Latino Talent: Effective Strategies to Recruit, Retain and Develop Hispanic Professionals

CHAPTER 1

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR LATINO DIVERSITY

The trend is clear and the ramifications are obvious: the Latino community in the United States is having a tremendous impact on society in general and on the American labor force in particular. Demographic shifts in the coming years will only increase the significance of this group, making the U.S. Latino community difficult to ignore. Already it is almost impossible to go a day without seeing the influence Latinos wield. You see it through their emerging political, demographic, and economic impact. Latinos will continue to have a profound impact on society, culture, relationships, consumerism, the workforce, the economy, and business. For example, according to the Hispanic/Latino Market Profile report published by the Magazine Publishers of America (2004, p. 9), 80 percent of the teen population in Los Angeles is Latino. Such a high concentration of young Latinos is having a huge impact on local government officials, school administrators, universities, and businesses.

Because human resource and diversity practitioners are often charged with crafting inclusive talent management strategies for their organizations, they need to take special notice of the growing Latino influence. Not just because the workplace of the near future will have an increasingly Latino identity, but because effective talent management programs need to be aligned with business strategies. Due to their growing population and subsequent rise in purchasing power, ...