The “Region of Choice” pledge is a commitment to increase the number of African-American and Hispanic/Latino employees in Metro Milwaukee by 15 percent, and the number of African-American and Hispanic/Latino managers in Metro Milwaukee by 25 percent, by 2025.
“As a business community, we have a significant role to play in resolving the stark racial disparities we see in Metro Milwaukee,” said outgoing MMAC Chair
Todd Teske
, President and CEO of Briggs & Stratton. “As business leaders, we all own the current reality of our workplaces, and we all can work to make them more diverse and inclusive. When we do so, we will make Milwaukee an even better place to live and work.”
Added incoming MMAC Chair
Jonas Prising, Chairman and CEO of ManpowerGroup: “When Milwaukee’s companies and community make an intentional effort to ensure that their doors are open to everyone, more of our young people will want to build a career here and more talented employees will want to move here. When 46% of U.S. employers cannot find the skilled talent they need, becoming a Region of Choice for all – where anyone from any background would want to live and work – is how our people, our business and our community reach their full potential.”
A recent survey of the MMAC’s Board of Directors and CEOs of its member companies identified racial disparities as the biggest challenge facing the Milwaukee Region. Based on that feedback, MMAC spent the past year engaging with consultants and forming a task force to conduct comprehensive research on the challenges and opportunities that diverse employees face in Metro Milwaukee, focusing particularly on diverse management-level employees. The goals of this research included benchmarking Milwaukee against peer metro areas and soliciting extensive feedback from diverse managers who work here.
Using key metrics of prosperity to rank Milwaukee against 20 other peer metro areas, MMAC research found that while Milwaukee’s white population ranks 6
th in overall prosperity, our African-American and Hispanic/Latino populations both rank at the bottom. Metro Milwaukee also has the widest gap in prosperity between its white population and African-American and Hispanic populations.
“For most people, it will come as no surprise that Milwaukee has significant racial disparities. However, the numbers show us just how pronounced this problem is,” said task force member
Christopher Rowland, Global Diversity Officer at ManpowerGroup. “This information is important, but it only tells part of the story. To make real progress, our group needed direct feedback from diverse managers to identify the specific challenges they face, both at work and at home.”
MMAC and its consultants then sent a survey to diverse managers who work at 32 member companies and 5 taxing authorities in Metro Milwaukee, and received more than 1,100 responses.
