Booz Allen Committed to Hiring and Fostering an Inclusive Workplace for All “Dreamers, Drivers and Doers”

Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Vice President Rob Silverman and Cheryl Wade, the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Lead, joined Anthony Ray on the HBCU Nation Radio Show to discuss the firm’s commitment to diverse hiring practices and its involvement with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Below are a few excerpts from the interview. You can listen to the entire interview here: https://soundcloud.com/thehbcunation/booz-allen-hamilton.

Anthony Ray: New research from the Center for Talent Innovation, a nonprofit think tank, found that when employees can discuss the topic of race relations at work, they feel significantly more included and that their ideas are heard and recognized.

Cheryl Wade: At Booz Allen, we believe that this time period offers a great opportunity to open dialogue and conversation. What we want to do is continue to advance a culture of inclusion by making sure that we create open workspaces that allow for dialogue to occur in a productive way.

One of our initiatives designed to foster this dialogue is our Bridging Differences Initiative, which is focused on opening up safe space conversations for people to talk—not only about race relations in the workplace—but about whatever their experience is in the workplace so that we can build bridges of understanding across differences.

Rob Silverman: We tell our employees that we have a value proposition: we want our talent to be themselves and to be empowered. Particularly important is for our employees to be themselves, and be able to bring the best of all of themselves into the workplace and to our clients on a daily basis. And I think that speaks right to diversity and inclusion and extends beyond gender and race and sex and cultural heritage and invites employees to bring their life experience to work.

Anthony Ray: Why does Booz Allen do its part for Diversity & Inclusion?

Rob Silverman: For us as human beings, it’s the right thing to do. And it’s also the right thing for our society and it’s good for business as well. When you can match doing the right thing and doing the thing that’s really good for business, there’s some magic there.

Anthony Ray: How does Booz Allen support HBCUs?

Cheryl Wade: One of the most exciting ways we are nurturing talent is with HBCUs at SXSW. We have partnered with an organization called Opportunity Hub, which is focused on increasing inclusion and diversity in space of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment. Their goal is to work with HBCUs and other schools to bring more diversity into the innovation ecosystem. We are excited to be a continuing partner with them on that effort. Booz Allen also has a longstanding partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and through that the firm gets exposure to so many top HBCU students and the opportunity to bring them into Booz Allen.

Anthony Ray:  When recruit HBCU graduates, what are you looking for?

Cheryl Wade: At Booz Allen we are looking for dreamers, drivers and doers. If you are looking to apply your technical skillset in a different way, we are the firm that will allow you to do that.

Want to learn more about Booz Allen’s commitment to an inclusive workplace? Visit: https://www.boozallen.com/about/diversity-and-inclusion.html