What HR Can Learn from the Democratic Primary
Don’t worry, this isn’t a post about politics, I promise. But I do think the evolution of the current U.S. Democratic primary and its candidates, is a very public and visible opportunity to dig deeper into the workplace culture.
When each woman or minority dropped out of the primary race, there was extensive commentary about how the public is losing an opportunity for representation and having the nominee reflect the demographics of the party. Which made me think about how often I hear so many women and minorities comment on how their field, their department, their company, their industry thought leaders — aren’t reflective of them.
I have been guilty of this too, particularly when it comes to leaders and thought leaders in Human Resources. Most of the visible, known, or “HR famous” people in this space are men. Older cisgender white men to be specific. When most HR departments are filled with women and minorities of all ages. It constantly bugs me, but I couldn’t quite figure out why this is still happening in 2020.
And as I saw the primary take shape, something clicked for me. Especially when Elizabeth Warren suspended her campaign. Since this isn’t about politics, I am not here to say she was a good or viable candidate… I’m definitely not the right person to judge that. But she is extremely smart, has details and knowledge on the issues, has experience in the field and leading, and “the pundits” seem to agree she is by far the most qualified. So how can a generally agreed upon qualified option, not be the front-runner?
And if the primary is a microcosm of what happens at companies, what can we learn?
We know that women and minorities are vastly underrepresented across the board while still struggling to make as much money as their male counterparts.
We know that decisions to promote an employee or give someone a chance, happen every day but are experienced differently based on gender and race.
For example, when I’m coaching male clients on how to approach a promotion, their questions are about how much money they should ask for (usually in excess of 30% is what they feel is fair), how to reinforce their successes, and what additional factors they bring to the table.
Conversely, for clients who are anything but cisgender white males, their questions are about why they are promotable; should they ask for more money, enumerating their skills, accomplishments, and differentiators; uncertain if they deserve the opportunity; what their bottom line is of acceptance for the role; and so on.
And of course, we know the huge discrepancy between acceptable language, emotion, and attitude at work between genders and then race. In the primary debates, the women candidates were deemed as “fighting, being aggressive, better when they were nice,” during debates versus anything that the men on stage did or said. Spoiler alert: A lot of the negative commentary was coming from other women.
Why?
In the workplace, there is so much unconscious bias that goes on behind the scenes as we interview candidates, gauge employee performance, build relationships with colleagues, collaborate with our boss, and so on. And through these micro-experiences and daily flashpoints, we are fostering a workplace culture that ensures the status quo, which tends to favor white men, helping them to continue to rise — even if they are jerks, not the most qualified, don’t do any work, or have no idea what’s going on.
What is unconscious bias? My non-technical definition is all of the thoughts, feelings, stereotypes, and media influences, that reinforce a specific set of rules or culture. In the workplace, it constantly feels like all unconscious biases point back to the 1950s workforce — and everyone who isn’t a cisgender straight white man, doesn’t have an automatic place, but has to earn it.
And this visibly shows up in the workplace, with so many women and minorities having to work so much harder than their white male counterparts… all the time. Just to be seen. And at the same time, be very careful not to be too loud, too aggressive, too much, too emotional, too reactive, too, too, too. At the same time, it will take each of us to break out of our societal biases to both act differently AND internally judge differently. (Especially us women).
The primary candidates are honestly (and sadly) a very real representation of how our companies look and feel on a daily basis. I’m convinced that if we don’t actually change the way our workplaces operate in this regard, and quickly, our employees will continue to show up to work every day and have these biases confirmed — further widening the gap and opportunities for all people to be seen and rewarded for who they are.
One more note… this is why diversity and inclusion is so important. It’s not about hiring for your demographic numbers to make your board happy or trying to have your company reflective of the town you live, it’s much more than that. It’s about representation, different perspectives, backgrounds, ideas, cultures, and innovation opportunities.
It’s about reshaping and redefining what is valued at work (and in life). It’s about our leaders, and HR in particular, challenging our own unconscious biases and pushing past them. Not because it’s “the right thing to do,” (it is, by the way), but because there is literally no viable outcome that doesn’t keep us exactly where we are now.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below… how are you tackling unconscious bias at work?
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Melissa Anzman is the author of “The Employee Experience Solution,” and the founder of bettHR. bettHR works with HR leaders to transform the employee experience, starting with their own career. Making HR matter — with solutions that future-proof HR and drive value to your company’s bottom line.
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