Diversity | Connect to HR | Strategic HR Advisors & Executive Coaching

Archive for Diversity

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – How to Lead the Way

Numerous studies have shown that a diverse workforce can have a positive effect on the bottom line. But building and maintaining that workforce is more than just hiring people of color and from different backgrounds. Unless you follow through with equity and inclusion once they’re on board, your commitment to diversity is just lip service.

So how do you create a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion? It needs to be a concerted effort – starting at the leadership and systems level – that considers all activities – hiring, promoting, communications, company gatherings, development, team assignments, terminations, etc. – through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Here are some tips.

Regularly confirm your commitment to diversity and inclusion by ensuring that teams, projects, promotions, development, and other opportunities are open to the broader definition of diverse individuals – gender, ethnicity, points of view, sexual orientation, etc.

Encourage conversation to promote understanding. Consider organizing group conversations of diverse employees where participants share their different perspectives and experiences. Hearing personal stories about the impact of exclusion can be powerful in creating empathy and understanding.

Build awareness around microaggressions. Often, seemingly innocuous statements or questions can make others feel uncomfortable. “Where are you from originally?” “Wow! You are so well-spoken.” “You’re strong for a girl.” Statements and questions that subtly imply assumptions based on gender or race do not promote inclusion.

Implement a mentoring program. Match peers one-on-one or in mentoring circles to provide a safe place to talk about challenges. Or consider creating affinity groups. A workplace affinity group is a group of employees with similar backgrounds, characteristics, or life experiences, such as: women, people of color, or Veterans. The purpose of an affinity group is to provide diverse populations within an organization the opportunity to share ideas and experiences.

Learn more about the small steps you can take every day to implement a culture where everyone feels valued, heard, and included in this podcast from my amazing colleague, Lisa Duerre, CEO of RLD Group.

Building a culture of diversity and inclusion takes time and effort. It’s about changing mindsets and creating an environment that allows all to feel welcome and to thrive. It begins with you, as the leader, leading the way.

If you need help incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into your culture, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Hiring for Diversity Isn’t Enough

Back in 2014 the hi-tech industry made a public goal to increase diversity in their workforces. CEOs pledged millions to the cause, diversity recruitment programs emerged, and companies shared annual reports to show their progress.

To date, however, little real progress has been made. While the number of Blacks and Latinos recruited and hired in hi-tech has increased slightly (a couple of percentage points at most) the efforts to create and maintain a truly diverse workforce seem to stop there.

Take Google, for example, which is now the subject of a lawsuit claiming that it treats Black workers unfairly by “steering them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjecting them to a hostile work environment if they speak out.”

The person who filed the lawsuit, a recruiter who was hired in 2014 to set up a diversity program, claims that she noticed a pattern of discrimination as qualified Black employees and other people of color were paid less and passed over for promotions. She says she was fired from her job after speaking out about it. Other former employees have made similar complaints since the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, was filed.

This is an important lesson for business leaders. Diversity in hiring is not enough. It may look great on a report, but unless you do more it’s just for show. To create and maintain a diverse workforce you also have to practice equity and inclusion in all of your people practices – compensation, opportunities for promotion, learning and development and so forth.

Without taking those next steps to embrace and practice Diversity AND Equity AND Inclusion (DEI) you are just checking a box and not making a difference.

Next time we’ll talk about how you can increase equity and inclusion in your organization.

Diversity and Inclusion – How to Walk the Talk

As I shared in my last article, there are plenty of statistics that indicate the positive effect a diverse workforce can have on business results. Now the question is, how do you get there? It needs to be more than just saying you practice diversity. Or that you make sure you tick the EEO boxes in your hiring and firing practices. It needs to be a concerted effort – headed by leadership – to create a culture that considers all activities – communication, recruiting, hiring, promoting, company gatherings, team assignments, terminations, etc. – through a lens of diversity and inclusion.

You need to walk the talk. Here are some tips for doing that.

Demonstrate your commitment to diversity through the images on your website and in recruiting collateral. Be sure they are actual images of your workforce and not stock images.

Review job posting language through the lens of diversity and inclusion. Words matter. Terms such as “rockstar, “ninja” or “guru” may discourage some perfectly qualified people from applying. Use gender neutral language. Sometimes it’s as simple as changing “manage” to “develop.” A recent KQED article noted that “if you say manage a team, the applicants are primarily male. If you say develop a team, it tends to be female. And when you say lead a team, it tends to be neutral.”

Emphasize the impact of the role. Studies show that men will apply for jobs when they meet only 60% of the requirements, whereas women don’t feel confident to apply unless they meet 100% of the requirements. Consider only including the must-have requirements (versus adding all of the nice-to-haves) and focusing more on the impact the candidate would make in the position.

Confirm your commitment to diversity and inclusion on a regular basis by ensuring that teams, projects, promotions and other opportunities are open to the broader definition of diverse individuals – gender, ethnicity, points of view, sexual orientation, etc.

Encourage conversation to promote understanding. Consider organizing group conversations of diverse employees where participants share their different perspectives and experiences.

If you need help in incorporating diversity into your hiring practices and/or culture, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Lead the Way to Diversity and Inclusion

Numerous studies have shown that organizations who are proactive about diversity and inclusion perform significantly better than those who are not. A Harvard Business Review study showed that companies with higher than average diversity had 19% higher revenues in innovation. A McKinsey & Company study found that organizations with gender-diverse executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform others in profitability. And 43% of companies with diverse boards of directors show higher profits.

In addition to better financial performance, companies with a culture of diversity and inclusion have higher employee engagement and attract more talent. According to Glassdoor, 67% of job seekers consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment opportunities.

And yet, Silicon Valley is still struggling to diversify its workforce. Despite a variety of programs to increase diversity, data in a recent Morning Consult article indicated that at Facebook, Twitter and Google less than 6% of employees are Hispanic and less than 5% are African-American. Likewise, their executive teams and boards are made up predominantly of White men.

So, what does it take for companies to be more reflective of our increasingly diverse society and to create more opportunities for diverse candidates at the top? It takes leaders who show the way.

One such leader is Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, who announced recently that he’s stepping down from the Reddit board and urging Reddit to fill his seat with a Black candidate. He said on his Instagram site, “I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now.” Ohanian also pledged $1M to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp. Hear more of what Ohanian has to say about leading the way to increased diversity and inclusion both in hi-tech and in venture funding in this Instagram video interview.

If you need help in incorporating diversity into your hiring practices and/or culture, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Walk the Talk: Creating a Culture of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

As competition for attracting and keeping top talent heats up, companies who demonstrate that they have a culture of diversity and inclusion will have a significant advantage. Not only are these companies likely to perform better financially, as we discussed in my last blog, they are also more likely to engage and retain their high performing employees. And…attract new ones!

According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions’ 2018 Global Recruiting Trends report, “diversity is the biggest game-changer” among recruiting trends for 2018. Seventy-eight percent of their survey respondents indicated that diversity is very or extremely important in shaping their recruiting and hiring efforts for 2018. And it’s not just diversity – it’s diversity, inclusion, and belonging, all key elements in attracting, engaging and retaining employees.

Companies are focusing their efforts on a wide definition of diversity, including gender (71%), racial and ethnic (49%), age/generational (48%), educational (43%), disability (32%), religious (19%) and other (6%).

Yet despite this focus, companies still have a challenge in attracting diverse candidates. Here are some things to consider as you work on making your candidate pool more diverse, and your culture one of diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Demonstrate your commitment to diversity through the images on your website and in recruiting collateral. Show that you walk the talk.

Be sure diversity is reflected in your culture. Consider incorporating things like time off for important holidays for diverse religions, providing parental leave, and implementing LGBTQ-friendly policies. Identify and eliminate workplace practices and attitudes that are anti-diversity-inclusion-belonging.

If you need help in incorporating diversity into your hiring practices and/or culture, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Improve Company Performance Through Diversity and Inclusion

There has been much discussion recently about the disparity in pay and opportunity for women and minorities across a variety of industries. And although Silicon Valley companies have created many initiatives over the years to close the gap, the gap in hi-tech remains. But here’s the thing. Those companies who have successfully increased diversity and inclusion – especially at the senior management level – are significantly outperforming those who haven’t.

According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, companies that ranked in the top quartile on executive-level gender diversity outperformed their less diverse peers by 21%. Companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams outperformed their peers by 33%. Conversely, the report showed that the least diverse companies underperformed their industry peers by 29%. Clearly there’s a correlation between diversity and the bottom line.

In addition to improving financial performance, proactively creating a culture of diversity and inclusion improves employee engagement and helps attract new talent. Companies that embrace differences and provide opportunities for all are far more attractive and motivating workplaces. This is important for leaders to remember, especially now that we’re in an environment where there’s competition for talent.

Although the McKinsey report looked at diversity primarily through the lens of gender and ethnicity, I think it’s important to consider a broader definition. All too often leaders fall into the trap of hiring someone very much like them – similar personality, similar background, similar way of approaching a problem or decision. Yet there is so much to be learned and gained from building a team and organization that includes a variety of personalities, backgrounds, and approaches. When different viewpoints and approaches are brought to the table it spurs innovation, which contributes to the organization’s competitive edge.

Creating a culture of diversity and inclusion can also help attract customers. Today’s consumers have myriad choices, and many are looking to do business with companies that demonstrate they care by providing opportunities, development and advancement for all.

Next time we’ll talk about some things you can do to promote diversity and inclusion in your culture and hiring practices.

Archive for Diversity

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – How to Lead the Way

Hiring for Diversity Isn’t Enough

Diversity and Inclusion – How to Walk the Talk

Lead the Way to Diversity and Inclusion

Walk the Talk: Creating a Culture of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

Improve Company Performance Through Diversity and Inclusion

Blog Categories

Want to stay connected?

Most Recent Blogs