A New Frontier For Diversity in 2020 and Beyond
Making progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion is right from a social justice lens. But is that enough for companies, many of whom are in an epic fight for survival? Why should companies still care about diversity and make it a top agenda item?
Part of me feels incredible fatigue at having to re-make the case for diversity and inclusion. It felt like we had just about gotten over that hump before the crisis. The last decade saw the HR world abuzz with the “Talent War”, facing a robust economy and low unemployment. Creating more inclusive cultures, addressing recruiting, and review bias was critical for companies just to remain competitive in the talent market. This made me really excited about the future, and the possibility that we might just make real change at the top in time for when my three young daughters enter the workforce. Three steps forward!
However, the fall-out from this crisis is ending this talent war. Ceresa’s founding executive coach, a leadership guru to many top Private Equity and Venture Capital funds, is busier than ever with talent assessments, as companies seek to take advantage of the new “buyer’s market” for talent. Two steps back?
In fact, despite losing this big “Talent War” imperative for companies to focus on diverse talent, I remain hugely optimistic about where we are heading – with a couple of words of caution.
Cause for optimism
Businesses face unprecedented challenges and the need for huge strategic pivots. You need leaders who are not only resilient, but inspiring to others and able to solve big problems creatively. More than ever, empathy is a critical trait… to relate to your teams, clients, customers, partners in a human way first. Keeping and developing the very BEST talent should be more important than ever. The best of ALL talent. With this as the new driving force for addressing diversity, any steps forward will be much more sustainable than relying on a tight labor market to create the perceived business imperative for diversity.
Addressing the new talent imperative
This new world-order with changing strategies and a changing talent landscape is going to support a long-overdue shift in the D&I world to focus on how we better design L&D to support and develop ALL humans. This is critical to developing robust pipelines of diverse senior leaders, enabling us to nurture the very best people. Of course, an inclusive culture is important as the “soil” from which to grow. Yes, we need to continue de-biasing performance reviews. But we have neglected rethinking how we design L&D, to ensure it works for all.
Start early
Men are promoted or hired to manager positions more than women (72 women for every 100 men, and even lower for women of color). We will never achieve diversity in senior leadership if we don’t fix the broken rung.
Personalization and relevancy
You must start with what each individual needs. There has been a fundamental mismatch in what support diverse employees need and what they receive. Training focuses on skills. Mentoring for women focuses on operating style (vs. career advancement for men). Women receive 1.4X more subjective critical feedback in performance reviews, whereas men’s feedback ties to drivers of business performance. Yet Ceresa data shows that the top areas where women want support are:
Creating balance in work, wellness, and values
Navigating their careers
Increased communications and confidence
We applaud the shift to focus on employee wellbeing that we see many companies making, and believe like others, it will be part of the new normal. But it is not the same for everyone. How do you help individuals build self-awareness about their aspirations, challenges, and needs? Then you can offer them personalized support. Relevancy is one of the most critical adult learning principles, that is too often left out of professional leadership development.
Fit-to-life
Ensure you are delivering support in modes that are convenient for an individual’s life. Remote and on-demand structures have always been more accessible, as people can fit it around their whole life -- when they have mental space and time. 6 pm in a classroom on a Thursday is not as easy for each person to attend.
Equitable access
As you select people for development programs, are you taking into account whether your modes of selection have an inherent bias? When executives are asked to recommend people, are they diverse? Does your high-potential selection favor those who already have better access to resources such as mentoring or sponsorship?
Words of caution
In light of COVID-19, some new considerations are emerging that pose a very real risk of new and deeper bias. Two considerations for you:
New studies show there's an added burden women face in home-schooling, and that this gendered burden is not fully recognized or understood. How does this affect the ability to deliver at work? How will you take this into account in performance reviews?
Different people have different abilities to weather the crisis remotely. If you open your office, how will that affect people with children vs. no children? Fathers vs. mothers? People with underlying health conditions that they do not wish to share? Will people be (or feel) penalized if they opt to continue working remotely?
If we can help bolster the support you provide to aspiring, diverse leaders, please reach out. Wishing you health and just enough sanity to get through these uncertain times.
~Anna
Anna Robinson | Founder & CEO | Ceresa