Congress tries to diversify office staffs

HR Magazine, Oct, 2008 by Bill Leonard

U.S. Senate and House leaders have asked the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for help with encouraging members of COngress to hore more minorities.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has stated that congressional staffs should more closely resemble the diverse population of the United States. "Hiring minorities and providing them equal job opportunities has always been a high priority for Sen. Reif, and when he became majority leader, he hired me and started a diversity initiative for the Senate office staffs," said Martina Bradford, senior adviser for human resources for the Senate majority leader.

Shirley A. Davis, Ph.D., direcotr of diversity and inclusion initiatives for SHRM, has met with Bradford in Reid's office and with Sidney Jones, who works for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Davis said that both offices were interested in improving their diversity initiatives and learning what help SHRM could offer.

"They are difinitely several years behind the private sector when it comes to promoting diversity initiatives and focusing on hiring, training and promoting minoritiesm" Davis said. "But it is extremely encouraging that they are making this effort.

"They were very interested in the resources and support that SHRM can provide because it can save them a lot of work, and in many cases they can adapt existing diversityt models and programs and won't have to reinvent the wheel," she said.