diversity v.1 — avc.com

Diversity was the hot topic today, and I nominate Andy Swan as the thought leader. Diversity is a way deeper topic than most companies (and this discussion) treated it. First, and I kept asking — what is diversity? A mirror of society? Some randomly-arrived at gender-ratio? Enough minorities to keep HR off your back? And what about diverse individuals like the disabled, in any way? Age? How and when do you make the decisions to hire along certain profile lines?

I cut my teeth on straight up pay-for-performance. Did not matter if you were blue with five hands, if you played, you were paid, and you had a job and kept moving up, as long as you were up and to the right. I was always the top performer (well, not out of the gate), and very nearly always the only female, considering comparable roles. In my world it was about results, period. For 15 years.

Now, I understand that perhaps multinational or high-profile organizations under scrutiny might need to think a little about the demographics of their workforce. Those bitches, PR and HR. But how do you do that without sacrificing the bottom line? And without exhibiting bias (works all ways) in hiring? You do what Apple and everyone else does: you put them on the front lines, make them customer-facing. Those jobs generally have lower bariers to entry and will find more “diverse” candidates more than able to perform.

Someone said, and I seconded, that diversity is in viewpoint. Perspective. These come from experience — so CV is incorporated. You don’t want an office of groupthinkers. That is true diversity. Andy and aWaldstein also said what I believe — work ethic, ability, performance. Period. Hire the best you can. Period. Why would you not? Are you seriously going to build in a fiscal cushion for (assuming to be, since you hired out of bias, not on merit) underperforming, superficially-diverse employees?

I proposed that, if we are talking about skewing our hiring to create companies that mirror society, we should take a step back and address the factors that prevent that mirror — or near-mirror — from occuring naturally.

And that goes back to curriculum.

And it goes back to the majors women choose, and the doors those open.

Same for minorities. And older folks.

But I do not see any board of any serious company with knowedge helming a team hiring out of bias to paint an employee portait that is “diverse enough” for — who? — at the expense of the bottom line. No way no how.

It’s called discrimination and it works in all ways.

Now, that is not to say an organization cannot make itself more appealing and accessible to nontraditional candidates. That’s in recruitment, advertising, company culture, etc. And I do understand that if a company is serving a certain geographic location, even intra-city, that the demo of the employee team fielded might be different than another location. Logistics. A white kid from Brooklyn is more likely to work at the Fairway in Red Hook and a black kid in Harlem is more likely to work at the Harlem Heights Fairway.

But merit trumps all. You hire the best you are able and can ascertain. You map out in leadership’s mind the mix you want to achieve, and hire on that kind of diversity — not sacrificing performance in the processs. Performance can be synergistic. And you never engage in bias. In any way, shape or form.

I know that I have been biased against in hiring. It generally happens at the CV stage, which for some arcane reason we have stuck with, largely, as the barrier to entry. So, I do not write gushing bullshit cover letters, and since I have exclusively worked for bleeding edge startups, only one lasting (essentially) 3 years, my career track record looks like one year — hop — one year — hop — one year — hop, when in actuality, that is the time span in which shiny new companies succeed — and move on, as we did with Mediality — or fail. Mainly, fail. It was a cutthroat world. But put me in a room with someone to talk to, and they will find out I have learned a whole bunch amidst those hops.

But that’s not how it works. Right now, for the most part. Which is why I am here and not there, anymore. By choice. By a lot of thought and turmoil.

It was the right decision to make, and I know that when I begin hiring, I will hire as I have come to learn how: on ability and work ethic; on perspective and fit. The rest you can teach.