By Aimee Hansen
The hardest part of diversity can be the “how.” How do you stay awake to your own unconscious bias? Can you?
With no evidence that it’s possible to eliminate unconscious bias, a rising trend on the crossroads of diversity and tech is to mitigate bias with the help of technology tools.
New apps are helping to eliminate and filter the blindspots in the communications and decision-making that go into recruitment, hiring and promotion.
If You Can’t Stop it, Mitigate It
Diversity training helps individuals to become aware of their own bias, but unconscious bias, by definition, often evades our awareness to blindly drive our decisions. It can’t necessarily be trained away.
As Tony Greenwald, a University of Washington psychology professor who conducted seminal research on unconscious bias said, “Understanding implicit bias does not actually provide you the tools to do something about it.”
While increasing awareness of unconscious bias can enable individuals to be a bit more conscious of their own thought patterns and actions, it can also make bias socially normalized, which can backfire by condoning stereotyping.
We’re all doing it, right? If everybody is guilty, then is anyone?
One place where bias famously runs riot is in Silicon Valley. As Vivian Giang in Fast Company writes, “the percentage of underrepresented minorities is so low, (Silicon Valley) employers shouldn’t trust their own judgment anymore.”
But the dearth of diversity in tech town has recently catalyzed a booming counter-effect in app development.
As Ellen Huet writes in Forbes, unconscious bias has become the newest target in Silicon Valley and “demand for bias-busting solutions, in the form of consulting firms and anti-bias hiring software, has shot through the roof.”
Want Diversity? Watch Your Language
Something as seemingly innocuous as a job listing can bring bias into the hiring process through turning some candidates on and others away.
For example, research has shown that women are more drawn to/less threatened by companies that emphasize growth and development rather than boasting they hire the most awesome talent.
Two examples of companies who get the power and influence of words in the hiring process are Textio and Unitive, both of which have created software that tackle workplace bias in hiring and recruiting in “real time”.
Co-founder and CEO of Textio, Kieran Snyder, is a PhD in linguistics, who also researches gender bias in office dynamics. According to Textio, “the future of writing is knowing how well your words will work before anyone else reads them.”
Textio Talent, which has been used by companies like Twitter, Microsoft, Starbucks and Square, is “like a very smart word processor” that helps to predict how your documents, such as job listings and candidate e-mails, will perform.
As you write, the software highlights phrases, calls out their potential impact, and suggests alternative choices to appeal to a wider range of job seekers.
Textio has found that “proven track record” means more men will apply, “passion for learning” will attract more women, “mentoring” is generally more attractive than “coaching”, and “high performer” is more widely appealing than “rock star.”
There’s even an attraction difference between “manage a team” (more male) versus “develop a team” (more female). The tool also highlights when you’re just talking corporate jargon such as “synergy,” which makes listings less popular.
Snyder told Fast Company, “Everybody hates that language, but underrepresented people hate it more, probably because it’s a cultural signifier of some kind. It sort of communicates, this is an old-boy’s network kind of company.”
Take The Bias Out of Resumes & Interviews
Research that has shown that applicants with names that sound African-American have a 14% lower call-back rate. When it comes to tackling bias in hiring, developers are also focusing in on the resume and interview process.
Unitive has created an app that helps with creating word-optimized job postings, as well as resume reviewing and interview structuring, helping hiring managers monitor their decision-making and mitigate the effect of bias throughout.
The technology requires hiring managers to first “pre-commit” to what they most wish to see from an applicant, and presents resumes stripped of bias-triggering details like name and gender. Through the resume and interview process, the app reminds the manager of the key pre-committed criteria they choose.
In Fortune, Unitive Founder and CEO Laura Mather explains, ”We found a way to operationalize psychological findings so that hiring managers avoid bias as much as possible,” explains Mather.
It’s as much as about efficient hiring, and efficient hiring lends itself to more diversity. According to NPR, when cybersecurity firm RedSeal wanted to expand its employee base to increase women and minority representation, the CEO brought in Unitive to help filter out bias.
As a result, the firm received 30% more job applications, and the percentage of female engineers doubled. The candidate pool both increased and diversified. The technology helped to move away from “culture-fit”, breaking the mold on who fits into the company.
Unitive Founder and CEO Laura Mather told NPR that research shows “getting in different perspectives into your company makes your company more innovative, more profitable, more productive.” Mather said, ”All kinds of really great things happen when you stop making decisions based on how much you like the person’s personality.”
The Blind Audition
Another firm, GapJumpers helps remove bias from the hiring process for tech talent through blind auditions, just as blind auditions cracked the orchestra world open for female musicians. Candidates are given a challenge related to the job, rather than submitting a resume, which gives clues to gender and race. Not only is the process less biased, it allows those hiring to see how a candidate delivers.
Blendoor is just one other example of a new app which connects candidates and recruiters with faceless and nameless profiles, with a Tinder-like interface.
Nicki Gilmour, Founder of theglasshammer and organizational psychologist emphasizes that new technology is a valuable part of the equation in addressing unconscious bias. ”Like any behavioral change project, but especially anything to do with habits, assumptions and stereotypes, many parts of the system need to support the change structurally, to make individual change easier.”
”I also feel executive coaching is important as assumptions can be part of the cultural wallpaper and engrained,” Gilmour commented. “When they are interwoven with individual value sets that might be traditional to start with, making the unconscious conscious is only the beginning of this work.”
If You Talk the Talk, Try the Technology
More and more start-ups are entering the space of developing the technology that filters bias out of hiring efficiency and diversity, and current players have plans to expand beyond hiring to addressing promotions and reviews.
As the “how”’ of diversity becomes increasingly demystified and tangible, companies have a chance to do with unconscious bias what they would do with any inhibiting factor to their business: bring in the tools to address it.
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5 tips to being happier at work
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Good luck!
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Contact nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work
Voice of Experience: Christine Low, Corporate Client Solution Operating Officer, Asia, UBS
Voices of ExperienceTo succeed in today’s financial industry, you need stamina, says UBS’ Christine Low. “When you first start out, you have plenty of energy, but as you progress and strive for longevity, you find that you constantly have to rebuild yourself — your stamina and your mindset — and stay fit in your body and mind so you can handle the pace and the diversity.”
Based on Low’s success, it’s clear that she has what it takes.
Moving Around – and Up
Originally from Singapore, Low attended college in Australia and started her career in Singapore. Along the way she has also spent time in Hong Kong and Beijing, finding new opportunities along the way.
Low first served as an auditor for PwC Singapore in the financial services group, then began her compliance career at Merrill Lynch before relocating to PwC in Hong Kong to further expand her experience in the regulatory compliance space.She then spent nearly 10 years at UBS where she started to see her career transform in the hot and expanding space working in different locations and functions.She started out with compliance in Hong Kong, relocated to Beijing to be the first Investment Banking Chief Operating Office for UBS’ China Domestic JV before returning to Hong Kong to take on a wider role as the Investment Banking Chief Operating Officer for Asia.She joined a Chinese boutique investment bank in 2013 focusing on the new economy sector, but returned to UBS in 2015 where she is now Corporate Client Solution Operating Officer for Asia, enjoying the challenge of overseeing more than 300 bankers in the region and working to build the business.
Her move from a regulatory role to COO was a big shift, but one that she was able to accomplish because of the many years of experience she’s had in the industry. She has found her integration in the Chinese culture to be a rewarding aspect. “Since China is an up-and-coming economy, just opening its doors in the financial services area, it’s a fascinating and exciting place to be, learning to adapt and gain the trust of my international colleagues.”
Since China has historically been an equities market-driven industry, she says that her newest challenge is switching the mindset of bankers to focus on M&A in today’s rough IPO environment. “Every day is a learning experience as they become more open to M&A.”
Encouraging the Next Generation
Over the years, she has seen the industry transform to be more diverse, with both men and women seeking balance in their work and personal life. “The industry has embraced this and there has been a big change to now offer the flexibility we need,” Low says, a stark contrast to her early years when it was much harder to be a woman in what was then a man’s world. “Many of the barriers have tumbled.”
She encourages young people considering a career in banking to make sure they understand the industry before jumping in. “It used to be that you learned about banking by working in it, but now you can get a good sense of what it’s like before you start with all the information that’s out there,” she says.
When recruiting or counseling younger colleagues, she says a lot of them view the industry as glamourous, but she makes sure they realize that it’s also very hard work with frequent long hours.
“Young people should consider what they’re good at and what they like so they can focus on that,” she says. She points to her current position as COO as a good fit for her style, working with people, yet not in a client-facing role.
Throughout her career she has made sure to be approachable and to offer informal consultations, where younger professionals can discuss their career path and opportunities within the firm. “I like to work with both men and women to discuss how personal life and work intersect,” Low says.
Travel Relaxes and Opens the Mind
Low makes it a priority to travel and see something new and unknown every few months. “You have to take your eyes off work and then you return stronger and more rested to continue your journey.”
She finds that visiting other places opens her mind to how fortunate she is to be working in Hong Kong and the industry. “We have a good life even though we work hard, and traveling shows us that there are other parts of the world where people are much less fortunate.”
As an example, she relays her eye-opening experiences in Cuba over the holidays. “It makes me realize that despite the frustrations we sometimes feel, we are actually far more fortunate than many people.”
In addition to traveling, Low unwinds by cooking, something that she can use as a daily escape to relax and use her senses.
What We Can Learn from Powerful Women, Past and Present
Career Advice, Guest ContributionFrom media entrepreneurs to leaders impacting their own communities, we can learn from these women’s successes and apply their knowledge to improve our own careers and lives. Here are some key examples of inspirational leaders and their advice for reaching – and exceeding – your goals:
Develop Your Leadership Skills with a Mentor
As the president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Pam Iorio is a shining example of women leaders who are making a difference in their own communities and beyond. Her gift for leadership shows not only through her work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but also in her past career as Mayor of the City of Tampa and her tenure as leader-in-residence at the John H. Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa. The author of Straightforward: Ways to Live and Lead, Iorio delivers a strong message about the importance of developing leadership skills. Her message: Learn to lead yourself well so you can, in turn, lead others.
Regions Bank commends Iorio’s work to change communities across America through the power of mentoring and recognizes that career-oriented women can grow and learn from this inspiration. One way women can develop their own leadership skills is by cultivating a relationship with a female mentor
Define Your Personal Brand
Wendy Lane Stevens, the founder and president of national public relations firm LANE, advises women to spend time developing a personal brand that reflects your core beliefs. Every day and in nearly every situation – board meetings, conversation with clients, coffee with girlfriends – your personal brand is on display through your actions, words and decisions. It’s never too late to create a personal brand or modify your current one. Stevens suggests these steps:
Brainstorm and write down 30 to 40 words that describe who you are and the traits you like about yourself or want to improve. After thoughtful consideration, narrow the list to about six words.
Compare your descriptions to the words that three of your role models would use to describe themselves. Use this as a gauge to refine your list.
Ask a family member or close friend to review your words. Are they aspirational and achievable? “You want these words to be authentic and transparent, so you want honest feedback,” Stevens says.
Use the words to develop an elevator speech that describes who you are and what you believe – this becomes your personal motto. Keep it near you – like on your computer or on your phone so you’re constantly reminded of your core values or brand.
Every several months, grade yourself on how you’ve integrated your values and brand into your life.
No matter what your profession, you can glean valuable insights from smart, successful women all around you, including all of the powerful females Regions Bank is recognizing this March. If you’re interested more career insights and guidance for women in the workforce, Regions has shared with us some additional resources:
For Entry-Level Women – Learn How To Budget After Landing Your First Job. When you’re starting your first job, it can be difficult to learn how to budget your money. Regions shares four tips to help you separate your wants from your needs and set yourself up for financial success.
For Female Business Owners – Learn About, and Leverage, the Resources Available to Women and Minorities in Business. The government helps foster growth for women and minority business owners in part by offering tax breaks to companies that work with these businesses. Make sure you thoroughly understand these programs, and take the steps necessary to qualify for them.
For Moms in the Workforce – Balancing Career and Home. When it comes to work/life balance, find the right fit for you rather than an equal balance.
This article was sponsored by Regions Private Wealth Management.
Mover and Shaker: Karyn Cavanaugh, CFA, Senior Market Strategist, Voya Investment Management
Movers and ShakersCavanaugh admits her career path was not as linear as most. She says she spent her 20’s “making money and having fun,” as a consultant. She then had three children in three years, so her priority was juggling that with work. At the age of 40, when her youngest started school, she realized it was time to focus on her next move down the career path she wanted. She took a position in internal business development, using her finance background, and then the recession hit.
“My whole group was kicked out, and that’s when I figured out the importance of networking,” she says. Although she had actively participated in groups for fellow University of Connecticut alumni and Chartered Financial Analysts®, she admits that “it was a brutal time.”
At the same time, Cavanaugh saw a chance to reinvent herself. “I realized I’m a finance person, and my other career paths hadn’t been as fulfilling because, deep down, I’m an investment person who loves looking at the market and following economics.”
By happenstance, she ran into a colleague who had hired her right out of college, who was working for ING (now Voya). He remembered she had been both smart and a good worker, and took a chance on her.
Together, they created and evolved the Global Perspectives program, parlaying $40,000 they had been given in seed money into $750,000,000 over four years. Cavanaugh routinely appears on CNBC, Fox Business News, Market Watch, NPR and other shows as a spokesperson for Voya. For Cavanaugh, it’s a dream position. “I get to manage a portfolio and share my views on the market,” she says. “Things do work out if you work hard.”
Right now, she is most excited about continuing to grow the assets under management and build wealth for the investors. The current volatile market has made her portfolio shine, she says, because it focuses on mitigating risk. “In this type of market, people realize they need professional advice and management,” she says.
The Myth of Corporate Drama
Corporate America hardly lived up to Cavanaugh’s worst fears, where she pictured a back-stabbing TV drama. “The reality is most people just want to do great work, do their job successfully and go home. They do want to help each other.” That’s been a welcome realization that has been confirmed with the wonderful managers she’s had at Voya.
She appreciates the mentorship she receives more than most because much of her early career was spent as an hourly consultant. “My work was well respected and appreciated, but it was different than working for a corporation,” she says. “I didn’t have a clear career path or someone who was watching out to promote me.”
She says that her role models are “all the women who came before me on Wall Street.” When her son was recently accepted at the University of South Carolina, she suggested he research Darla Moore, after whom the business school is named. One of the original female Wall Street pioneers in the 1980s, Moore left South Carolina in her grandma’s car and took the whole industry by storm.
“Women like that blazed the trail and made Wall Street accessible to all women,” Cavanaugh says.
Anything Can Happen
The biggest career lesson that Cavanaugh learned came when she was laid off. “Even if you do everything right, even if you are a good employee, it can happen to you,” she says.
She feels fortunate that she had paved the way for her future success and credits earning her CFA designation as one of her wisest moves. Although she describes the program as “three years of hell,” — only about 20 percent of those who start ever finish – the designation adds an unprecedented layer of credibility as the gold standard in portfolio management. “I’m happy that I had the sense to do it as it has paid off over the years,” she says.
The CFA society provides a key networking niche for her, and she has been active as a president and board member. “It’s easy to get into your own silo and the CFA society provides excellent networking and educational opportunities.” She says she wishes more women would earn the designation since it’s a vital stepping stone to establishing credibility in the investment world.
Becoming Part of the Charleston Community
Since relocating to Charleston, Cavanaugh has mentored local women starting an investment club, helping them learn how to research companies, decipher P/E ratios and sharing her investment knowledge.
Cavanaugh seeks out anything related to the water – crabbing, fishing, boating and beaching. Her three teens keep her busy, and the whole family loves to travel. Most recently they went snorkeling in St. Thomas, and she has taken her daughters to Paris.
She loves living in Charleston and has a goal of trying a different restaurant every time she goes out. “l have become an aficionado of the best shrimp and grits,” she says.
5 Myths about Working in Financial Services
Life HacksRead more
Know your values and know their values when interviewing for a new job
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!However, how work gets done in your team or firm often is to do with values (the leader or manager’s values mostly). When interviewing for a new job it is sometimes hard to ascertain what the team or company culture is. Ask these three questions to get closer to the answers that otherwise remain hidden to the naked eye:
If you can get honest answers to these questions, you will get a handle on the culture and of course you need to know your values also!
By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist
Contact nicki@theglasshammer.com if you would like to hire an executive coach to help you navigate the path to optimal personal success at work
Voice of Experience: Martha Ruiz, Partner, PwC
Voices of ExperiencePwC has been the perfect environment for her to grow her successful career, joining the firm’s general tax practice directly out of college. She soon migrated to the entertainment and media group in Los Angeles, where she provides tax compliance and advisory services to a variety of entertainment clients throughout Southern California.
It’s a vibrant field, given the new ways that consumers are consuming content that change long-held industry paradigms. Broadcasting has evolved to become tailored to a more fragmented audience, a shift that will continue as video on demand and streaming technologies continue to grow. “The industry will continue to mold its business around these changes and it’s to the benefit of the consumer,” she says.
An Oscar-Worthy Performance
This specialization in the entertainment field is what provided her the honor of becoming the Oscars® balloting co-leader in 2015, overseeing the team and balloting process that takes place during nominations and the finals. As such, Ruiz was only one of two partners who knew that Spotlight would be named Best Picture.
“It’s a unique spot to realize that you know the final winner before the rest of the world,” she marvels.
But even the golden glow of the Oscars® pales when she is asked to name her biggest professional achievement, which for her was becoming partner in 2011. “I joined the firm for all the opportunities it availed me and took advantage of all the doors that had been opened to me,” she says, mentioning mentors and coaches who have helped her funnel career decisions. “When I started, it wasn’t with the objective to be a partner but only to get experience; however, as I progressed within the firm and saw what an achievement it was for those around me, I began to have the desire to become partner. Now I can help coach others within the pipeline.”
Mentoring Others
The pipeline is an important aspect to Ruiz, who balances busy client engagement with a leadership role on recruiting efforts. “Talent is our future, so we are invested in making sure we have the right skill sets and the best and brightest coming through our door.”
She’s also active in the “Aspire to Lead” program, where students from various campuses experience the firm and join in panel discussions via a webcast that links all the PwC offices. This year the event focused on gender equality and featured Geena Davis and Dawn Hudson.
As she works with younger talent, she reminds them that it’s especially important for women to learn to build their confidence and tools to use their voice. “We have to train ourselves to say the things that are on our mind even when it feels hard,” she says, adding that’s one of the benefits of diversity – different views.
Mentors can play a valuable role by providing a different experience or perspective when tackling an issue or challenge.
“Reach out and talk through a situation with someone with whom you feel comfortable,” Ruiz advises. “You don’t have to go it alone because they have been there.”
And, it certainly doesn’t have to be formal relationship. “Throughout my career, I’ve had a variety of people I can bounce ideas off of and seek perspective, which gives me a better sense of how to tackle something.”
Now she can share that vantage point when talking to younger associates, helping them see the bigger picture. And she urges her peers to take the time to do the same, as they will reap the benefits when they take time to foster others’ career success.
“You might be working with someone indirectly, and as time flies and you see them flourish and become your peer, the value and enrichment you get from having watered that plant is so important.”
Family First
Ruiz is a big proponent of the family leave that PwC offers, having utilized it twice when her kids, now 11 and 7, were born. “Many of my contacts at other companies were envious of the flexibility I had to decide when I was coming back, and then when I did return, I felt really supported by partners with the transition. There has been an enduring sense of gratitude that the firm is doing the right thing.”
She says that the firm’s culture embraces flexibility and the ability to do work anywhere. “PwC takes the broader view that every individual may be going through different stages, and therefore, flexibility can look different for each person.”
For her that means dedicated vacation time, including a recent family trip to Hawaii that included her parents and siblings. “It was a calm, relaxed setting that allowed us all to catch up and for the kids to spend quality time with their grandparents.”
Intrepid Women: Lindsey Pluimer, Founder and CEO With My Own Two Hands
Intrepid Women SeriesWhile Lindsey Pluimer was playing basketball and studying communications at UCLA she wrote a paper on the lack of media presence during the genocide in Darfur and committed to one-day traveling to Africa. Little did she know that commitment would change the course of her life. That trip happened when after playing two years of professional basketball Lindsey joined a nonprofit volunteer trip to South Africa. It was on that trip that she decided she would retire from playing basketball in the WMBA and instead start a nonprofit committed to helping kids in need thrive as she instantly fell in love with the kids and saw firsthand how a little went a long way for the children.
Pluimer founded the organization “With My Own Two Hands” and they provide sustainable solutions to projects in Africa that help benefit orphaned and disadvantaged children and youth in need. She states,
“Our dream is to provide all children with an education in Africa, but we understand that in order to provide an education you must also provide water, food and shelter. Therefore, we are committed to providing aid within the areas of education, shelter, water, and agriculture.”
They have recently tackled the issue of forced marriages and female circumcision with the goal to provide young girls a safe refuge by building a rescue dormitory for the HELGA Rescue Project in Kajiado, Kenya. Two weeks after the grand opening we received word that the dormitory was already at full capacity (42 girls). Those 42 rescued girls are now safe from being forced into marriage and are provided access to education. We also just built a greenhouse with the St. Ann’s Orphanage in Kikopey, Kenya with collaboration from JCREW and EDUN fashion companies.
Pluimer comments that her motivation comes from her own upbringing, “I was fortunate enough to grow up with a loving family, safe community, and received an amazing education. I realized how fortunate I am and that it is my responsibility to be a part of a cause committed to giving children better access to education, health, water, and food.”
What are the biggest challenges? She states that being an international organization and getting people to connect to a cause outside of their local community can be tough. She says,
“We do not have the luxury of easily showing people our project sites unless they join us on our volunteer trips. We have to work very hard to show people directly how their donations go a long way for children in need.”
Advice for those interested in this path?
Pluimer encourages women interested in the nonprofit sector to remember how important their work is. She observes, “People who are called to this work have to have a big heart and a lot of drive, but when you know your career is changing lives, work becomes more meaningful and important. I would suggest finding a mentor. I have a couple great mentors that have been very helpful in guiding my efforts to grow my organization. Also remember to network! Relationships are everything!”
Celebrating the sisterhood: the power of female networks
International Womens Day, NewsBy Nneka Orji
Female friendships have always received perhaps more than their fair share of scrutiny; from frenemies to friends for ever, the spectrum of female friendships has been explored over the years. In their recent TED interview, actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin reflect on the “renewable source of power” which female friendships bring. Yet if it’s not the Queen Bee syndrome, society still leans towards finding some form of controversy in female relationships. Is this scrutiny justified?
As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day (#IWD2016 #PledgeForParity), it’s time to adjust the spotlight on female relationships to showcase the positive effects female-female relationships have had and continue to have on the journey to greater parity. The Canadian feminist and author, Nellie McClung said: “[w]omen are going to form a chain, a greater sisterhood than the world has ever known.” This chain – aka the sisterhood – manifests itself today in the form of female mentors, women’s networks and friendships. They serve not only to push the diversity agenda forward, but also to support women in overcoming those barriers that still exist and to promote women to ensure our societies reach their full potential.
Not just another talking shop
Although some dismiss women’s networks and events such as IWD as talking shops with no clear purpose and potentially detrimental to the inclusion of men in the debate, studies show the opposite. Turknett Leadership Group, a talent management organisation, published a study in 2012 which linked participation in women’s networks with “high levels of career-related social support, a greater sense of well-being and more positive attitudes toward the organisation or company for whom the woman works.”
Initiatives such as Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In Circles serve to highlight the value some place on networking with other women – professionals and others. With over 26,000 Circles in 140 countries, women are engaging with each other in supportive networks across the globe. According to Sandberg’s Lean In website, 85% of Lean In Circle members “credit their Circle with a positive change in their life”.
As a result of the increased focus on diversity within organisations, leaders have invested more in gender-focused initiatives in the past few years. The added scrutiny organisations face as a result of reports such as the Lord Davies’ review in the UK, have led them to prioritise the gender inequalities – both real and perceived. Yet in their 2013 paper in which they shared the results of interviews within one global organisation, academics O’Neil, Hopkins and Sullivan found that there was a difference in the perception of the value of women’s networks in contributing to the organisation’s strategic goals. While the female network members felt that there was strong alignment between the network and the organisation’s wider goals, leaders in the executive teams “did not recognise the network’s possible effects on the firm’s bottom line”.
Out with the networks?
This idea on return on investment from diversity programmes and initiatives has been at the heart of the narrative – particularly across large corporates. However, according to a recent article in The Economist, organisations are starting to suffer from “diversity fatigue”. Diversity is becoming an over-used term and a tick-box exercise, leading to reduced levels of genuine engagement and more damningly, less significant impact on the sustainable change needed for a more inclusive culture. So should we tone down the emphasis on what remains a critical issue globally?
It is perhaps easy to fall into this cynical mindset; with the volume of articles such as this one and the number of women’s events (consider the number of IWD events you will come across), switching off may be the natural consequence of the increased focus on gender issues. However, it would be a missed opportunity to approach this important issue in such a passive manner.
Networks and networking are still important factors in career advancement, which in the long term should lead to the currently elusive goal of parity. Research has consistently shown that women network differently to men. Last year, Lily Fang of INSEAD published the results of her study which looked at the relationship between connections and career advancement across male and female colleagues. Despite being equally well connected, in terms of relationships with senior leaders and members of the executive team, female analysts were less likely to reap the rewards in terms of advancement than their male peers. However, the results did show that those women with a connection to a female executive outperformed those women with no female connection, albeit only marginally.
And it’s not just theoretical studies; examples abound of women who have been inspired, mentored and sponsored by more experienced female leaders. Oprah once told Barbara Walters during an interview: “Had there not been you, there never would have been me.”
Here’s to the sisterhood
Of course there will be situations where female colleagues don’t get along, in the same way that some male colleagues don’t gel. But why is there so much more coverage on the negative experiences of female colleagues and groups? Kelly Vallen’s experiences, which she shared in her book “The Twisted Sisterhood”, does resonate with a number of women. Yes there are “mean girls”, but there are “mean boys” too. The undue scrutiny on the former is misleading and detrimental to the general narrative around women in the workplace.
There are numerous studies which show that women do proactively support other women. A Catalyst report showed that far from pulling up the ladder behind them, 73% of women who are developing the next generation of talent, are focused on developing women.
In this enthusiasm to embrace the sisterhood, we must not forget the men. Some of the most committed sponsors of female leaders today have been or are currently being mentored and sponsored by men. Sheryl Sandberg and Larry Summers, Angela Merkel and Helmut Kohl. The role of men in achieving parity in the workplace and beyond is critical to success.
So this IWD, let us (men and women) celebrate the sisterhood – to keeping that chain unbroken and using it to pull up the next generation of women.
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Beating Bias: How Technology Is Changing the Recruiting Game
Career Advice, Women in TechnologyBy Aimee Hansen
The hardest part of diversity can be the “how.” How do you stay awake to your own unconscious bias? Can you?
With no evidence that it’s possible to eliminate unconscious bias, a rising trend on the crossroads of diversity and tech is to mitigate bias with the help of technology tools.
New apps are helping to eliminate and filter the blindspots in the communications and decision-making that go into recruitment, hiring and promotion.
If You Can’t Stop it, Mitigate It
Diversity training helps individuals to become aware of their own bias, but unconscious bias, by definition, often evades our awareness to blindly drive our decisions. It can’t necessarily be trained away.
As Tony Greenwald, a University of Washington psychology professor who conducted seminal research on unconscious bias said, “Understanding implicit bias does not actually provide you the tools to do something about it.”
While increasing awareness of unconscious bias can enable individuals to be a bit more conscious of their own thought patterns and actions, it can also make bias socially normalized, which can backfire by condoning stereotyping.
We’re all doing it, right? If everybody is guilty, then is anyone?
One place where bias famously runs riot is in Silicon Valley. As Vivian Giang in Fast Company writes, “the percentage of underrepresented minorities is so low, (Silicon Valley) employers shouldn’t trust their own judgment anymore.”
But the dearth of diversity in tech town has recently catalyzed a booming counter-effect in app development.
As Ellen Huet writes in Forbes, unconscious bias has become the newest target in Silicon Valley and “demand for bias-busting solutions, in the form of consulting firms and anti-bias hiring software, has shot through the roof.”
Want Diversity? Watch Your Language
Something as seemingly innocuous as a job listing can bring bias into the hiring process through turning some candidates on and others away.
For example, research has shown that women are more drawn to/less threatened by companies that emphasize growth and development rather than boasting they hire the most awesome talent.
Two examples of companies who get the power and influence of words in the hiring process are Textio and Unitive, both of which have created software that tackle workplace bias in hiring and recruiting in “real time”.
Co-founder and CEO of Textio, Kieran Snyder, is a PhD in linguistics, who also researches gender bias in office dynamics. According to Textio, “the future of writing is knowing how well your words will work before anyone else reads them.”
Textio Talent, which has been used by companies like Twitter, Microsoft, Starbucks and Square, is “like a very smart word processor” that helps to predict how your documents, such as job listings and candidate e-mails, will perform.
As you write, the software highlights phrases, calls out their potential impact, and suggests alternative choices to appeal to a wider range of job seekers.
Textio has found that “proven track record” means more men will apply, “passion for learning” will attract more women, “mentoring” is generally more attractive than “coaching”, and “high performer” is more widely appealing than “rock star.”
There’s even an attraction difference between “manage a team” (more male) versus “develop a team” (more female). The tool also highlights when you’re just talking corporate jargon such as “synergy,” which makes listings less popular.
Snyder told Fast Company, “Everybody hates that language, but underrepresented people hate it more, probably because it’s a cultural signifier of some kind. It sort of communicates, this is an old-boy’s network kind of company.”
Take The Bias Out of Resumes & Interviews
Research that has shown that applicants with names that sound African-American have a 14% lower call-back rate. When it comes to tackling bias in hiring, developers are also focusing in on the resume and interview process.
Unitive has created an app that helps with creating word-optimized job postings, as well as resume reviewing and interview structuring, helping hiring managers monitor their decision-making and mitigate the effect of bias throughout.
The technology requires hiring managers to first “pre-commit” to what they most wish to see from an applicant, and presents resumes stripped of bias-triggering details like name and gender. Through the resume and interview process, the app reminds the manager of the key pre-committed criteria they choose.
In Fortune, Unitive Founder and CEO Laura Mather explains, ”We found a way to operationalize psychological findings so that hiring managers avoid bias as much as possible,” explains Mather.
It’s as much as about efficient hiring, and efficient hiring lends itself to more diversity. According to NPR, when cybersecurity firm RedSeal wanted to expand its employee base to increase women and minority representation, the CEO brought in Unitive to help filter out bias.
As a result, the firm received 30% more job applications, and the percentage of female engineers doubled. The candidate pool both increased and diversified. The technology helped to move away from “culture-fit”, breaking the mold on who fits into the company.
Unitive Founder and CEO Laura Mather told NPR that research shows “getting in different perspectives into your company makes your company more innovative, more profitable, more productive.” Mather said, ”All kinds of really great things happen when you stop making decisions based on how much you like the person’s personality.”
The Blind Audition
Another firm, GapJumpers helps remove bias from the hiring process for tech talent through blind auditions, just as blind auditions cracked the orchestra world open for female musicians. Candidates are given a challenge related to the job, rather than submitting a resume, which gives clues to gender and race. Not only is the process less biased, it allows those hiring to see how a candidate delivers.
Blendoor is just one other example of a new app which connects candidates and recruiters with faceless and nameless profiles, with a Tinder-like interface.
Nicki Gilmour, Founder of theglasshammer and organizational psychologist emphasizes that new technology is a valuable part of the equation in addressing unconscious bias. ”Like any behavioral change project, but especially anything to do with habits, assumptions and stereotypes, many parts of the system need to support the change structurally, to make individual change easier.”
”I also feel executive coaching is important as assumptions can be part of the cultural wallpaper and engrained,” Gilmour commented. “When they are interwoven with individual value sets that might be traditional to start with, making the unconscious conscious is only the beginning of this work.”
If You Talk the Talk, Try the Technology
More and more start-ups are entering the space of developing the technology that filters bias out of hiring efficiency and diversity, and current players have plans to expand beyond hiring to addressing promotions and reviews.
As the “how”’ of diversity becomes increasingly demystified and tangible, companies have a chance to do with unconscious bias what they would do with any inhibiting factor to their business: bring in the tools to address it.
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