The following are a few pertinent themes discussed at the recent J.B.C. Institute Chief Diversity Officers Forum that tie into the work of diversity practitioners and most of which are addressed in Giving Notice: (more…)

As we reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and passion for humanity forty years after his tragic assassination, it is important to recall and be grateful for his truly heroic efforts and invaluable contribution to the civil rights movement in this country, not only for blacks but for all people. While legal and social progress has certainly improved the lives of many over the past forty years, thanks in part to the early civil rights movement, we should not lose sight of the work that still needs to be done to reach the “promised land” Dr. King so passionately spoke of.

On a broad scale, we have begun to address the ailments of racism and discrimination that threaten the ideals upon which American society prides itself. In the twenty-first century, the United States is more than ever a multi-cultural patch quilt of racial and ethnic backgrounds, religions, orientations, values, ideas, and experiences. Many Americans today would acknowledge this is as being a good thing and one of our nation’s greatest assets. As evidence, shifting mentalities have brought our country to a point where we can realistically look forward to electing a black man or a woman as our president—a tremendous milestone in the long struggle for civil rights and equal opportunity.

Yet while the United States has indeed come a long way since the1960s, there is reason to question whether we have only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of ensuring real equity, opportunity, and prosperity for all groups. Our educational system and workplaces are good areas to apply our analysis of how far we still need to go to achieve true equality and fairness. The present challenge is to identify and understand the more subtle forms of bias and hidden barriers around us—These are perhaps less visible from the surface, but they are no less insidious than the overt forms of discrimination Dr. King fought against, and they continue to marginalize underprivileged groups in very real ways.

Giving Notice challenges all of us to dive deep into this discussion of inequities and how we can create innovative approaches to mitigating them effectively. Our ability to reframe and refresh our understanding of the issues at hand and the work that needs to be done is ever more vital, especially as the playing field inevitably becomes increasingly diverse and globalized.

Tara Parker of the New York Times recently wrote an article called “Meet the Office Bully,” which highlighted findings from Dr. Sandy Hershcovis’ and coauthor Julian Barling’s research on the negative effects of workplace aggression.

As found in the authors’ research and clearly evident in the multitude of readers’ responses to Tara Parker’s article, bullying has a very real presence and profoundly negative impact in the workplace today—not only for individual employees, but for companies’ bottom lines as well.  The Corporate Leavers Survey, a nationwide study conducted by the Level Playing Field in 2007, found that over 2 million managers and professionals voluntarily leave their jobs every year due solely to workplace unfairness, including bullying.  In fact, bullying was one of the most frequently experienced forms of unfairness by survey respondents across all demographic groups that was directly associated with their decision to leave their employers. It is important to note that bullying and inappropriate behaviors appear to be disproportionately directed at people of color, gays and lesbians, and women. 

Further jaw dropping is that this exodus of fed-up employees is hitting corporate America with an economic cost of $64 billion dollars annually- that’s almost equivalent to the combined revenues of Google, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, and Amazon.com! Interestingly, this cost is also equivalent to the settlements for all sex and race based lawsuits reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1997 until 2006. This figure does not even include the costs associated with these corporate leavers strongly discouraging others from taking jobs with or purchasing products/services from their employers. 

Clearly, bullying and other subtle, inappropriate behaviors in the workplace are not good for anyone, though unfortunately they are not currently considered illegal in the U.S.  Companies should eradicate bullying in their organizations, if not just for the sake of “doing the right thing,” then because of the direct and egregious impact to their business.  For more information, please visit www.corporateleavers.org

 

What are simple steps employers can take to eliminate workplace bias in an inclusive manner so that all employees can truly experience equal and fair opportunities and treatment?

In Giving Notice, Freada Kapor Klein describe five steps that add up to a comprehensive approach.

1. Policies – There is no substitute for creating a customized approach that reflects your business and your workforce. What behaviors are appropriate and which are inappropriate? How do certain behaviors undermine morale or the business achieving its goals? As previously mentioned, unifying policies are better that separate policies for different issues. Policies should describe all the behaviors that drive people out the door—the types that we covered in the Corporate Leavers study—including subtle bias, mistaken identity, stereotyping, bullying. Having a policy is essential, but that alone is not sufficient.

2. Complaint channels – In addition to formal complaint channels, it is also essential to create a safe and anonymous or confidential vehicle to receive complaints from employees. “Employee Resource Groups” are often formed as an alternative to formal HR channels. They can provide a place for employees to receive advice. Employees need a place to go with the subtle, day-to-day problems that we heard in our study before they’re ready to walk out the door.

3. Training has to be mandatory and customized for different constituents. Educate employees on how to speak up and how to best be heard. Educate managers that every action or inaction sends a message. If an employee is having lunch with her/his manager and a client, and the client makes a racist/sexist/homophobic joke, if the manager automatically laughs and is agreeable, that sends a resounding message about what matters and what doesn’t matter to the company. Complaint handlers also need to be trained on how to respond to various situations brought to their attention.

4. Sensing and monitoring mechanisms – Each company requires customized surveys for their specific business. Generic downloaded policies and surveys will not reflect a company’s specific sector and culture. If information collected is truly anonymous, employee trust will remain intact. After stories and data are collected from the majority of employees (one must have a high participation rate for success), they can be presented to senior management. Also, Employee Resource Groups should be tapped for information on how the company is doing and the company’s reputation on the street. They should keep track of online blogs and public company assessment sites to stay informed of issues that are published about the organization.

5. Commitment from top – If you don’t have that, you cannot excel at steps 1 through 4. Every time senior management looks the other way when a star revenue producer continues to be a bigot, it undermines every effort already undertaken by the organization. Companies should follow the NFL “Rooney Rule” – whenever interviews are being conducted for a coaching position, there has to be at least one African American candidate. If the NFL can do it, everyone else can do it, too. If companies end up having a slate of candidates that is not diverse, there is no possibility that the organizations’ leadership will reflect society-at-large. If they require a few people of color (of all backgrounds) to be interviewed for all positions, then companies take a crucial step towards leveling the playing field for diverse candidates.

Carol Hymowitz recently wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal about the continued gap in progress for women and people of color with respect to pay and power in American companies, even 40 years post the outlawing of employment discrimination. Consider these pay discrepancies between different demographic groups and white males in 2005:

Black men earned 74% of the wages of white males; Hispanic men earned 58%; Asian-American men earned just 1% less than white men. Full-time female employees earned 77% of all men’s median wages. Further broken down by race, Asian-American women earned 78% of the median annual pay of white men; white women earned 73%; black women earned 63%; and Hispanic women earned 52%.*

Though women represent half of all managers and professionals in the workforce, their leadership representation has dwindled from 16.4% of corporate-officer posts at Fortune 500 companies in 2005, to 15.4% in 2007, according to the research group, Catalyst. Women of color hold a humble 2% of these positions.

These less than comforting statistics beg the question of why such a gap continues to exist for women and people of color. Is it their own fault? Some argue that such discrepancies could be attributable to women prioritizing motherhood and worklife balance over the partner track for example, or a lack of assertion on the part of women and people of color to demand promotions and navigate their own advancement.

But as Giving Notice contends, it is critical for corporate leadership to consider what tone they set and to identify institutional barriers in their companies that may be derailing employees, specifically women, gays and lesbians, and people of color. Why is this important? The 2007 Corporate Leavers Survey unveiled that over 2 million managers and professionals leave their jobs every year solely due to unfairness—mostly in the form of hidden biases and barriers—at an annual cost of $64 billion dollars to companies. It is therefore very much the responsibility of the employer to take actionable measures against hidden barriers in the workplace and to ensure a level playing field exists for all employees with regards to hiring, pay, promotions, and career advancement.

Giving Notice encourages employers to start by proactively gathering data (without fear of later litigation) on unfair practices within their organizations that negatively impact employees. Traditionally, the easier diversity approach has consisted of throwing millions of dollars towards cosmetic, one-size-fits-all diversity programs and good marketing to make the “Best of…” lists. But in reality, such hands-off solutions coupled with smoke and mirrors have not effectively addressed the issues at hand nor have they yielded sustainable results, as evident in today’s failing diversity efforts at many companies. For those executives who challenge whether fairness and diversity issues exist and are really worth addressing—the evidence and impetus for change (at least from a business perspective) are in the data.

For more quantitative and qualitative findings from the Corporate Leavers Survey, check out http://www.corporateleavers.com/

*2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey (the latest year for which data is available)

The New York Times recently released an article regarding the growing disparity in higher education levels between different income and racial groups in the U.S. today. According to the article, recent studies confirm that African Americans and Latinos are lagging behind whites and Asians in attending college and earning degrees, signaling a widening gap in economic upward mobility between the groups. While higher education has been shown to help people’s ability to prosper and move up in society, underprivileged and economically disadvantaged youth often do not receive the resources and guidance to apply for college nor the support to complete their education.

Giving Notice dedicates a chapter to this critical issue of working to address the early sources of hidden barriers and bias for underprivileged groups. “Once you’re on the Have-Nots team, it’s a tough scramble to get onto the playing field” (Chapter 9, “Ten Steps Back,” Giving Notice). For example, applying to and attending college are much more manageable and feasible for those youth who come well-equipped with parental support, a stable middle or upper class upbringing, and the necessary finances. However, for those lower-income, underprivileged, and ill-equipped individuals, the prospect of attending college is overshadowed by countless daunting obstacles—from knowing where to apply, to writing application essays, to paying fees and applying for financial aid. The upward battle is far from over once these individuals have been admitted to college, as financial and family pressures, acclimating to rigorous academic environments, and seeking summer internships loom over them.

Many of us take our family’s support and opportunities for granted come time to apply for college or a job, but those who are not entitled to such birthrights can’t afford to take anything for granted. The Level Playing Field Institute aims to level inequities in education opportunities by providing the necessary academic preparation, guidance, and resources to high school students through the Summer Math and Science Honors (SMASH) Program and to college student through the Initiative for Diversity in Education and Leadership (IDEAL) Scholars program. For more information on these programs, check out http://www.lpfi.org/

Companies that are committed to leveling the playing field and fostering true diversity in the workplace can do their part by first looking beyond Ivy league names and what people state they’ve done on their resumes. They should focus more on the distance traveled and the obstacles some people have had to overcome to get to where they are—because most often these individuals demonstrate true character, drive, and unique skills that will undoubtedly benefit the organization.

Four comparable resumes with similar experiences and education are sent to help-wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers. The most notable difference among the resumes is the four names: Lakisha Washington, Jamal Jones, Emily Walsh, and Greg Baker. Which names on a resume will receive more callbacks? According to a 2004 study conducted by Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan which was published in the The American Economic Review, Greg and Emily (the white names) received 50% more callbacks than Lakisha and Jamal (the black names). This field experiment confirmed an uncomfortable reality: that as much as recruiters and companies profess their commitment to equal opportunity, racial bias continues to beget discrimination in the job market for people of color.

Giving Notice encourages employers to pay greater attention to hidden bias and how it translates to hidden barriers in the workplace, especially for underrepresented groups such as people of color, women, and gays and lesbians. Too often we are quick to deny that we harbor racial and other biases, or else we assume they do not play out in today’s work environments. But field studies like these prove bias plays a very real role in our decisions and actions despite our best intentions. How biased and what biases do you harbor against specific groups of people? Take the Implicit Association Test (IAT) http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and find out!

And if your companies believes they truly “walk the walk” when it comes to equal opportunity, they should test themselves and the level of institutional bias when handling resumes, hiring interviews, promotions, wages, and job assignments.

Did you know Corporate America spends $8-10 billion annually* on diversity training? Not exactly a meager monetary investment, yet if one considers the return on this substantial diversity investment, the results are less than impressive. In fact, as Dr. Freada Kapor Klein asserts in her book, Giving Notice, “…quantitative and qualitative findings lead to one sobering conclusion: the twenty-five-year diversity crusade by corporate America has been a costly failure leading to stunted careers, wasted money, and disillusioned observers.” Not only are many companies’ diversity trainings deemed unsatisfactory and ineffective, researchers have found that some actually increase managerial bias and result in more damage than improvement.

So why are companies getting diversity training so wrong? Giving Notice emphasizes the fundamental need to reframe and update how we approach the diversity issue in the 21st century: “…corporate America and much of the diversity consultant industry has operated, and continues to operate, under some fundamentally flawed assumptions about what works and what doesn’t.” This is a complex and multi-layered issue that will take time, effort, and dedication, especially on the part of corporate leadership. Giving Notice provides a comprehensive understanding of these current diversity challenges, as well as effective strategies to rectify them.

The Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI), a San Francisco based non-profit organization founded by Dr. Klein in 2001, focuses on removing barriers to fairness both in the workplace and in education. One of LPFI’s current initiatives is to develop more innovative, effective approaches and tools to improve diversity training. The idea is to move away from the current generic, check-the-box type trainings many of us have had to grudgingly take at our companies. Instead, we believe diversity training should be interactive, build empathy, and equip employees with perspective and effective tools to approach real-world diversity issues in their everyday work lives.

What would you like to see in future diversity trainings?

*Thomas A. Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management professor

Cultural differences…indeed a sensitive subject, especially in today’s increasingly multi-cultural workplaces. The 2007 Corporate Leavers Survey revealed countless stories of unfair treatment, stereotyping, and incorrect assumptions among employees, often stemming from a general lack of understanding and sensitivity to cultural differences. Though such cultural disconnects in the workplace may appear subtle and harmless to some, in reality they pose career-derailing challenges for people of color, women, and gays and lesbians who are often the underrepresented cultures in their offices or companies. For example, many companies encourage and reward self-promotion of employees, but what about those groups who may be less culturally attuned to this notion? How do people of color effectively overcome or disprove racial/ethnic stereotypes that negatively impact their career advancement and coworkers’ perceptions of them? How does a gay man effectively communicate to his coworkers that their inappropriate jokes regarding homosexuals are offensive to him, without having it create tension or discomfort in the office, or worse- cost him a promotion?

Unfortunately, more often than not, underrepresented employees fear the potentially negative repercussions of speaking up about these issues in the workplace, and opt for checking their unique cultural attributes at the door. But as the Corporate Leavers Survey found, the subtle, day-to-day cultural biases and barriers will eventually drive them to voluntarily leave their jobs at a highly undesirable cost to companies. Giving Notice recommends that job applicants conduct thorough research around culture and diversity when considering working for a company. Most companies’ websites market impressive diversity statements and awards, but asking current employees to share their personal experiences on the job can offer more realistic insights on the true cultural climate and values of the company.

Given the trend towards an increasingly diverse workforce in the U.S. over the upcoming decades, companies can no longer easily get away with sweeping these diversity issues under the rug if they intend to maintain a competitive edge and maximize their productivity. Employers can do their part by first acknowledging the need to create a truly inclusive corporate culture for all employees- (that means more than just marketing platitudes and generic diversity training). This requires leadership’s commitment to recognizing their own cultural biases and investing the resources to understand and tackle these complex diversity issues through effective people strategies. A key to understanding employees’ day-to-day experiences entails asking the employees themselves and engaging them in the process of bridging cultural gaps. Encouraging open communications and employee participation via anonymous opinion surveys and dialogue groups within and across teams is paramount to this process.

One of the most important goals achievable through dialogue is building greater empathy among employees and appreciation for cultural diversity. Without this, companies will continue to face an exodus of employees who eventually determine it’s simply not worth checking their identities and cultural values at the door.

DiversityInc recently highlighted the Bernard Hodes Group Study, which surveyed 751 participants to determine what talented people of color seek most in their jobs and which factors cause them to leave. The study found that when seeking jobs, people of color value career opportunities, training, brand reputation, and compensation more than their white counterparts. A considerable number (41%) of people of color choose to leave their jobs because they do not feel appreciated, and 30% would have considered staying if they saw a change in their work environments.

On a similar note, the 2007 Corporate Leavers study presented in Giving Notice found that 9.5% of people of color left their jobs solely due to workplace unfairness, such as bullying, public humiliation, being passed up for promotion, having one’s identity mistaken, etc. When asked what would have made them stay at their jobs, people of color emphasized above all the importance of better management who recognized employees’ abilities.

A logical conclusion to be drawn from both of these studies is that companies can build and better sustain a more diverse and talented workforce if they understand what drives employees, in this case people of color, to be satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs. From this understanding, employers should focus more attention and resources on creating an equitable, welcoming, and rewarding workplace for all employees, in addition to career development opportunities.

As reported by the New York Times, the well-known military contractor, Lockheed Martin, agreed to pay a former employee a hefty $2.5 million- the highest amount received by any one person in the settlement of a racial discrimination case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When the former employee complained about the racial slurs and threats he endured from coworkers and a supervisor over a period of two years, he was simply told by a company manager, “That’s just boys being boys, and that’s the way it is here at Lockheed.” Unfortunately this type of negligent response is not all that uncommon, as reported by hundreds of frustrated employees who participated in the Level Playing Field Institute’s Corporate Leavers study. In this case, Lockheed Martin will have to pay the high price, not only monetarily, but undoubtedly in terms of reputation and business as well. The following are a few practices prescribed by Giving Notice to companies such as Lockheed who are in dire need of a thorough diversity makeover:

• The character and culture of an organization are shaped from the top. Ensure that the CEO and management are fully committed to creating and maintaining a diverse culture and equitable workplace for all employees.
• Undertake a comprehensive audit of company practices (e.g., systems, policies, performance reviews, etc.) to look for hidden bias and hidden barriers.
• Conduct an anonymous, rigorous survey and focus groups focused on perceptions and experiences of all employees. Ensure that there are clear guidelines of openness and confidentiality.
• Analyze the data by demographic groups and business units.
• Develop a systematic plan to address any results that indicate problem areas.
• Institute a new approach based on frequent and regular communications, briefings, mentoring, and regular employee reviews.
• Develop interactive training programs for all levels of the organization focused on hidden bias and barriers in the workplace.
• Continue to conduct company audits, surveys, and focus groups so that employee feedback and overall improvement efforts remain ongoing.
• Revamp exit interview processes to ensure opportunities for organizational improvement are properly captured and addressed.

Ever think that only racists are biased and use stereotypes? Think again. As Giving Notice affirms, it is important to recognize that everyone, even the most well-intentioned person, harbors some level of unconscious bias, and therefore perpetuates stereotypes.  Researchers have confirmed that stereotypes are an inherent part of our nature and affect how we relate to and interact with each other. Unconscious bias can negatively impact our decisions and judgments in work environments at every level of an organization. This translates to hidden barriers in the workplace, which are the subtle, day-to-day, trivial behaviors that can distort the playing field and have a cumulative effect particularly for people of color, women, and gays and lesbians. These hidden barriers are perhaps more insidious than explicit discriminatory practices, as they can often go unrecognized and yet affect all aspects of business from letters of recommendation, resumes, and hiring interviews, to promotions, wages, and job assignments. 

The next step is to delve deeper and identify one’s own biases. The Level Playing Field Institute has partnered with Project Implicit, a collaborative research initiative focused on examining unconscious bias.  They created an objective, online tool known as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) that measures how quickly a person responds with positive or negative words to photos of people.  Almost all of the people taking the IAT described themselves as unbiased at the onset, yet a huge percentage of white people show some bias against African Americans, and a majority of people show bias against photos of overweight, gay, elderly, or Arab/Muslim people.  Take the test yourself at www.implicit.harvard.edu – you may be surprised to learn that you’re not as unbiased as you think!

Unfortunately, most corporate leaders fail to realize the negative impact of unconscious bias on their organization’s culture, which is critical to creating a truly equitable workplace and retaining the best and most productive workforce.  Once the first steps are taken to establish common ground and fully recognize our biases, we can begin to eliminate stereotypes and hidden barriers in the workplace by framing discussions, trainings, policies, and systems around these issues.