Professional training and everyone’s responsibility
February 8, 2023 – 3 in the afternoon
Anyone who wants to rely on this type of expert will have to invest, there is no other way in the current scenario (Credit: Shutterstock)
Afrofuturist Jan Góes, a professor at the Federal University of Bahia, was clear and direct in her message: we need to cause chaos, because that’s the only way things change. The phrase initially evokes strangeness, then reflection, and finally a questioning of preconceived notions and the certainty that we must act quickly to drive change in the market in which we operate.
And what would cause chaos for APP? This includes, for example, encouraging the employment of trans, 60+, black and indigenous professionals. It’s about helping women get on corporate boards. This means reducing the chasm between academia and the professional environment as much as possible and, no less complicated, making managers understand that the cost of this transition must be shared by all.
Certainly, many of these people are not ready to immediately respond to the professional challenges imposed by contractors. A few of them come from peripheral schools and colleges, far from the formation of the elite of the main urban centers. Young people who could not learn English due to lack of time and money. For many, life passes through the bus window on the way between a bad school and a low-paying job. So the “market”, that entity we always refer to as if it were a separate being, does not absorb this labor and we continue to live in a country with gigantic social inequality. We urgently need to change the dynamics of this cruel game.
A simple and very easy-to-understand example is the growing demand for Business Intelligence (BI) analysts in communication agencies. Anyone who wants to rely on this type of expert will have to invest, there is no other way in the current scenario. We all have a responsibility to expand training efforts, lower the bar on hiring a part of the team, and take responsibility for building a more diverse team. Not only the plural in the ethnic-racial sense. How many companies, for example, are willing to accept people with disabilities (PCD) in their facilities. Diversity also takes care of mobility issues. Can a wheelchair user in your company get to your office without worry?
Some time ago, Luiza magazine opened a selection process for hiring black interns and was the target of numerous criticisms. Luiza Trajano and her leaders did not give in to external pressure. Today they have become a reference. Managers and HR professionals will initially have more work to do in selecting these people. To paraphrase the rector of the Universidade Zumbi dos Palmares, José Vicente, it’s all about literacy. Everyone in the corporation will have to understand that in this new scenario, bad jokes with colleagues, indirect comments, joking insinuations are no longer acceptable. Lessons from a new age.
We need to be at the forefront, seriously discussing these issues in order to build an inclusive society. As a uniting professional entity, APP has capillarity, the ability to promote numerous connections throughout the country, to train people who are currently transiting on the margins of the labor market. We want other entities in the sector on our side willing to cause chaos. We must first of all talk, learn, monitor, charge and act. The responsibility for the transformation of our country is collective.
