Hiring and Retaining Asian/Pacific Americans Michael Soon Lee, MBA Copyright © 2007 by EthnoConnect – All Rights Reserved

Stereotyping vs. Tendencies Stereotyping Assuming everyone is the same Tendencies Similar behavior based on commonality

APA’s The Workplace 2008 American Labor Force 71% Whites 13% Hispanics 11% Blacks 5% Asians and others

APA’s In The Workplace Asians are expected to join the labor force at a faster rate than any other racial group Major reason for the increase - immigration

APA’s In The Workplace 47% In Management/Professional/Related Jobs Financial managers, engineers, teachers, nurses 23% work in sales and office occupations 15% work in service occupations 11% work in production and transportation (Source: 2005 American Community Survey)

APA’s In The Workplace Not All Asians Are Alike Japanese = upper management Asian Indians = computer science/engineering Chinese = legal & financial services Filipino = medical & healthcare Filipino = sales (

APA’s In The Workplace Overrepresented In Federal Jobs 7.3% of professionals 3.2% administration 3.7% technical

APA’s In The Workplace Generational Differences 1 st - Tend to be entrepreneurial 2 nd - Gravitate towards more traditional jobs 3 rd - Are more non-traditional Sales, journalism, art

APA Education Levels 86% of Asians 25+ have at least HS diploma 49% of Asians 25+ have a bachelor’s degree 25% of whites have a bachelor’s degree 20% of Asians 25+ have a graduate degree Higher than any other group

Benefits Of Hiring APA’s Hard work (Confucian philosophy) Language skills Negotiation skills Team players Respect authority Global perspective

Challenges In Hiring APA’s Stereotyping Technical Strong in math Not good verbal communicators Not interested in sales

Challenges In Hiring APA’s Stereotyping Global perspective Even APA’s who’ve never been outside US Perpetual foreigners or outsiders Assumptions that all Asians are alike

Challenges In Hiring APA’s Unfriendly Hiring Practices Communication styles can vary - Visual/verbal: reading - Visual/nonverbal: charts/graphs - Auditory: talking - Kinesthetic: showing

Challenges In Hiring APA’s 1 st Generation Asians Tend To Be Visual/Nonverbal American hiring is based on auditory Don’t always express ourselves well verbally

Challenges In Hiring APA’s Internal Challenge Cultural bias towards modesty holds them back M ay understate resume’ Keep boss updated on what they’re doing

Challenges In Hiring APA’s Must Get Involved With The Community Ads are relatively ineffective Long term commitment Ask for referrals from current employees What incentives?

Retaining APA’s Challenges & Strategies For Recruiting APA’s Feel isolated Networks can be very helpful Must get involved with the community Long term commitment Ask for referrals from current employees What incentives?

Retaining APA’s APA’s Tend To Be Tolerant And Patient Need to be proactive in airing grievances Shouldn’t wait to be recognized Should ask for more responsibility

Retaining APA’s May believe mistakes are shameful Suggests failure May be tempted to defend or deny The American workplace is tolerant of mistakes

Retaining APA’s Don’t Like Competitiveness Of Some Companies Provide integration training when they first join See contradictions between home & company culture Workshops or classes that deal with cultural integration and “constructive competition”

Retaining APA’s APAs Need To Learn To Communicate Effectively - Toastmasters - They must learn to network Formally and informally - They must learn to challenge supervisors in a comfortable way Ask for clarification

Retaining APA’s Foster professional development Provide opportunities for networking/mentoring Not connected to traditional networks

Retaining APA’s Lack of mentoring/coaching Need to learn the power dynamics How things really get done

Michael Soon Lee, MBA Copyright © 2007 by EthnoConnect – All Rights Reserved