The percentage of Black workers at Target fell slightly during a tumultuous 2020 in which the retail made several high-profile commitments to diversity.
The representation of Black employees declined around 0.7% over 2019 to about 14.95%, according to workforce diversity data released this week by Target. The Minneapolis-based retailer wants the percentage of Black workers to increase 20% by 2023, which would mean 18% of its workers identify as Black.
"It is a long road in front of us," said Kiera Fernandez, Target's chief diversity and inclusion officer and senior vice president of talent and change, in a phone call with reporters this week. "That is why we built (a) three-year time frame."
The company set the workplace diversity targets last year in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and subsequent calls of more equitable treatment of Black people.
She acknowledged that it takes time to change the infrastructure of an organization.
On Wednesday, Target hosted its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum. It was a virtual event featuring CEO Brian Cornell and other Target executives, as well as some of its business partners including Black-owned vendors.
"For Target, we have a role to play to leverage our scale to impact communities and to get involved in sessions like today where we can not only share, but we can continue to learn," Cornell said.
In perhaps one of the most frank conversations with a member of the senior team Wednesday, Mike McNamara, chief information officer, said Target, similar to other companies, has a visible diversity deficit in technology jobs both with race and women.