First-Generation Professionals:
Today’s Team Players, Tomorrow’s Leaders

Companies eager to identify their next set of leaders need to look no further than their organization’s
First-Generation Professionals (FGPs). 

FGPs, the first in their working-class families to enter the white-collar world, are among the hardest-working and most resilient groups in today’s workforce. They’re also among the most overlooked. They are diamonds in the rough, dedicated individuals with tremendous untapped potential. At Baem, we know that providing specialized professional and leadership development to FGPs will help companies fill their executive leadership pipelines.

Our founder, Michelle Hoover, is an FGP herself. Her lived experience being the first of her family to attend Harvard and sit across tables from Fortune 5 executives gives her unique insight into the strengths and challenges of being an FGP in the modern workforce. Her mission is to mobilize all FGPs — including first-generation college students, people raised in rural areas, and individuals from working-class backgrounds — to advance and succeed.

Our Offering: Activating
First-Generation Professionals

Our FGP-centered engagements are designed to equip these often-overlooked professionals to build the mindsets and skills they need to thrive in modern workplaces. Baem Leadership’s approach focuses on teaching and instilling the behaviors, micro-habits, and practices that enable FGPs to solve big problems and inspire everyone around them. 

These developing leaders then form a pipeline to more representative leadership faster at the highest levels. Not only that, investing in FGPs creates a positive feedback loop: hiring from within saves companies both money and effort, decreases turnover, and builds morale, plus it sets a precedent that encourages other FGPs to aspire to leadership. Companies end up with more diverse leaders in the pipeline and an employee community that feels supported and valued.

Each FGP-focused engagement is bespoke, but projects may include:

  • Analysis of the client organization’s work environment for FGPs

  • Customized approaches to FGP inclusion through the employee life cycle

  • Mentorship and sponsorship program consultation and design

  • Executive coaching with an FGP lens

Our Approach Is Backed
by Research

If you choose to partner with Baem to activate the First-Generation Professionals at your company, we’ll begin by leveraging an approach that explores factors inhibiting and enabling performance and upward mobility for FGPs in your organization. From there, we’ll collaborate with you to build solutions that eliminate any barriers that your FGPs are currently experiencing. 

We’ll surface this information through a mixed-method process involving one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and surveys. This unique and in-depth process was co-developed by our founder, Michelle Hoover, and Dr. Zhiqing “Albert” Zhou, an industrial organizational psychologist at Baruch College of the City University of New York, who serves as Baem Leadership’s Director of Research. Kelly Nguyen, an industrial/organizational psychology doctoral student at Baruch College, serves as a research assistant on the project.

Who Is a First-Generation Professional?

A first-generation professional is among the first persons in their immediate family to obtain a college degree or to be hired for a higher-level professional position than was held by either parent. 

First-Generation Professionals also encompass:

  • New immigrants who will become members of our workforce

  • People raised in rural areas who attend college for professional degrees 

  • Children of non-native English speakers who become fluent

  • Individuals from working-class backgrounds

Ready to activate the FGPs in your company?