1. assume there’s a problem
Newsflash: you’re racist. Also, sexist. Also, many other discriminatory things like ableist and heteronormative. So am I. I don’t care if you have black friends or even a black spouse, I don’t care if you broke your arm one summer and that changed how you viewed disability rights — you’re still a problem. We all are — even those of us that are discriminated against in one arena have the capacity to turn around and discriminate against someone else. That’s how bias works. It’s always a problem. The human brain is wired to make snap generalizations.
In 2015 Salesforce made waves when CEO Marc Benioff acknowledged a gender pay gap at the tech giant and announced a plan to correct the gap. What’s remarkable about the story (beyond Benioff’s commendable commitment to equality) is that he was unaware of of the gap at his own company despite being a vocal ally — his employees brought forward the data and he was surprised at what it revealed.
We live in a society that’s infused with discrimination. Assume there is a problem even (especially) if you think you’re the kind of person who would never discriminate. Every single one of the white dudes in the headline image of this article thinks he’s helping break stereotypes by speaking for women and ethnic minorities. These guys are not stupid, but they have a blind spot the size of Hollywood when it comes to assessing their own part in the problem. Assume your organization and you, yourself, perpetuate that problem. Think about bias every single day — that’s the only way to actually make a difference.
2. make sure you really want it
There’s a hopeful phrase going around now, that equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t line up in the real world, where resources like money and time and MONEY are limited, and people tend to want the easiest solution to whatever problem they’re facing.
Feel-good, unrealistic platitudes ignore the tough decisions and hard work involved in breaking down systems of power and discrimination, all of which have been helpful to a lot of people in certain, favored groups. Many of the people in those benefitted groups aren’t going to be particularly motivated to give others a leg up at their own expense.
I once worked with a woman — a senior manager — who often lamented the challenges facing working mothers in America. She would publicly humblebrag about how hard she worked while raising two kids and how committed she was to helping out working mothers. I was impressed with her right up until she flat out refused to hire an otherwise qualified candidate because the candidate was visibly pregnant. The senior manager not only was open with us — two junior colleagues — about her reasons for not considering the pregnant candidate, she vented about how angry it made her to have to interview someone who was pregnant.
“What does she think,” the manager fumed, “that she can just waltz into a new job and then go right on leave? Who does she think she is?”
Hearing the vitriol in her voice (she wasn’t sharing concerns about balancing a heavy workload, this manager was actively, unapologetically and righteously discriminating against a job applicant) remains one of the most jarring experiences in my career. It taught me to be skeptical of diversity talk and to focus exclusively on behavior and outcomes. I thought about filing a complaint with my employer, but I was scared about the penalty I’d pay as a not-quite-white woman complaining about workplace discrimination. So I did the next best thing: I resigned as quickly as I could.
That senior manager didn’t want to share her pie of time and money for a candidate that would need to take leave and then possibly require workplace accommodations. She opted instead to hire an unmarried man with no dependents. The man required her to give up a smaller piece of her pie, and conserved resources (pie) for other hires and investments or even just the chance to relax a bit more at work.
If you’re not able or willing to create a diverse organization from the start, then stop kidding yourself, your employees, your investors and your clients. Diversity is hard, it will mean challenging the status quo, and people in power, with money and resources, don’t want to give that up even if they are fundamentally good people. It’s in human nature to like to hang onto what we have so there will be resistance. There will be hurt feelings. There will be awkward silences. There will be anger. Deal with it or get off the progressive train.
3. create alternate routes in and up
When a company prescreens applicants based on traditional markers of success with criteria like SAT scores, educational institutions and internal employee references, it’s another way of compounding advantages and disadvantages. Think about who gets into Ivy League schools — mostly the children of the affluent and wealthy. So pre-screening based on the perceived prestige of an academic institution only compounds bias and discrimination. Also, as a graduate of an elite MBA program, let me tell you: we’re not a sure thing. I’ve met and worked with brilliant, generous colleagues who went to state schools (or skipped college all together) and I have plenty of Wharton classmates who were unhelpful, unproductive louts. Prestige is a lazy, inaccurate shortcut for determining merit.
Test scores — like the SATs — are hardly a better indicator of future performance. Google revamped its interviewing process and de-emphasized standardized test scores like the SATs precisely because they’re bullshit metrics.
Once you get a more representative group of candidates in the door of your company, it’s important to continue to support and develop your employees with perks like tuition reimbursement for continuing education, ongoing training and promotional /reentry tracks that accommodate talent in all its forms. Don’t fall into the blame-the-victim trap of forcing your hires to overcome discrimination on their own. The reason the leadership ranks at my previous employer stayed stubbornly white and male had more to do with people like that deeply sexist senior manager and not the highly qualified, diverse junior employees clamoring for a fair shot.
4. stop rewarding discrimination
Discrimination is more than just making sure men and women are paid equally for equal work (even though that step in and of itself is huge and something we have not yet mastered). There’s a range of ways that discrimination and inequality are incorporated into the employment equation. Look at pay and benefits: are raises and vacation time determined based on seniority? Weighing seniority into compensation make zero sense and seniority-based hiring and benefits rewards baked in discrimination. If your company has recently committed to inclusive hiring, you likely already have a heavily male, heteronormative and white employee body that is benefitting from salary raises and a benefits structure that explicitly pays people differently for no other reason than the length of time they’ve worked with the company.
Benefits based on family status — like subsidizing or covering the health benefits of spouses and children — place single parents and employees outside of heteronormative relationships at a sharp disadvantage. You might think that’s fine because it’s important to pay people more based on if they’re married or have kids, but what you’re doing is signaling that discrimination is an organizational value; therefore don’t be surprised when your directors and managers follow suit and discriminate (just like you). How do you know you don’t have a single employee drowning in student loan debt and putting off marriage or kids until they can save, or another employee who is desperately paying for fertility treatments out of pocket (which are rarely covered)? You have no idea what your employees are dealing with, so making broad-brushed values statements based on family status is hateful. Also, you are empowering people like that senior manager to discriminate against these more expensive employees. Managers with profit and loss responsibilities aren’t blind to the impact of benefits on their bottom lines.
Finally, your paid leave policies aren’t fooling anyone, and hardly make up for the systemic discrimination that women and minorities face in the workplace.
Women aren’t leaving your organization because of your family leave policies, we leave because you’re screwing us over.
Pay people based on the value of the work they perform. Period.
5. learn from the civil service
Getting a job in local government is a highly regimented dance. You have to apply, get screened by HR, then get interviewed by a panel of public works professionals who rank the candidates according to their qualifications. Only after passing all that rigamarole do you interview with your potential boss. The purpose of this approach is to reduce and eliminate political influence in the hiring and promotion of civil servants, but it turns out having a regimented, structured hiring process also reduces discrimination.
A recent article in the New York Times covered this phenomenon, citing study after study on how blind auditions reduced discrimination in hiring. Even when we’re well intentioned and want to hire based on merit and not based on bias, it’s impossible for hiring managers to overcome the decades of social conditioning that train us to see certain groups of people as being inherently more competent. As much as and wherever possible, correct for implicit bias in hiring by better selecting the pool of candidates.
6. model the behavior you want
Want to see men and women paid equally? Pay the men and women in your company equally. Want to see more black people, brown people, latino people, trans people and all kinds of people at every rung of the ladder in your organization? Then find them, hire them, PROMOTE THEM, mentor them, support them. That doesn’t mean lowering standards for minorities, it means making sure you’re not making them jump through extra hoops. Because here’s the harsh reality: people of color, especially women of color, are held to impossibly high standards. Behavior that’s attractive in a white dude gets punished when coming from a woman or person of color.
Even colleges students — young people who we like to stereotype as being open-minded and liberal — judge female and minority professors much more harshly than white, male professors.
Diversity talk is not only cheap, it threatens to create an atmosphere of moral credentialing. People who talk big about diversity and inclusion — like the senior manager I worked with — can feel justified in discriminating more than someone who is more circumspect in their beliefs. Make sure your actions are lining up with your behavior.
I think walking the walk is one area where CityGrows excels, and it’s this commitment to inclusion that drew me to the company. In addition to having a woman as a co-founder, we embrace diversity in all its messy ways, including in politics. We’re doing a great job now as a firm, our challenge will be to maintain a commitment to inclusion and an open culture as we grow. Which brings me to my next point:
7. you’re never done
If your firm has managed to get one or two minorities into high profile leadership positions, don’t assume your work is done. This is doubly true if the only ‘minorities’ that you’ve discovered and promoted from your inclusionary push happen to be white women. White women are disproportionate beneficiaries of affirmative action policies. That senior manager who refused to consider a pregnant job candidate? — she was white and positioned herself throughout her career as a trailblazing woman while handily benefitting from programs to increase organizational diversity.
Thinking about inclusion and a level playing field is an ongoing battle. It’s a battle that is absolutely worth it, both in terms of justice and the performance of your organization, but it is not easy.
The culture of the organization is set from the top, so if your firm/school/industry can’t seem to hire, retain and promote candidates from all walks of life that is your problem. The problem is not the pipeline or the economy or the innate differences between men and women.
It’s you.
So what are you still reading this for? You’ve got work to do.
