Wells Fargo says it wants to diversify its ranks, especially its higher-paid ranks. And maybe the bank and the 57-year-old white guy who made him general manager because he couldn’t find a woman with a similar qualification to really do it. But what he really wants - he needs, in fact, given the skeptical eye of the Department of Labor - given the lack of qualified candidates for black jobs in the eyes of the CEO mentioned above, is to look at least to want to diversify these ranks. , also keeping the old man’s club very firmly intact. And to do this, he is supposed to have taken a page out of OG al appearing to highlight the diversity at the top, the National Football League.
[Former wealth management executive Joe] Bruno is one of seven current and former Wells Fargo employees who said they were instructed by their direct bosses or human resources managers in the bank’s wealth management unit to interview “different” candidates - even if the decision had already been made. to grant the post. another candidate. Five others said they were aware of the practice or helped organize it …
In a June 2020 note to employees, Charles W. Scharf, who became Wells Fargo’s chief executive a year earlier, pledged to consider a wider range of bank job candidates. Following Mr Scharf’s directive, Wells Fargo has adopted a formal policy requiring a diverse list of candidates to be interviewed for all open jobs that pay more than $ 100,000 a year.
And it went just as well, unless you were a black applicant with the impression that you were getting a real opportunity and you weren’t just offering coverage for Wells to hire the white person he was always aiming for. .
The policy was similar to the National Football League’s Rooney Rule, named after Dan Rooney, a former Pittsburgh Steelers owner. The rule was designed after researchers showed league officials that black coaches were excluded from employment opportunities. It was necessary for the league to interview at least one non-white candidate for leadership positions such as head coach and general manager. Earlier this year, the NFL was sued by black coaches, who claimed that they had been subjected to “fake” interviews … [Former Wells Fargo Advisors senior manager Tony] Thorpe said his boss and human resources manager, who oversees his area, told him that if he could find a worthy financial advisor and that he wanted to bring in a sales assistant, he was allowed - but the assistant’s job was to published publicly.
Mr Thorpe, who retired from Wells Fargo in 2019, said he had been instructed to address colleges and business associations in the area where he could meet non-white candidates for the position of assistant. Mr Thorpe said he had never conducted a fake interview, but was asked to document that he had tried to find a “diverse group” of candidates, although he did not know exactly who would receive the job.
See? After all, the Trump administration had nothing to worry about. Of course, Wells denies everything. At least until she is presented with some rather unpleasant evidence from someone who is not suing her, through a New York Times reporter.
Don Banks, 31, a wealthy manager living in Monroe, La., Was contacted by Wells Fargo twice before being hired. In 2016 and 2017, a bank human resources representative told Mr Banks that he had passed an initial round of interviews for a financial adviser internship and that he would receive a phone call from a manager. Both times, no one called.
Mr Banks had been subjected to false interviews, according to a former employee who was a manager in the area where Mr Banks applied and who was involved in the employment process which involved Mr Banks’ application … Mr Banks was finally hired in 2018 by Wells Fargo in a more junior position. Two years later, he was fired during pandemic cuts.
“It doesn’t look like a great experience,” [Wells wealth and investment management CEO Barry] Sommers, the executive director of wealth management, said. “It shouldn’t have happened that way.”
At Wells Fargo, an attempt to increase diversity leads to fake job interviews [NYT]
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