The recent HACR Empow(h)er™: Understanding Workplace Barriers for Latinas report examines some of the day-to-day challenges Latinas face in progressing throughout the professional pipeline, especially as they try to gain access to leadership positions and promotional opportunities in Corporate America. The HACR Empow(h)er™ report is a culmination of research conducted over a five-month period with over 500 professionals throughout Corporate America.
Opportunities, Worth, & Visibility at Work
One area HACR focused on in the report was perceptions regarding opportunities, visibility, and worth within the workplace. We wanted to know how Latinas perceived their ability to progress through the professional pipeline, whether they felt seen by their peers, and how valued they felt by their peers. For many Americans, their career is a major component of their identity. Work is how people provide for themselves and their families and how they spend most of their day. It is therefore especially important to many Americans that they feel hopeful about their career prospects and feel valued by their peers.
What Latinas Are Saying
When asked their thoughts on what might be happening, respondents were clear in what they were describing. Latinas often expressed that they fell outside of the boundaries of the groups making promotional decisions. As a result, they are less likely to be seen or recognized when promotions are considered and are therefore less likely to move up through the ranks of Corporate America. Despite this acknowledgment of something larger happening around them, these women offered up suggestions for how companies can improve:
One theme seemed key to what our study participants were saying: getting to know Latinas by creating spaces that actively include them is critical to moving beyond the biases and barriers that impede their progress through the professional pipeline. To the degree that companies actively work to create spaces where Latinas have access to key decision makers, the possibilities are limitless.
Download a copy of the Empow(h)er™: Understanding Workplace Barriers for Latinas report here.