2020 is the year for CEO action
Set targets, plan a budget, and do the basics
The past several years have been full of important learnings: Studies show how intersectionality applies to tech, makes the playing field uneven, and enables bias in hiring, funding, and compensation — including stock compensation. We all agree workplace harassment is wrong and cuts across gender and sexual orientation, and pledged to do better in recruiting, promoting, paying, and funding.
And we have a roadmap and tools. CEOs can move past tech backlash and public skepticism by affirming their commitment to a positive company culture and employee welfare through clear, simple actions that build trust with employees.
We are asking every tech startup CEO to take three actions in 2020.
- Set targets for diversity. We know you measure what you want to manage, and to understand what’s working and how to get to parity, CEOs should be using the metrics and targets used for every other business imperative. We laid out benchmarks and a framework last year to make it even easier.
- Fund diversity and inclusion. You know your external recruiting costs, but are you planning ahead to invest in internal belonging efforts? You know you need to find and fix recruiting biases, measure pay and equity compensation across race and gender, create or update your code of conduct, pay for ERG activities, and more. But are you funding it in advance? For a small startup, any one of these initiatives and software tools that enable them could cost just a few thousand dollars today, and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased financial returns, more productive and engaged employees, better recruiting and retention, and prevented lawsuits. Are funds dedicated to D&I for the year or does the team still have to ask for approval on a case-by-case basis? Are budget items tied to specific goals and outcomes?
- Do the basics. End forced arbitration and forced non-disclosure agreements for harassment and discrimination. Set yourself up for long-term success. These terms actually harm your startup by hiding problems so you can’t find or solve them until it’s too late. Removing them from your hiring agreements and HR policies would improve your trust and culture, costing nothing today and potentially saving you and your company from huge problems and costs in the future.
Our ask in return for this advice is information. We haven’t found a fixed company budget for diversity and inclusion; most startups seem to provide ad hoc approvals for one-off projects other than recruiting, and we’d love to provide more specific guidelines. We think it should be a percentage of salaries, like learning and development, and are interested in seeing what others have tried or are considering. If you have a budget or budget formula for D&I, please fill out this confidential form or leave a comment to let me know how we can coordinate.
