Tag Archive for: acts not ads

performative DEI Too many leaders and organizations aren’t making it over the basic hurdles of credibility when it comes to employee well-being policies and DEI policies: that people believe what you say is truthful and that you’re committed to act in the ways you say.

Indeed, the Women in The Workplace 2021 report found that while 70% of companies say DEI is critical, only 25% of them are formally recognizing the work. Only 2/3 are holding senior leaders accountable, less than 1/3 hold managers accountable and even when it’s claimed leaders are held accountable, diversity goals make it into performance reviews less than half of the time.

Other research has shown that leaders are nearly twice as likely as their employees to perceive they are creating empowering and inclusive environments. And a Korn Ferry study of 24,000 leadership assessments revealed that only 5% of leaders globally would qualify as inclusive leaders. And while U.S. organizations pledged to spend up to $60 billion on racial equity initiatives, one year later only $250 million had been committed to specific initiatives.

In short: DEI words are not aligning to perceptions and in many cases, actions.

Are Organizations Being Performative or Genuine?

In a study of 7,000 people across 14 countries, Catalyst found that employees are more likely to perceive the Covid-19 and racial equity polices of their organizations in the last couple years to be merely performative.

More than 2/3 of employees feel their organization’s pandemic-related policies for care and safety were not genuine and 3/4 of employees feel their organization’s racial equity policies are not genuine. Employees from marginalized racial and ethnic groups were even less likely to view the latter as genuine (23%) than white employees (29%).

Here’s some ways organizations come across as non-genuine: talk without action, virtue signaling in social media or staff e-mails without visible follow-through, announcing plans such as training that don’t get implemented, over-claiming advances from minor policy updates, pledging funds that don’t get invested, putting new DEI positions in place without empowering these individuals with decision-making and resource, making big one-off claims while ignoring daily incidents of bias and exclusion, allowing remote work without being flexible for caretaking needs, and talking about burnout without doing anything to counter unmanageable workloads or 24/7 “on” culture.

Are companies failing to communicate or failing to convert talk into real steps of change? Based on Catalyst’s analysis, most organizational behavior around DEI is perceived as insincere – which can ultimately lead to people questioning the moral character, ethics and overall values of the organization; erode trust in leaders and the organization; and decrease team performance and productivity. Candidates also prefer to work for organizations that are perceived as having high moral character.

Is Pushing the Business Case Rationale Helping?

Meanwhile, in Harvard Business Review, Oriane Georgac and Aneeta Rattan reveal that how the majority (80%) of Fortune 500 companies explain their interest in diversity – through the business case of benefitting the bottom line – actually puts off candidates, and creates a 6% drop in feeling the commitment to diversity is genuine.

The researchers found about 80% of companies use the business case, 5% use the fariness/moral case, and 15% do not explain why they value diversity or do not list it as a value.

The business case is most off-putting to job candidates. Underrepresented participants exposed to a job posting that provided a business case explanation for valuing diversity anticipated to experience less sense of belonging (11% vs fairness explanation; 27% vs neutral message), were more concerned about being stereotyped (16% vs fairness; 27% vs neutral) and were more concerned they would be seen as interchangeable with members of their identity group (10% vs fairness; 21% vs neutral).

The researchers argue the business case backfires because it subtly positions ‘diverse’ employees as a means to an end, rather than valued in themselves as individuals. In that equation, the “benefits” that diversity provides – different skills, perspectives, experiences, working styles – could make candidates feel they will be depersonalized and stereotyped, as opposed to seen for who they are.

The researchers found the fairness case (which sees diversity as its own end) made people feel more positive about organizations than the business case, halving the negative impact. But the best approach was to express diversity was a value without explaining the why: “If you don’t need an explanation for the presence of well-represented groups in the workplace beyond their expertise, then you don’t need a justification for the presence of underrepresented groups either.”

The researchers argue that when something is truly a core value (such as innovation or integrity), you don’t try to convince others why. Why an organization should value integrity, for example, is not up for discussion. So why does diversity require a justification, or convincing?

Empathetic Leadership And Genuine Action

Going back to the Catalyst work, truly genuine policies “are aligned with the stated values of the organization, motivated by care and concern for employees, and thoughtfully implemented.”

Organizations show they are genuine by: taking a stand both externally and internally, admitting bias and being transparent (including data) about the organization’s current diversity and inclusion, providing safe spaces for employees to report feeling psychologically unsafe, taking actual steps to remove bias, empowering employees to create resource groups, taking visible steps to diversify senior leadership, being consistent in communication and actions around DEI, treating everyone with respect, celebrating cultural heritage and bringing DEI experts on board.

The employees who actually do perceive their organization’s policies as genuine (whether Covid-related or racial equity) experience many benefits: more inclusion, engagement, feelings of respect and value for their life circumstances, ability to balance life-work demands, and intention to stay with their jobs.

Further, perceiving empathy in senior leaders is a key determinant to whether policies are perceived positively and sincerely. An empathetic leader “demonstrates care, concern and understanding for employees’ life circumstances.”

When a leader authentically “gets it” from an intrinsic standpoint, they are more likely to commit: previous research by Harvard Business Review Analytics found that among companies who are “DEI Laggard,” 50% of people feel a lack of leadership commitment hinders their DEI efforts. Whereas “DEI Leader” organizations are more than twice as likely as Laggards (77% vs. 34%) to have visible executive support.

Catalyst found employees who perceive both empathetic leaders and genuine Covid policies have less burnout than others (about 30% less). Among employees of color, the combination of genuine policies and empathetic leaders increases inclusion – and there is a general halo effect on women feeling more respected, valued and engaged, too.

The Call To Interconnected Leadership

Research has shown that “the ability of a leader to be empathetic and compassionate has the greatest impact on organizational profitability and productivity.” The research from HBR Analytics indicates that DEI Leaders have two clear things in common: “a commitment from leadership and a commitment to data.” Indeed, the most important factors in creating a culture of inclusion are leadership commitment and demonstrating a visible awareness of the bias within oneself and the organization.

Empathy is a distinct component of emotional intelligence, which becomes increasingly important with seniority in leadership: at executive level, emotional intelligence accounts for 80% to 90% of the abilities that distinguish high performers. An empathetic leader can also own fallibility and personal and organizational susceptibility to systemic realities like institutional racism and sexism, and rise to that challenge.

Catalyst found that having a highly empathetic leadership (versus less empathetic leadership) makes a huge difference in an employee feeling regularly innovative at work (61% vs 13%), feeling engaged at work (76% vs 32%), feeling included (50% vs 17%), feeling able to navigate work/life demands (86% vs 60%), and having fewer thoughts about leaving.

The question is does leadership really “get it?” Do leaders see the reshaping of power structures to harness diversity and the inclusion of all employees as win-wins for themselves, others and the organization? Could we have more that do?

As previously shared, the late Bell Hooks said equity would require a revolution of self-actualization and any real movement of social justice would be based in the ethic of love, where we would recognize that oppression and exclusion cost too much to every single one of us, including those who benefit: “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

Intrinsic motivation does not come from the societal or legal pressure to do something, the business case or even the fairness argument: it’s beyond all that. When more organizations start demonstrating they truly “get it,” we will not be wondering if it’s genuine.

By Aimee Hansen

Nicki GilmourThe workplace design of the future is happening before our eyes, as we approach International Women’s Day. What elements of our professional lives will stay, go or morph is a fascinating topic with many facets—from office space to cyber security to creating community, networking and relationships, if things stay mostly virtual.

What wins are to be had for professional women at this historic juncture? Will this seismic shift ultimately enable structural changes that level the playing field for better diversity and inclusion at work, or are organizations letting disproportionately burdened women slip through the cracks?

Nothing has been brought more sharply into focus than the at-home employee experience, since Covid19 arrived to our cities, towns and places of work about one year ago, creating an almost immediate need to be remote. Just like that, everyone had to figure out how to work, when to work and even, if they could work.

One year on, many smart corporations are reflecting deeply about the employee experience and the future of work. There is a massive opportunity to create the physical and psychological space that people need to thrive and succeed at work, to recognize now what most professional women already knew—that everyone is not in the same boat in this storm. Nuances matter.

In 2020, social issues migrated into work and all the lines blurred. 2021 will only see more of this.

But will corporations finally integrate diversity and inclusion as cultural thriving and treat it with task expectations for all employees? Will they embrace a mindset change with committed actions? It takes courage to tackle the status quo with more than words.

Putting principle into action, Goldman Sachs will only take companies public if they have women on their boards. That is walking your talk and making behavioral and mindset change real.

Actions Are Better Than Words

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2021 on 8th March, the theme this year is #choosetochallenge—with a hand in the air symbolic gesture—when bias rears its head or when women aren’t heard. While it’s an important message and sentiment, awareness is only the first step in anything, at best, and firms must create real change for all constituents.

Frankly put, work doesn’t work for many people right now.

It is now in plain sight that women, and professional women, are suffering more from the effects of the Covid pandemic, with the US having the biggest amount of women leaving the workforce, followed by Japan. Losses will be hard to recover from. Phrases like shecession may sound glib but the numbers don’t lie, with NPR reporting that women are back to 1988 levels of workforce participation. We want systemic and behavioral change.

Defining your values, really knowing who you are and connecting brand to purpose is the first step. The second step would ideally be walking the talk with actions. Interestingly research shows that sometimes talking the talk is vital to get to finally walk the talk.

Companies who know who they truly are will be able to embody their values better than companies who don’t know where they stand. Nothing became more urgent than to know who you are as when Black Lives Matter entered the workplace last year with employees requesting firms to know who they are.

Acting on your words and connecting meaningful purpose to your employee experience, as part of brand integrity, is what we need now.

If your company was a person, would you want to hang out with them? If they were your friend, would you trust that they would do what they say they believe in?

Seven Suggestions For Acts, Not Ads

So, if your firm wants to actually support you this International Women’s Day, there are simple actions that could show they are serious.

Here are some actions that organizations could take to live their espoused values and step up as leaders:

#1: Give women the option of a paid day off work on International Women’s Day.

Microsoft announced today that employees would get more paid leave due to the pandemic to alleviate having to be everywhere at once, since exhaustion is real and burnout is at an all time high. Working mothers in particular are at their wit’s end.

Several years ago, REI closed its stores on Black Friday and told its employees to live the company slogan “Go Outside” by introducing #Optoutside.

#2: Address the pay gap in your firm for real.

The wage gap, reinforced by static and traditional gender roles, plays a big part for women leaving work. Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play, and Darcy Lockman, author of All the Rage, both explain the myth of equality between men and women in division of labor at home.

As an organizational psychologist, my take is how you operate at home, and whatever belief system you operate on, is what you take into the office with you—including impressions for both men and women of their gender role and the expectations and boundaries that come with that.

Consider that in 69% of US households where opposite sex partners live together, men are the highest earners. And, weirdly even female CEOs earn less than male counterparts in similar companies.

#3: Make it mandatory that meetings cannot be scheduled between 5.30pm-7.30pm.

These hours are usually dinner, bath and bedtime for employees with kids. Working dads will thank you also. Boundaries are important. Flex work is the new black with fewer taboos now that we know we can use technology easily from almost anywhere.

#4: Ask everyone if products and programs work for them.

Microsoft has included gamers with disabilities to test their games. Needs are different. Test assumptions by asking your constituents what they think.

#5: Ask people if they want to stay remote.

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School’s Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration and author of Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere, believes, “We’re definitely going to see a much bigger population working remotely. All the satisfaction comes when people are given a choice. Choice and autonomy are crucial for people to appreciate remote work and the chance afforded them.”

Equally, some people truly do want to return to the office soon, and the future design of the workplace for safe innovation and community has never been more timely. Innovation literally needs fresh space now.

#6: Walk your talk. Get serious. Grow.

Figure out what your real values are and how to live them as a leader of an already diverse workplace. Diversity management is a strategic capability.

#7: Let leaders be vulnerable.

Cancel culture kills vulnerability and prevents learning. We are all on a journey. Allow for correction, remorse and redemption—as we can’t grow if we aren’t given oxygen. And, context is everything.

Equally, know when you see a systemic flaw that tolerates or even creates incentives for ego-wars, control-dynamics, power-grasping and fear-based motivations to win. Change the system so these norms are not the status operating quo.

Will 2021 finally be the year that companies align internal talent process, and create real and meaningful pathways to inclusion and equity for professional women?

Actions not ads. Finally?

#Actsnotads. #IWD

Check our “Acts not Ads” work here: We deploy behavioral psychology techniques to employer brands to see if they really know who they are (values) and then, how they act (behaviors) so that employees can believe them. Audio and visuals have to match.

by Nicki Gilmour, CEO and Founder, Evolved People (theglasshammer.com)