Hispanics still underrepresented in Corporate America

The Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility (HACR) to release findings of its Corporate Inclusion Index survey in partnership with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Corporate America Task Force

Only 6% out of 384 open board positions are held by Hispanics. And of the 1,281 executive and director positions available, Hispanics held only 61 positions.

Only 6% out of 384 open board positions are held by Hispanics. And of the 1,281 executive and director positions available, Hispanics held only 61 positions.

The Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility (HACR), one of the most influential advocacy organizations in the nation representing 13 national Hispanic organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico, will release the finding of its 2009 HACR Corporate Inclusion Index survey (CII), Wednesday, December 16th at 11:30 am at the Cannon House Office Building, Room 121, Independence Avenue and 1st Street, SE.

As part of the HACR Corporate Accountability Strategy that was adopted early this year, the CII was conducted to measure all Fortune 100 companies and HACR corporate partners, relative to their Hispanic inclusion strategies within the corporation’s business model. Over the past few years, HACR has been working closely with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Corporate America Task Force on Hispanic inclusion in Corporate America.
“While the Hispanic community continues to make strides in our country, we are still not represented on corporate boards, upper management, and key decision-making positions in the  most successful and largest corporations in the United States,” said HACR Chairman Ignacio Salazar, president and CEO of SER Jobs for Progress, headquartered in Dallas, TX.  “Fortune 100 companies can no longer ignore the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States because to do so is not only bad business, it is irresponsible.”

The CII survey focused on four key areas that are reflective of the mission of HACR’s corporate responsibility and community reciprocity: employment, procurement, philanthropy, and governance.

HACR’s CII shows that of those surveyed, only 6% out of 384 open board positions are held by Hispanics. And of the 1,281 executive and director positions available, Hispanics held only 61 positions.

In the area of philanthropic giving, the CII revealed that the average corporate giving distributed in 2008 was approximately $68 million – only 2.5% was directed to the Hispanic community.

And finally, the survey also found that there remains a discrepancy in earnings paid to Hispanic and non-Hispanics. On average, Hispanics are earning $12,000 less for a full-time position.

“HACR commends the Fortune 100 and HACR Corporate member companies for participating in the 2009 HACR Corporate Index Survey.” said HACR President and CEO, Carlos Orta “We are confident that those companies that did not participate this year will do so in the future; if for no other reason than to lend credence to their claims of being “leaders” in their respective industries.”

The 2009 HACR Corporate Inclusion Index survey will be available for download on HACR’s website, www.HACR.org, on Wednesday afternoon. The data collected from HACR’s CII survey, was voluntarily submitted by Fortune 100 and HACR corporate member companies.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Teresa Chaurand

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Source: HACR

Inside Hispanic America

by Claudia “Havi” Goffan

Winner of the Publisher’s Multicultural Award Category: Best Multicultural Awareness Article

What is life like in America for Hispanic Americans?  What are their thoughts and concerns about family, employment, education, religion, opportunities, and healthcare?  We asked Claudia Goffan, founder of Target Latino, an Atlanta based marketing and consulting firm specializing in the Hispanic market, to provide “The College World Reporter” readers with her own views from inside Hispanic America. Here is our interview:

Claudia "Havi" Goffan - Hispanic Marketing Expert and CEO of Target Latino

Claudia “Havi” Goffan – Hispanic Marketing Expert and CEO of Target Latino

Q.Could you give us an inside look at Hispanic or Latino life?

A. To fully understand the Hispanic market, you need to analyze it by country of origin, level of acculturation, age, sex, marital status and educational level. Although some generalizations can be made, they have to be understood as such and not as an answer to comprehending the culture.

Let’s talk about some of the generalizations about the Hispanic culture. The very first one that comes to mind is about family being the first priority, the children are celebrated and sheltered and the wife usually fulfills a domestic role. Hispanics have a long Roman Catholic tradition and this usually implies quite a fatalistic outlook where destiny is in the hands of God. Latin American educational system is based on emphasis on the theoretical, memorization and a rigid and very broad curriculum. It follows the French schooling system and it translates into people who are generalists and look at the big picture as opposed to specialists, like in the U.S. Hispanics are highly nationalistic, very proud of long history and traditions.

Hispanics have difficulty separating work and personal relationships and are sensitive to differences of opinion. Hispanics fear loss of face, especially publicly and shun confrontation, where truth is tempered by the need for diplomacy. Title and position are more important than money in the eyes of Hispanic society. Etiquette and manners are seen as a measure of breeding and it follows an “old world” formality. Dress and grooming are status symbols whereas in the U.S. appearance is secondary to performance. The aesthetic side of life is important even at work.

Q. Tell us about the purchasing power of the U.S. Hispanics?

A. According to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth in 2004 the nation’s largest minority group controlled $686 billion in spending. The community’s purchasing power comprises the world’s ninth biggest economy and it’s larger than the GNP of Brazil, Spain or Mexico. Hispanic purchasing power is projected to reach as much as $1 trillion by next year (2010) being the main drivers of the surge in Hispanic consumer influence the increasing education levels, labor force composition, household characteristics and accumulation of wealth. The fastest-growing occupational categories for Hispanics are higher paying managerial and professional jobs.

Q. What about Hispanics’ Healthcare Access?

A. I will quote a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center that indicates that six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance. According to this same study, the share of uninsured among this group (60%) is much higher than the share of uninsured among Latino adults who are legal permanent residents or citizens (28%), or among the adult population of the United States (17%). Hispanic adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents tend to be younger and healthier than the adult U.S. population and are less likely than other groups to have a regular health care provider. Just 57% say there is a place they usually go when they are sick or need advice about their health, compared with 76% of Latino adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 83% of the adult U.S. population.

Overall, four-in-ten (41%) non-citizen, non-legal permanent resident Hispanics state that their usual provider is a community clinic or health center. These centers are designed primarily as “safety nets” for vulnerable populations and are funded by a variety of sources, including the federal government, state governments and private foundations, as well as reimbursements from patients, based upon a sliding scale (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).

Six out of 10 Hispanics are U.S.-born - Inside Hispanic America

Six out of 10 Hispanics are U.S.-born – Inside Hispanic America

The study also reports that some 37% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents have no usual health care provider. More than one-fourth (28%) of the people in this group indicate that financial limitations prevent them from having a usual provider – 17% report that their lack of insurance is the primary reason, while 12% cite high medical costs in general. However, a majority (56%) say they do not have a usual provider because they simply do not need one. An additional 5% state that difficulty in navigating the U.S. health care system prevents them from having a usual provider. According to Pew Hispanic Center estimates, 11.9 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2008. Three-quarters (76%) of these undocumented immigrants were Latinos.

Regarding health status, the study reports that the Latino population in the U.S. is relatively young, and Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are younger still. Some 43% of adult Latinos who are not citizens or legal permanent residents are younger than age 30, compared with 27% of Hispanic adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 22% of the adult U.S. population.  The youthfulness of this population contributes to its relative healthiness.

About the Hispanic experiences in the Health Care System, the Pew reports that three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that the quality of medical care they received in the past year was excellent or good. This is similar to the proportion of adult Latino citizens and legal permanent residents (78%) who express satisfaction with their recent health care. However, when asked a separate question – whether they had received any poor medical treatment in the past five years – adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are less likely (16%) to report any problems than are Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents (24%).

Among those Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents who report receiving poor medical treatment in the past five years, a plurality (46%) state that they believed their accent or the way they spoke English contributed to that poor care. A similar share (43%) believed that their inability to pay for care contributed to their poor treatment. More than one-third (37%) felt that their race or ethnicity played a part in their poor care, and one-fourth (25%) attributed the unsatisfactory treatment to something in their medical history.

Q. What is the difference in viewpoint between young Hispanics or Latinos born and raised in the United States, and their older parents or grandparents who migrated to the U.S. from other countries?

A. The one difference that applies to all Latinos existent between non and semi-acculturated Hispanics and fully-acculturated or U.S. born Hispanics (young or old) is that whereas the non and semi-acculturated Latinos are trying to learn how to navigate the American culture, the U.S. born Hispanics or fully-acculturated know how to navigate the American culture and “learn” to navigate the Hispanic one from their family.

Q. Who are people on the rise in the Hispanic or Latino community that may become corporate leaders, or the next Sonia Sotomayor?

A. There are many Hispanics on the rise in every walk of life in the United States. Some people may not even notice of their Hispanic background because it usually comes to light when there are political issues at stake. For example, a currently retired doctor that was the Director of Cardiology of the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta was originally from Argentina. The creative that many years ago came up with the successful campaign for a drug that put the country to sleep is a Nuyorican (Puerto Rican born in New York).

Regarding known Latinos on the rise, you may want to keep an eye on Christine Arguello, Judge, U.S. District Court, Colorado; Emiliano Calemzuk, President, Fox Television Studios; Ignacia Moreno, Counsel, Corporate Environmental Programs, General Electric Company; Esther Salas, U.S. Magistrate Judge, District of New Jersey; Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF); Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; Rosa Gumatatotao Rios, United States Treasurer; Elena Rios, President & CEO, National Hispanic Medical Foundation; Enrique Conterno; President, Eli Lilly, USA and Edward Chavez, Justice, the State of New Mexico Supreme Court, among many others.

Q. What should everyone know about Hispanics or Latinos?

A. The first thing that comes to mind is the very little known fact that 6 out of 10 Latinos are U.S. born.  The second one is that the younger the generation, the higher the percentage of Hispanics in it. It is imperative to understand the new U.S. demographics when developing business strategies, city planning, new products, etc.

About Claudia Goffan: Recognized as an expert in Latino Marketing by CNN en Español, Claudia has been featured in Adweek, Hispanic Business, Univision, Telemundo and other national and international media.

A native from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Claudia has been very influential in the Hispanic markets in the U.S. and Latin America – both from a business and a community standpoint – always with outstanding results. Claudia has contributed to companies such as, The Occasions Group, The Taylor Corporation, El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad (A division of SunTrust Bank), XEROX, AT&T, BellSouth, Citibank, Papa John’s, Liberty Mutual, British Telecom, Gold’s Gym, Sherwin Williams, and Verizon, among others.

A motivator, strategic and hands-on, innovative, creative and resourceful. It has been said that her humor and presence immediately captivate audiences. She has an MBA from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and more than 20 years specializing in Marketing and Strategic Planning both internationally and domestically. She is bilingual and bicultural in English and Spanish and fluent in Portuguese, French, and Italian.

About Target Latino: Target Latino was founded in 2003, with a vision unparalleled at the time – to show American companies the importance of the U.S. Hispanic market – not by preaching but by acting. Target Latino is a marketing consulting firm specializing in the Hispanic market and inbound strategies.  Target Latino has a long standing experience of driving results in tough economic times.  Target Latino is minority owned, and a percentage of its proceeds go to different charity causes.

So true. Great Quotes

Great quote

Latinos Online, 2006-2008: Narrowing the Gap

From 2006 to 2008, internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%.  In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period.  Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in internet use has shrunk considerably.

For Latinos, the increase in internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of internet use.  In particular, foreign-born Latinos, Latinos with less than a high school education, and Latinos with household incomes of less than $30,000 experienced particularly large increases in internet use.

Whereas Latinos gained markedly in overall internet use, the pattern of home internet access changed very little.  In 2006, 79% of Latinos online that had internet access at home, while in 2008, this number was 81%.  White and black internet users show a similar leveling off.  In 2006, 92% of white internet users had a home connection, compared with 94% in 2008. In 2006, 84% of African American internet users had a home connection, compared with 87% in 2008.

While there was little increase in the likelihood of having a home connection among internet users from 2006 to 2008, rates of broadband connection increased dramatically for Hispanics, as well as for whites and blacks.  In 2006, 63% of Hispanics with home internet access had a broadband connection; in 2008 this number was 76%.  For whites, there was a 17 percentage point increase in broadband connection from 65% to 82%, and for blacks, the increase was from 63% in 2006 to 78% in 2008.

These results are derived from a compilation of eight landline telephone surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project from February to October 2006, and from August to December 2008.  In total, the Pew Hispanic Center surveys included 7,554 adults, and the Pew Internet & American Life Project surveys interviewed 13,687 adults.

Source: Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center
Kim Parker, Senior Researcher, Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project
Susannah Fox, Associate Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

SABEResPODER & Best Buy Promote Informed Shopping Decisions

The initiative aims at educating the Latino community on how best to take advantage of the technology at their reach.

Best Buy unites with SABEResPODER to educate the Hispanic community about how to get the most out of the latest technology and understand their rights as consumers.

Various studies show that Latinos purchase more televisions, digital cameras, cell phones, and computers than the average population. However, Raul P. Lomeli-Azoubel, Executive Chairman for SABEResPODER, said that, “the statistics also reveal a different reality: the technological advances, that serve to make our lives easier, are not being used to their full potential.”

For this reason, SABEResPODER, with Best Buy’s support, has published an educational guide about “New Technologies” with the main objective of sharing vital information, so that consumers can learn more about their options.

The educational campaign also includes an informative video on the subject and workshops that will be offered to community groups. The goal of the initiative is to promote smarter, more informed, consumer electronic shopping, and help the community purchase products that actually meet their specific needs.

“Our knowledgeable, non-commission sales specialists are trained specifically to help our customers find the right product solution to best fit their individual needs,” says Marco Orozco from Best Buy. “We believe our sales specialists’ primary role is to listen to the needs of our customers and then inform and educate them on their product options.”

The initiative was presented during a community event at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles, where Consul General Juan Marcos Gutierrez congratulated SABEResPODER for this campaign focused on educating the community and empowering them to make informed purchasing decisions. The Consul General also made the following recommendation to the audience: “remember to first educate yourself on your options in order to avoid mistakes that are caused by impulse shopping.”

The recurring theme at the event was for consumers to make informed purchases to ensure that technology delivers on its promises; and to learn how technology can improve the quality of life in a digital world.
About SABEResPODER, Inc.

SABEResPODER provides corporations, agencies and non-profit entities with powerful and exclusive educational media solutions for gaining incremental customers while assisting Spanish-dominant consumers to become more informed, confident and active consumers and participants in American society. SABEResPODER is a targeted Spanish-language multimedia network reaching Spanish dominant consumers at a key transition point when they are actively pursuing resources to further establish their lives in the United States. For more information about SABEResPODER, visit www.saberespoder.com.

About Best Buy Co., Inc.

With operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Mexico, Best Buy is a multinational retailer of technology and entertainment products and services with a commitment to growth and innovation. Approximately 155,000 employees apply their talents to help bring the benefits of these brands to life for customers through retail locations, multiple call centers and Web sites, in-home solutions, product delivery and activities in our communities. Community partnership is central to the way we do business at Best Buy. In fiscal 2009, Best Buy donated a combined $33.4 million to improve the vitality of the communities where their employees and customers live and work. For more information about Best Buy, visit www.bestbuy.com

SOURCE SABEResPODER

Latinas with Lactose Intolerance Go The Natural Way

A recent study by the LACTAID® Brand found that 77 percent of Latinas with lactose intolerance reduce or limit the amount of dairy in their diet. This is concerning given that the calcium and vitamin D found in milk and dairy products play an important role in living a healthy lifestyle. With the holiday season fast approaching, it is likely that many favorite dishes will include dairy. Luckily, there is a way to manage your lactose intolerance and make milk and dairy products a daily, dietary habit – particularly during the holiday season.

Here are some tips for creating a healthy, calcium-rich diet:

  • Include dark leafy greens such as kale and mustard, collard, broccoli and turnip greens or beans into your favorite, traditional dishes. These foods are not only good sources of calcium, but also low in fat.
  • To boost your calcium intake, use canned fish such as salmon, in festive salads or pastas.
  • The same nutrients found in “regular” dairy products are also found in lactose-free products. Try lactose-free LACTAID® Milk, which is real milk, and rich in calcium and vitamin D when preparing favorite holiday desserts such as Christmas Custard or Flan de Leche.

Visit www.lactaidenespanol.com to learn more about lactose intolerance, access recipes for traditional, holiday dishes and get more information about LACTAID® Milk and Dairy Products. Also, to access a recent webinar presentation about the topic featuring comedian and actress Angelica Vale as well as Sylvia, visit http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=61635.

About Sylvia:

Sylvia Melendez-Klinger is a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer as well as founder of Hispanic Food Communications, a culinary consulting company. Mrs. Klinger has an extensive public health nutrition background having conducted research at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and the University of California Irvine Medical Center and serving as supervising nutritionist for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental feeding program. Mrs. Klinger is a member of the American Dietetic Association, Illinois Dietetic Association and Latino Hispanic Dietetic Association network group (LAHIDAN).