When big banks see a benefit in helping companies recruit more diverse directors, it’s a sign that there are not just morals at play — there is money at stake, too.

SFA announced today it has established a fund to provide scholarships to eligible students attending the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate finance, accounting, or economics degree in the School of Business and Public Administration. The Structured Finance Foundation scholarship will be established with a gift of $80,000, with the first scholarship to be awarded for the Fall 2021 semester. The foundation will award two need and merit-based scholarships of up to $10,000 each.

A coalition of more than 30 chief executive officers from companies including Merck & Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Nike Inc. are backing a startup that will connect employers with Black workers.

For all the good intentions raised by corporations after George Floyd was killed in May, Black employees do not feel any more welcome at work. Two recent studies, reported by Axios, cite the challenges Black employees feel.

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), the next Chair or Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee in the 117th Congress, is at odds with Nasdaq Inc. surrounding their request to require thousands of companies listed on its stock exchange to include women, racial minorities, and LGBT individuals on their boards.

Companies are putting a strong focus on recruiting diverse teams these days, and that's a good thing. It puts them on the path to better innovation, stronger financial performance, and provides the potential to build a strong high-potential candidate pool for future success. Although the effort is there, companies may be missing out on just how important inclusion is to workplace culture. Without a diverse and inclusive culture, certain employees may head for the door.

This year, Latina Equal Pay Day falls on Oct. 29, marking how far into the new year Latinas have to work to earn the same pay white, non-Hispanic men earned the previous year. When translated into a dollar amount, Latinas today earn, on average, just $0.55 for every dollar earned by White men, leaving them with a pay gap that surpasses that of women in all other racial groups.

A new article by NPR reports that Latinas are dropping out of the workforce at alarming rates.

S&P Global, in partnership with AARP, examined Corporate America’s family leave policies to understand the relationship between family-friendly benefits and female representation in the workforce and senior management. The research is based on the results of an S&P Global/AARP survey of 1,573 individuals—51% men and 49% women—who work for a firm with more than 1,000 employees. The survey was fielded between Aug. 20 and Sept. 8, 2020.

“It is vital to recognize that bias is generated reflexively by the brain, and masquerades as reality. As a distortion, bias blocks our access to the present reality. When our biases are in charge, we are on automatic pilot and unaware of the uniqueness of the present moment and other people.” So concludes a summary newsletter article on the topic of bias produced by the Institute of Coaching. Direct and straightforward, the above statement gets to the heart of the matter. Bias is within us, and so much so we often do not recognize it because it distorts our reality.