Because you care and because it’s fair

“I care because you care.” That’s what I heard myself saying recently at a meeting of our top 200 Merkle employees. I was referencing the issue of gender diversity in the top ranks of our company — a company that I purchased 28 years ago have poured my heart and soul into ever since. I was explaining why in the past several months I had awoken to the fact that I needed to be actively involved to ensure that the “way to the top” is fair — for everyone.

I care because my employees care — but I also care because I believe in “fair.” I believe that every person who works for our company should have a fair chance of fulfilling their dreams — whatever they might be — limited only by their own abilities and performance. And if that means making it to the upper ranks, then I want my employees to have a fair shot at that, whether they’re male or female; black, white, or brown; heterosexual or homosexual, and the list goes on. I want the best talent to run our company. Period. I don’t care what package that talent comes in.

I have always felt this way, so I always just assumed things were fair for all people. Right? Well, no, I learned that I was wrong this past fall, as a group I had commissioned to research the lack of females at the top of our company reported back to me. What they told me — and they backed it up with data, as I am a data guy after all — was something I realize I should have understood long ago. Our company, specifically the current leaders of our company, have a fair amount of unconscious bias imbedded in their thinking, which apparently makes the “trip to the top” even harder for women than it does for men.

I guess I should have seen this coming, but it was a shocker to me. I knew we were tough, but I thought we were equally tough across the board. Now I understand we were not necessarily being fair to everyone. So, what do you do when you realize you’re wrong? You listen. You look at the facts. You create a plan to “get to right” and then set about the hard work of changing. You have to change your thinking — and change your behavior.

So that’s what I’m doing now. I’m listening, looking at the facts — and setting a plan for change.

• Listening is not always easy but I’m making myself do it. I’m in an ongoing conversation with the people of our company (particularly the women), to better understand the biases we have that lead to differences in how we hire, how we develop and mentor, how we evaluate and promote, how we pay, and how we lead.
• Looking at the facts is critical to this process. We love data at Merkle — so data it is! I have established a set of data that allow me to see where we have gaps in how we treat men vs. women — from pre-hire screening all the way through hiring, developing, paying, promoting, and ultimately getting women into our top ranks. While I cannot bring myself to set quotas (as I believe they would actually work against us), I have committed to creating a fair system that allows both men and women to prosper, and I believe the numbers will get steadily better.
• Setting a plan for change — I believe that the issue of women at the top is going to require changes in women, changes in men, and changes in the company overall. I’m establishing a diversity council (at the recommendation of the group that opened my eyes to this unconscious bias in the first place), that will work closely with the leaders of our company, to ensure we move forward on the numbers at the same time as we change the behavior of our women, our men, and our company overall.

I know none of this will be easy…. But then, no one ever said building a great company would be. It’s been hard to admit we have a problem and it’s been hard to face the facts. So I’d be kidding myself if I thought it would be an easy problem to fix. I believe it’s going to take a lot of commitment, focus, patience all around … and some time. I believe that this is likely a three to five year journey. But I am committed because I care deeply about the people in our company. I want us to be a great company, and we can’t do that without a culture that supports fairness and diversity.