When we reflect back to 2010 the world looked very different from what it does today, almost ten years later. We have seen more technological and cultural shifts in this decade than any that came before. The world seemed to move so fast around us, and diversity quickly became the buzzword of the decade. Let’s take a look at how diverse voices found their way into the spotlight in the last ten years and how these same voices are going to continue to catapult us into the new decade of diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Age
More recently in the last few years, Gen Z has proven that age really is just a number. Seen as the generation of young activists, Generation Z (1995-2015) have found their voices in activism and standing up for what’s right. The March for our Lives in 2018 was a student led initiative started by the students in the Parkland shooting to urge policy makers for gun control. This year, Greta Thunberg was named Time’s youngest Person of the Year for her activism to prevent climate change. Millennials, step aside for the new generation because Gen Z is leading the way in social media, activism, education, and consumerism and making sure their expectations for diversity, ethicality, and sustainability are met by every brand they engage with.

Women’s Empowerment
#MeToo. The most wide spread and impactful social media movement of the decade. Women took to social media to support each other and dispel the stigma around speaking and reporting sexual assault. The movement created winding change in both feminine and masculine spheres of influence as celebrities openly shared their stories of survival and masculine brands and celebrities debunked outdated stereotypes of toxic masculinity and “boys will be boys” culture in exchange for true allyship and understanding. Equally empowering, the Team USA’s women’s soccer team successfully fought for equal pay to their male counterparts after winning the Women’s World Series proving that gender has no limitations. Needless to say, 2020 is the decade of the woman. Say goodbye to locker room culture and the men’s club because women are coming in strong.

Gender & Sexuality
This decade saw the rise of the Gender Revolution in National Geographic and huge victories for the LGBTQ community. The 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges made marriage equality the law of the land as LGBTQ couples gained the right to marry under the law. Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, and other social media sites re-evaluated their definition of gender to include 58+ gender terms. And what was the 2019 Mariam-Webster Dictionary’s word of the year? The non-binary, gender-neutral, pronoun “they” as used by Sam Smith and countless others across the country. In the new decade we will continue to see wider forms of non-binary or genderless expression in fashion, beauty, and self-representation as employees continue to observe and celebrate their true authentic selves.

Race and Ethnicity
Representation was a big theme of the decade as consumers demanded to see themselves represented in media, advertising, and art. The need for diverse racial representation led to the success of prominent African American films such as Us and Black Panther and the cult followings of English language Telenovelas such as Jane the Virgin and Devious Maids. Consumers in this decade did not tolerate the omission of People of Color as seen in the 2015 Oscars awards hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Brands also jumped onto the call for racial diversity from Coca-Cola’s “America the Beautiful” ad or Nike’s support of Colin Kaepernick. The next decade, brands will follow the precedent Rihanna started with Fenty Beauty by incorporating all skin tones into leadership, marketing, and advertising to create representation.

Ability
Athletes, academics, and activists all exemplified time and time again that in the last ten years people with disabilities were stronger and more vocal than ever before. In 2012, Oscar Pistorius became the first double-leg amputee to participate in the Olympics inspiring amputees across the world. Two years later people around the world began pouring buckets of ice water on their heads to raise awareness for ALS, a disease that would later take the life of the most influential scientists of our generation: Stephen Hawking. Sesame Street introduced the first autistic character on the show in 2017 to normalize different ways of behavior and ways of engaging the world. In the new decade with so many prominent voices empowering disabled individuals, stigmas around disabilities will continue to decrease as many choose to embrace and disclose disabilities to their employers, families, and friends who in turn need to learn ways accommodate all forms of how people interact with the world around them.

The New Decade: 2020
The last decade has seen consumers and influencers loudly making calls to action and the brands and causes that succeeded this decade took those calls to heart. The brands that were successful saw the social and cultural shifts that were happening around them and implemented them both in and out of the office. However, the brands of 2020 are going to have to be more focused on DEI than ever before. Unlike the brands of the 2010’s, brands in 2020 will have to do more than simply recognize diversity, they are going to have to embrace it and empower diverse voices to make decisions that will impact a diverse set of consumers. 2020 will not be a homogenous decade and neither can the brands that will succeed. DCAProSearch has been at the top of this movement since for over two decades and we will continue to partner with brands to recruit diverse talent that speaks to the diverse audience of 2020.
From everyone at DCAProSearch thank you for a great decade and we wish you the best in 2020.

It’s the time of the year that we either look forward to or dread. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when evaluations are usually taking place. So it’s important that you get ready for that all important End of Year review. Below are 5 ways to prepare.
1. Schedule a Review Meeting with your Manager
Sometimes your manager might be so busy that they miss scheduling the reviews. There are also times when reviews aren’t due at this time of year. However, it’s still worthwhile to ask your manager for feedback on your work throughout the year as compared to their expectations. It’s important that you prepare well and have a list of your achievements during the year which have either saved the company money, time, or expenses. Don’t take it for granted that your manager remembers all your achievements. More than likely, they don’t so it’s important to remind them of these areas for that all important consideration of a possible promotion or raise. If your manager doesn't schedule the meeting, then you should take the initiative to ask for the end of year review meeting.
2. Know What You Have  Brought to the Table
Evaluate your projects week by week, then month by month. If you didn’t take notes throughout the year, go through your emails and/or texts to try to put it all together. List each project you worked on and your achievements on that project. What was your part of the project? Did it add to the overall team success? Did it save the company money in regards to time or expenses. Did your project add revenue to the company? Did you lead a project? If your work saved the company money or add revenue, does it call for an increase in base or bonus? Do the math and if the answer is “yes”, then ask for the all deserving increase in base or bonus.
3. Practice Your Presentation
It’s always a bit unnerving to toot your own horn but toot you must. Remember your manager supervises an entire team and they can’t possibly remember everything you did throughout the year so it’s up to you to make your case. Play out your presentation in your head, have your notes ready, create a PowerPoint presentation if you need to so you don’t miss any projects. Visuals are always effective. You can even practice your presentation with your trusted friends or family members. Confidence is one of the most important parts of your presentation.
4. Know Areas You Can Improve On
You should also think about areas where you may have missed the point and list how you intend to improve on those areas. You can even ask for a small budget for self-improvement seminars in certain areas. These are all gains as well. Your manager will be impressed that you also understand areas that you need to work on and they will be happy to provide the assistance in that. Ask your manager which areas they feel you can improve on as well and ask for strategies they feel would help in that improvement. As long as they see that you truly want to grow and improve in areas that are important to the overall department/company success, you will have your manager on your side.
5. Make a List of your Goals for the New Year
Not only do you prepare to present your achievements of the current year, but you also want to present your goals for the New Year. The goals you present should be your professional goals. However, you should also know how they pertain to your department/company. Your professional goals should also be to help your supervisor and your team shine and get ahead. Ask your boss what goals they have for you and for the department so you can incorporate those into your overall goals for the New Year and keep those goals handy so you can keep tabs of your progress which will also help in your review for the following year.
When you prepare ahead of time and know your achievements from the current year, strategize how you can improve in the New Year, and list your goals for the New Year, you can go in with confidence to speak with your Manager and present your case for a well-deserved promotion and/or raise. At DCAProSearch, we can coach you through that thought process and be your sounding table in role playing. We Toast to your success with your end of year review!

Only two months until the end of 2019 and that means that year-end reviews are right around the corner. For some people this may mean raises, promotions, and good fortune while for others they may be getting feedback that they aren’t expecting. Regardless of which side you are on, it’s a good idea to conduct a self-assessment of how you would grade yourself so you can go into your meeting prepared to toot your own horn or utilize constructive criticism.
Create a Personal Deck of Achievements
Many times, at work, it is easy for the days to become weeks and the weeks to become months and before you know it, you have worked on dozens of projects and reports that you and your bosses forgot you even touched. The easiest way to get recognition for your growth is to record it. Create an organized deck or spreadsheet of what you have worked on since your last review that you can show your boss. That way you aren’t struggling to remember what you did when called in to discuss your progress.
Top 5’s and Not-so-Top 5s
What are your strengths and weaknesses? It’s the most overused interview question, but also the most important to keep in mind for yourself to know where you have shined and where you may have fallen short over the year. This way you are able to identify areas where you should focus on during your year-end reviews, and areas that you need to better position yourself in  for improvement. Weaknesses aren’t always weaknesses if you are able to show your boss that you are already on the path of improvement.
Prepare an Improvement Potential Path
A weakness or shortcoming isn’t the end of the world if you have a plan to better your skills in that area. If you have noticed you have a weakness, it is probable that your managers and coworkers have noticed too. Prepare a plan to improve your weaker skills before your manager addresses those weaknesses as a reason to pass you up for the promotion. This could be taking a class, asking for training, or taking extra time to complete a task.
Your Knowledge, Skills, Attributes, and Other
What do you know? What can you do? How do you work? What are your secret weapons? These are all questions that you should be able to answer about yourself and be prepared to tell your manager. In addition, you need to keep track of when you learned new  knowledge, skills, and attributes to better trace your progress and self-improvement to justify that you are growing in your career.
Know Where You Started and Where You’re Going
It is impossible to track how far you’ve gone if you have no idea where you started. Similarly, it’s hard for your manager to give you direction if they don’t know where you are going. Be clear in voicing your goals within the company and your progress. That way all the key players in your career know what your next steps are and will keep you top of mind when looking to fill positions that align with your goals.
While year-end reviews can be nerve-wracking, a successful self-assessment will prepare you for any feedback that you may receive. Before you go into your review, know where you have been and where you want to go. Contact your DCAProSearch recruiter to go over your career and set your career goals before going into these reviews to better understand what to expect and where you should be going.

In the world of business, everything is measured. The same goes for our hiring practices. Diversity and inclusion cannot be an initiative that is only spoken about. As Sophie Bellon, Chairwoman of Sodexo, tells us “what gets measured gets done.” The same goes for our hiring practices. HR and hiring managers should be establishing diversity goals to encourage diverse hiring practices throughout the company. However, although 42% of the population self-identifies as “multicultural”: African-American; Hispanic; Asian; Disabled or LGBTQ+, an AIMM’s Multicultural Benchmark Study shows that only 16% of marketers imbue their outreach with cultural insights aimed at these audiences. AIMM is a committee formed by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers)and is short for Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing.
Human resources, top level executives, hiring managers, and employees should make it a priority to sit down and define what diversity looks like within the company. Hold a town hall or fireside chat so all members of your organization can get involved in defining what their workplace will look like and what improvements should be implemented in the hiring process. Here are some tips on how companies throughout the country have set and achieved their goals.

Match the Demographics of the Country

With countless different voices in the country, it can be difficult to ensure that all are represented within the organization. That is why many companies strive to match the racial demographics of the country to ensure all voices are present in proportion to the population. Specifically with Gen-Z  consumers, younger consumers are drawn to companies that are representative of the diversity that exists within the world and want brands that demonstrate they are leading the march serving all consumers.

Diversify all Levels of Management

In addition to diverse hiring practices, make sure that you continue to empower different voices within the organization from interns to C-Suite executives. Diversity will not be effective if your diverse employees are concentrated at the bottom levels of management. Having diversity at all levels of your corporation allows for the dissemination of experience and solutions at all levels that will be integrated for an enhanced problem solving capacity for your business.

Invest in a Chief Diversity Officer

Consider your Chief Diversity Officer your accountability partner. With his/her team, the CDO will measure the effectiveness of your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and find areas to improve diversity practices by creating a report for top management every quarter. Although it’s possible to achieve diversity without a CDO, remember that achieving DEI in a company is a sensitive task that can sometimes lead to frustration if not incorporated correctly. Therefore, a certified and experienced CDO will help aid in the implementation of strategies and help you get the most of the benefits of diversity.

Strive for Diversity and Inclusion Awards

Various awards and recognitions exist for companies that have excelled in their DEI practices. Such awards include the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, Bloomberg's Gender Equality Ranking, NASSCOM Corporate Awards for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion among various other awards. Although these awards shouldn’t necessarily be your motivation for implementing DEI strategies they represent a good benchmark to how well you are achieving your goals.

Diversity Tip: Know the difference between a goal and a quota.

Although diversity should be a goal for all growing companies, it is important that it is not forced on business leaders as a mandate from HR, but rather an attitude that is adopted by all managers throughout the company. This will lead your leaders to create goals as opposed to filling quotas. A goal is created because hiring managers recognize the value of diversity and thus they encourage diverse hiring practices. Whereas, a quota forces hiring practices without valuing what diverse talent brings to the table.

Diversity and inclusion is an essential part to growing your business to reflect the modern day workforce and the modern day consumer. More than ever, consumers expect businesses to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive and will reward businesses who represent these values. While it can be tricky, DEI is well worth it and pays off in consumer loyalty and brand recognition. At DCAProSearch we have been leading the way in diversity recruiting finding diverse talent for companies and agencies for over 20 years and we will continue to shout the importance of DEI from the rooftops until diversity, equity, and inclusion are recognized as the standard. We have been, and will always be, your diversity recruiter.