Starting a company as a Black woman, with two other women, is a huge accomplishment for DeLibra Wesley, founder and CEO of National Recruiting Consultants. Founded in February 2021, the company focuses on finding special education providers for school districts. There’s a large shortage of special education providers in schools, and Wesley sees the gap that needs to be filled.
Wesley has a passion for educating people and helping them succeed. In the past year, she started a group for Black women in staffing to be able to connect, network and help each other as needed; it is also a place for professional development. In the last few months, it’s grown to 60 women from six, and she gets more requests to join frequently. She wants to get the word out about the staffing industry as a viable and exciting career choice for the Black workforce.
While educated and interested in all the varying aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion, Wesley is extremely passionate about pay equity between men and women as well. Experts say it will take 136 years to close the gap between men and women when it comes to pay equity. “It’s not in a woman’s nature to go in and demand a salary because we’ve been conditioned not to ask,” Wesley states. She wants to help encourage women to ask for more money and empower them to apply for promotions. She also works to end pay secrecy, which would help remove bias from compensation decisions. “If everyone’s compensation and the method used to determine where candidates fit in pay scales were visible for everyone to see, what kind of compensation decisions would you be making as a hiring manager? That’s the decision you should be making regardless.”
In addition to her work, Wesley has a blog, “Goals with DeLibra,” where she writes and shares her views about DE&I to help educate the industry. She participates in speaking engagements including a diversity panel for SIA. DeLibra also consults staffing companies in developing successful DEI initiatives.
2023 DE&I Influencers List