectively, people don’t automatically think of Asians when they think about these characteristics.” She suggests that the solution lies in educating employees, so that non-Asians change their perception and break down those barriers.

For young Asian American professionals entering the workforce today, Nguyen advocates communicating your ideas and accomplishments. “A lot of Asian Americans have been raised to be humble, not to brag, just work hard and good things will come to you – that’s only partially true in the workforce – you also have to toot your own horn, let people know what you’re doing, and speak up to avoid shrinking into the background. Otherwise you’re going to be overlooked or ignored come raises and promotions.”

Zheng thinks that this is an opportune time for young professionals, as companies are increasingly dealing with an aging workforce. He adds that, “Education and professional experience, although important, are not enough,” and advises young Asian American professionals to “learn and apply leadership skills wherever you can, in order to get ready for the next opportunity in the workplace.”

Denver’s professional landscape certainly has room to improve regarding diversity, and we hope that someday soon Asian Americans will represent a larger portion of the local corporate workforce. In the meantime it’s good to know that there are companies here in town that are diversity-friendly and organizations like NAAAP working to help Asian Americans move up that illustrious corporate ladder.

Joneil Custodio is the West Coast Diversity Relationship Manager at Prudential, voted the #10 most Asian American Friendly Company, according to DiversityInc.

A testament to Prudential’s stellar and diverse workplace, in the West coast region at least, is the San Jose office’s 60 percent female workforce – with nearly 100 percent of them Asian. “This is a remarkable statistic considering that the financial service industry is dominated by males,” states Custodio, “And I’m happy to say that we’ve been able to successfully establish a sustainable culture that is conducive to women, specifically Asian women.” He hopes to create the same sense of culture here in Denver, not just for Asians, but for all cultures.

Karen Nakandakare
Senior Diversity Specialist, CH2M Hill

One of her primary responsibilities is coordinating the firm’s employee network groups. On January 27, 2009, CH2M HILL announced their newest employee network group: SHARE - Sharing Across Respective Ethnicities. Originally created as an Asian Pacific employee network group, the group’s scope expanded to support employees of all ethnicities within the firm.

At SHARE’s kickoff on January 27, chairperson Mike Miyamoto, Associate Designer alongside vice chair Shyamol Pandya, Financial Audit Services Manager hosted a presentation by Adam Schrager, Channel 9NEWS reporter, about his book, “The Principled Politician: The Ralph Carr Story.”

Schrager’s book details the inclusiveness demonstrated by former Colorado Governor Ralph Carr when he took the unpopular stance of welcoming Japanese American to the state during the World War II era of Japanese internment camps. For the organizers of SHARE, this inclusiveness stance is a model of what they hope the network will be - a welcoming group where all employees can grow in their careers together.
In addition to SHARE, CH2M HILL also has the following employee network groups: African-American Professional Network Group; L.I.F.E. - Leadership Inspiring Full Equality, the firm’s GLTB employee network group; Women’s Network; and the Hispanic Employee Network Group.

Joanne Tabellija-Murphy
Multicultural Relations Director, MillerCoors
At MillerCoors, diversity and inclusion are critical to achieving our vision of becoming the best beer company in America. In fact, growing and leveraging diversity is one of our business priorities. We feel diversity and inclusion provide a competitive advantage which allows us to win through our people, partners, brands and community. Our company grows and leverages our diversity through an appreciation of differences in thought, creativity, culture and lifestyle. Diversity and inclusion are not programs; they are a way of doing business.

Our Employee Resource Groups provide employees with an inclusive opportunity to either explore a new culture or to celebrate their own heritage. Our MillerCoors employee ERG called AsEAN (Asian Employee Affinity Network) educates our workforce about Asian American culture. AsEAN and I work together to collaborate on specific internal and external programs that help build awareness of cultural differences and the values these differences bring to our company. The MillerCoors Colorado Dragon Boat Festival and Race sponsorship and the painting project at APDC’s York Street building are great examples of AsEAN and Multicultural Relations working together in the community.

Vui Nguyen is a Senior Software Engineer at Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, as well as the President of Raytheon’s Aurora Chapter’s Asian Pacific Association.

(Raytheon) promotes the upward mobility of Asian Americans within the company by providing leadership education, teaching the campus about Asian cultures, and holding workshops in collaboration with NAAAP –all aimed towards career development for Asian American professionals.

Jie Zheng is the President of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, Colorado Chapter and former President of the Asian Network at Sun Microsystems.

NAAAP Colorado offers several workshops and sessions that work with Asian employee resource groups within Colorado companies, in order to help Asian American professionals bridge gaps with management and build leadership.