Study: How Employers Can Recruit More Black Students as Interns

?Employers looking to recruit and retain interns from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly Black institutions (PBIs) would be well served by forging relationships with these schools, according to a study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

That was among the recommendations from NACE’s report, Recruiting for Equity at HBCUs and Beyond: Current Practices and Pitfalls, based on interviews the association conducted over 18 months with 17 senior recruiters and leaders from 17 NACE-member employers. All respondents were HR professionals or senior staffers working in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

The study was released during the NACE HBCU Summit in March.

The research was done as a case study in partnership with the Center for the Study of HBCUs at Virginia Union University, an HBCU in Richmond, Va. Researchers focused on internships as a way to recruit for equity—employers’ current strategies and practices, where HBCUs and PBIs fit into those strategies and practices, and employers’ understanding of the impact that recruiting for equity has on the company’s vision, mission and goals.

Internships are one of the main ways that employers recruit entry-level college graduates, NACE noted.

“If internship programs are diverse and equitably developed, then they can be an effective way of directly influencing the diversity of the company’s incoming cohort of early career individuals,” the organization said in a summary.

What Researchers Found

Partnering with HBCUs and PBIs can create sustainable pathways for recruiting Black students as interns.

Campus career centers may often be one- or two-person shops. With an employer partnership, “centers can focus more of their time on that employer and make sure their students are getting great service and the employers are getting great service,” explained Josh Kahn, NACE associate director of research and public policy and co-leader of the research.

Additionally, former interns may bring in other students from their schools, and those whom the employer hires post-internship can serve as mentors to fellow alumni.

“You’re building momentum, you’re building trust, you’re building your brand on campus. It seems [to be] a really strong way to build a bench” of future employees, Kahn said.

Organizations’ designated leaders lack clarity about basic concepts such as diversity, equity and inclusion—and the difference between equity and equality.

“Equality is making sure everyone is treated the same,” Kahn explained. Equity means “making sure people have what they need to be successful,” such as workplace accommodations.

Employers can provide professional development so leaders have a clearer understanding of these terms, he advised. An organization also needs to be united around its internship goals.

“We found some folks thought equality was the goal, and other folks said equity was the goal,” Kahn said. Without that clarity, people in those organizations were pulling in different directions.

“Whoever is leading these [internship] efforts should be included in the C-suite … so a comprehensive plan can be developed that considers the entire organization,” Kahn said. “As they’re embedded in the C-suite, these plans will be given more resources, more time, more priority” in overall organizational planning.

There is a lack of trust among students from HBCUs and PBIs toward predominately white organizations.

“There’s the question [of] whether the work setting will be inclusive and welcoming and if I [as a student from an HBCU or PBI] will have a sense of belonging,” Kahn said.

“If I don’t trust the company to provide that type of setting, I may not want to become an intern there. This aspect is critical in building positive relationships” and is one area where having a strong relationship with the campus career center can be an advantage.

Additional resources are needed to help employers connect with HBCUs and PBIs.

“We heard a lot of talk about how it’s important to recruit a diverse workforce, but [organizations] don’t know how to find the HBCUs in their area,” Kahn said. He shared the following resources:

—A list of 107 HBCUs identified by the U.S. Department of Education.
—A list of PBIs, which are educational institutions whose student population is at least 40 percent Black. The list is from the Office of Inclusive Excellence at University of California, Irvine, and can change as the percentage of Black students shifts from year to year.

Going Beyond the Basics

Employers can also attract students from HBCUs and PBIs by doing the following:

Foster a sense of belonging.