3 step guide to support Inclusion in your workplace
The idea of inclusivity is not a trend that you can hop on and hop off whenever you want to. The eco-system has been battling this at every level.
Gender, Race, economical strata, are three of the primary pools where the disparity comes to light in a major way. Year after year, attempts have been made to bridge this gap, but the mobilization lacked the fuel to drive it to fruition. The changemakers are generally from the said pool and have to bend over backward to make the difference as they time and again get blocked by the gatekeepers of privilege and years of stigmatized society.
To quote Monique Woodard, a prominent VC of the community, “Black founders are often over-mentored and under-invested,”. “If you can write a check, but you will only offer mentorship to black founders, that is only helpful to your ego.”
Unfortunately, the numbers also paint a very similar picture, with only only one percent of venture capital-backed tech companies founded by black and African American entrepreneurs.
While this disparity has been deeply rooted in the ecosystem for a while now, the current chain of events has enabled a mobilization which shows promise. A promise of a shift not only within the community but support from the outside.
Let’s break down the stages of the inclusivity shift
Identify
Stakeholders within and beyond the ecosystem must identify the pockets of the ecosystem catering to the entrepreneurs and founders dealing with racial disparities, to the pockets where there is no visibility whatsoever. This starts from delving into your organization. Not just at the top level, but from the employees within the firm.
- Look at the ratio of your workforce
- Assess the ratio of your board/ founding members
- Assess the ratio of the firm investing in your organization
Case in Point
Taking an exclusive look at the problem statement allows you to identify the pain points within it and then address them head-on. The past months have been a true testament of accountability and credibility with Bon Appétit Editor in chief Adam Rapoport, NYT Opinion Editor James Bennet, founder of the fashion site Man Repeller Leandra Medine, and Refinery29 Editor in Chief and co-founder Christene Barberich, leaving or being removed from their position, following controversial tweets, brand operations and overlooking and undervaluing employee of color in their respective companies.
Educate
Addressing the disparity doesn’t stop at identification but direct links to assessing the root cause of its existence. If you are an employee, forum discussions and knowledge transfer sessions addressing the lack of diversity within the workplace are your best way to approach the issue.
However, If you are a founder sitting at the helm of your organization, read, learn, and deliberate upon the reason behind the staggering numbers within the organization. Move over the representation phase, let the learning process be a way to incorporate the needs of the organization with the attempt to enable a community. Right from assigning teams, roles, and responsibilities, to involving CSR work, map out the different routes in which your company can imbibe the shift in its metaphorical bones.
Case in Point
Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder and former CEO of Reddit stepped down from his position on the Reddit board of directors urging the company to hire a black candidate in his place. The former Reddit CEO has also promised to donate his future gains on the company stock to serve the black community.
Implement
The implementation is the key factor that determines the actual shift in the organization when it comes to tackling racial disparities within it. The iteration tools entail
Hiring of Personnel
Google’s workforce is 3 percent Latino and 2 percent, Black. Intel is doing slightly better: 8.05 percent of the workforce is Latino, while 3.67 percent is Black. The reason being, “Companies often treat recruiting diverse people as compliance or risk mitigation, rather than a business opportunity,” says Art Hopkins, a consultant at executive search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
The most effective and obvious way to disengage from the disparity is engaging with the communities facing the same. The inclusion of diversity in the workforce, not only opens up the organization to untapped avenues but also acts as a catalyst for the workforce to come together as a community. The process is an amalgamation of hiring and promoting the people of color, which in turn effectively moves your organization one step closer towards bridging the gap of inclusion.
Mentorship Programs
Visibility is one of the key areas that ethnic founders and entrepreneurs struggle with. Establishing formal mechanisms that connect prominent entrepreneurs of color with emerging entrepreneurs of color and engage them as mentors. is a powerful lever and has been shown to boost the likelihood that someone will become an entrepreneur themselves, according to research from the Kauffman Foundation.
Connecting them to a community indirectly allows them to understand the tools of the trade and incorporate it into their being. This is one of the most effective ways to allow these groups to enter the ecosystem without feeling overlooked and marginalized.
Trust Funds
If you cannot find the means, find the fund. Outreach programs, in the form of trust funds, are one of the most effective ways to outsource the support beyond your in house capabilities. Find the petitions, campaigns and, make your donation towards the cause on behalf of you and your organization to be a part of the bigger revolution. This is where bigger conglomerates and the big fours come into the picture, with their monetary resources being allocated exclusively for the community.
Case in Point
- SoftBank has launched a $100m (£80m) fund that will invest in companies led by “people of color”.
- Bank of America said it would donate $1bn over the next four years to community programs and small businesses to help address economic and racial inequality.
- Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has become the latest chief executive of a major US technology company to give financial support to an anti-racism organization, making a $3m donation to former NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp to “advance the liberation and well-being” of minority communities.
- Facebook is donating $10 million to groups fighting racial inequality in the wake of mass protests sweeping across the United States.
Exclusion from jobs, resources, and money is a tool of colonization. It has been used to divide classes of people from all races and turn them against each other to keep power among the select few.
Exclude them from career paths.
Pay them less based on gender or ethnicity.
Offer them the most dangerous or undesirable jobs.
These methods of oppression are the direct result of the exclusion.
That’s why inclusion is a lot more than a buzzword. It’s the key to unwinding the consequences of colonialism that we — collectively — still struggle with.
