On January 26, 2023, Upwardly Global convened its DEI Employer Working Group, made up of over 60 corporations, to continue its work of supporting underrepresented communities by co-creating employer-led solutions to further eliminate barriers for immigrant and refugee professionals to enter the U.S workforce.
Upwardly Global welcomed Athena Karp, CEO of HiredScore — the leading explainable and ethical talent orchestration solution powering over 40% of the Fortune 100 — to highlight the launch of the HiredScore x Upwardly Global pilot program. The partnership aims to reduce hiring biases by applying HiredScore’s fully explainable, ethical artificial intelligence (AI) — which directly combats the unconscious biases of traditional screening systems and hiring processes — to surface Upwardly Global’s immigrant and refugee professionals for open roles and incorporate this underrepresented talent into existing applicant pools. To learn more, please join us on February 23 for a LinkedIn live event.
The Upwardly Global Employer Engagement team also shared exciting updates on the development of a cutting-edge employer portal, funded by a grant from Google.org and created with partners at Accenture. This employer-facing digital platform, designed to provide employers easy access to our talent pool, as well as to key metrics, training materials for recruiters and hiring managers, and relevant employer tools and resources for recruiting, hiring, training, and onboarding immigrant and refugee talent, is halfway through development and is expected to launch this year. To join a subgroup of employers (recruiters, DEI professionals, CSR, etc.) to provide feedback and beta-test key functionality of the portal, please contact bijany@upwardlyglobal.org.
As it was the first meeting of 2023, Upwardly Global shared their key milestones with employers from the previous year as well as other relevant employer success stories for onboarding refugee talent over the last year. On the refugee crisis front, Upwardly Global shared pertinent information with employers on what to expect in the coming months for EAD (Employment Authorization Documents) for Ukrainian and Afghan newcomers.
Lastly, despite the widespread layoffs happening within the technology sector, Upwardly Global shared trends with employers that seem hopeful. We are seeing an expansion in technology-related positions across other industries in businesses and nonprofits of different scales. In an increasingly digital world, opportunities for new tech adoption in non-technology sectors will continue to emerge. Our employer partners remain committed to supporting our job seekers via other relevant initiatives despite slow downs in hiring, such as continued cross-cultural competency training for staff on how to best onboard refugee talent.
Please contact epteam@upwardlyglobal.org if your company is interested in joining this bi-monthly working group.