Eye on Retail: Major retailers help found hiring initiative for Black workers

Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, and Nordstrom are part of a coalition of companies committing to providing job opportunities for 1 million Black Americans without a four-year college degree.

Known as OneTen, the non-profit group seeks to provide family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement over the next 10 years for Black employees. OneTen aims to bring together the professional expertise of major employers, non-profits and skill-credentialing organizations to create more flexible talent pipelines, reduce exclusionary hiring practices, and identify new talent resources to ensure adequate and equitable career pathways for advancement.

Target has also pledged to make a financial contribution to OneTen and create new sustainable jobs over the next three to four years, with opportunities to continue building their careers inside Target and beyond with other OneTen members.

“At Target, we believe that diverse and inclusive teams are the most successful, said Target chairman and CEO Brian Cornell. “We also committed this fall to increase our representation of Black team members by 20% over the next three years. Our work as a founding member of OneTen will support that commitment by creating opportunities across our company that don’t require a college degree to build a career at Target.”

Other notable companies participating in OneTen include Pepsico, AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and HP.

[This story originally appeared on chainstoreage.com.]