Niani Tolbert recalled losing her job as a tech recruiter just about the time COVID-19 cases were rising in New York. During the same period, there were spontaneous protests against racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd.
Tolbert joined the protest by donating her time and expertise as a recruiter to help the course of Black people struggling to find a job during the pandemic, according to CNBC Make It.
She took to LinkedIn and made a request to HR professionals to donate some hours to review the resume of 19 Black women in honor of Juneteenth under the hashtag “Hire Black.” The post went viral and within weeks, she coordinated more than 500 resume review sessions between Black women and hiring managers.
Tolbert then decided to turn what started as a mere request on LinkedIn into a business venture to help hundreds of Black women get jobs. HireBlack now offers hiring events, career workshops, job boards and other career resources for blacks.
With a staff strength of eight, Tolbert said she wants to get 10,000 Black women hired, trained and promoted. She works with global organizations like Amazon, Uber and Disney to recruit and hire Black women.
According to CNBC Make It, Hire Black has assisted Black women to increase their collective earnings by over $2 million. What is more, some women have seen their pay raised as high as $60,000 as a result of their involvement.
Tolbert noted that in their summits, workshops, Slack groups and coaching sessions, she and her team empower Black women to “examine their emotions in relation to money” and develop a “clearer understanding of their unique needs in terms of pay and non-monetary benefits, such as a robust health-care plan or additional PTO.”
Also, on its website, Hire Black offers a free crowd-sourced database showing salaries for jobs in different sectors. Hire Black also offers free virtual workshops explaining the various factors that determine salaries, including company size, location and the employee’s previous experience, CNBC Make It reported.
A research paper by the National Women’s Law Center shows that Black women working full-time, year-round make just 67 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. In this regard, HireBlack’s mission is to help close the stark pay gap Black women still face.
