Managers at this large investment firm need permission to hire white men

Managers at one of the largest and oldest investment firms in the world will need to ask for special permission if they want to hire white men. The name of the firm: State Street Global Advisors. The firm in question has just released its diversity hiring initiative.

State Street is based out of Boston and founded in 1792. It currently has nearly 40,000 employees over 30 offices worldwide.

“This is now front and central for State Street — it’s on every senior executive’s scorecard,” said Jess McNicholas, the bank’s head of inclusion, diversity and corporate citizenship in London.

What is a scorecard? The term balanced scorecard (BSC) refers to a strategic management performance metric used to identify and improve various internal business functions and their resulting external outcomes. Hiring is one part of the scorecard.

“All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds.”

Jess McNicholas, Head of Inclusion, Diversity and Corporate Citizenship

According to the reports, State Street seeks to triple the number of Black, Asian and other minority staff in senior positions by 2023. If executives at the firm don’t meet their diversity targets, then they will face lower bonuses and potentially other consequences.

Recruiting managers in the firm are now required to establish panels of four or five employees, which must include at least one woman and one person with a minority background.

After facing public backlash on social media, the firm stated that it will “still hire white men”, but that recruiting managers are required to demonstrate that women and minority applicants were interviewed by the panels for each job opening. This raises the question, what happens in a situation where only white male candidates apply?!

State Street made news in 2017 when it commissioned the statue of a girl staring down Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” sculpture for International Women’s Day.