Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

Diversity and Inclusion in My Eyes and in the Eyes of My Children

Ask any HR professional and they will tell you that “diversity and inclusion” as we like to call it is trending in our world.   In fact, Deloitte’s 2017 Human Capital Trends Report points to this rule of work by emphasizing that,

“Leading organizations now see diversity and inclusion as a comprehensive strategy woven into every aspect of the talent life cycle to enhance employee engagement, improve brand, and drive performance. The era of diversity as a ‘check the box’ initiative owned by HR is over.”

The issue is so big, its no longer just HR’s job.

But as business professionals, we can read and hear about diversity and inclusion and the best practices out there until we are blue the face.   And we can talk about it ad nauseam seeking ways to implement tactics to eliminate bias and select and retain diverse talent pools. In fact, I spent no less than 30 minutes yesterday on the phone with a client examining the idiosyncrasies that relate to diversity and inclusion in formulating strong hiring processes and practices, and the purpose of our call was on their employee handbook!

But, as distant past and not-so-distant-past personal experiences remind me, you’ve got to look inward and be honest to tackle the topic effectively.

My first personal observation comes from giving a presentation over five years ago on “Recruiting and Retaining the Best”. In the presentation, I displayed a slide with a picture of pretty and sweet country singer side by side with a tough rapper.   The country singer happened to be a white female, the rapper happened to be a black male.   I displayed the slide to point to the fact that you need to know your work culture and then select people who fit in with your culture.

I didn’t mean to imply that one of the singers was better than the other, just that one might be best for one environment, and one might be better for another. But apparently to my audience, I conveyed that you needed to screen the black rapper with the tattoos out. Hire the pretty white girl I must have implied, because that same day I got a call from the person putting on the workshop who told me that a person in the audience (who happened to be a black male) was offended.

Given that the person who called me happened to be a black female and actually knows me, she assured me that she told him I in no way was a bigot and did not mean to imply anything racially motivated. I thanked her, but obviously the offense I caused still sticks with me five years later. Can I ever get diversity and inclusion right as a practitioner if, potentially, I have unconscious biases that play out in my speaking especially when someone else saw it as conscious and deliberate?

Fast forward to last weekend. We are all in the car as a family and the topic comes up as to why our almost three year old has so many princess dolls. (I’ll blame it on grandparents, as I do her endless collection of purses as well.) Our six year old then chimes in naming the princesses she has. “She’s got Elsa and Belle and Ariel and Cinderella” then he stops for a second and says, “Mom, why doesn’t Paige have any darker princesses?”

What is a mom to say? I think I responded with something along the lines of, “A darker princess would be nice to get, racking my brain trying to come up with a “darker” one.   I said, “How about the one from The Princess and the Frog?” I didn’t even know the “darker” one’s name. Before my kids could respond, they were on to talking about something else.

But I was still stuck on my obvious need to do some reflection on my worldview and how I tout myself as an open-minded and inclusive person. Who am I to give anyone advice on how to create a diverse and inclusive workplace? Our toy shelf isn’t even diverse.

In fact, culturally our stores aren’t diverse and our movies aren’t diverse. There seems to be only one “darker” princess present in a slew of mostly white blonds, just like the pretty country singer in my presentation slide. No wonder we struggle with diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

But as I walk through Target a few days later, I tell my son to go pick out a birthday present for his sister. He runs towards the toy section excited to take a detour from the bottled water and toilet paper we were there to buy.

I catch up with him, thinking this is going to take forever, but yet he comes straight back to meet me, and without a word, drops her present in the cart. The Princess and the Frog Princess, Tiana, is what he has chosen for his sister’s third birthday present.

These personal examples point to only one area of diversity, and that is of race. There are so many more areas of diversity I could discuss, in both specific and generic terms. I echo Deliotte’s report stating that, “Diversity is defined in a broader context, including contexts of ‘diversity of thought’, also addressing people with autism and other cognitive differences.” Too often we boil diversity and inclusion down to something far narrower than it should be.

And I could also wrap up this post with a list of ways to try to overcome unconscious bias or how to create a diversity and inclusion program at your place of work (and mine).

But maybe the first step in thinking about diversity and inclusion is to look in the mirror and be self-aware. We need to be honest about how the environments we have grown up in and quite possibly still work in, shape us to think and decide in ways that we may not even be aware of. And then and only then, once we are honest with ourselves and vocalize that honesty to others are we are aware enough to change our course.

I need my six year old to remind and help me learn that diversity and inclusion starts quite simply with being aware of when we’re off the mark and buying the right doll (or hiring/promoting the right person) to begin to fix it.

You may also like:

You can hire for fit AND diversity: How the most innovative companies hire

March 28, 2017
Chocolate Anyone? Symbols to Remind You to Be Grateful and Spread Gratefulness

“I’ll be right back,” the lady said to her colleague. “I’ve got to finish giving my chocolate bars away.”

The colleague nods. I’m sitting next to him at a conference breakfast, and I look at him with must have been a look like, “What? Chocolate bars? At breakfast?”

He smiles, and says, “You’ll have to ask her about them.” I could tell he was indirectly saying, it’s her story to tell, not mine. Yes, ask her about the chocolate I will.

I see her hand a chocolate bar to a server and give him a hug.

She finally comes and sits back down and smiles. I, of course say, “So you have to tell me about the chocolate bars.”

I’ve never seen anyone light up so much as she tells me about how her habit with chocolate bars comes from her very first client that manufactures them. Nancy, I learn is her name, and she explained to me that she had come out of a bad job situation in HR management. She said she had been battling breast cancer and her employer was absolutely awful in helping her through this, so she quit.

She interviewed for a position at the chocolate manufacturer, to which the hiring manager told her she was overqualified for the role and that she needed to start her own business in HR compensation consulting.

“I’ll hire your company then to work with us on some compensation issues we are having,” he told her. And he gave her a chocolate bar as she left.

The chocolate giving lady then went on to say that this was the beginning of a new life for her. She did start that business, and five years later, everywhere she goes she gives out chocolate bars to people to show gratitude and to challenge people to reach for their dreams.

She told me, “I didn’t even realize this was my dream until he challenged me to do this.” Grinning again she said, “Now it is only right for me to pass this along.”

So today, I challenge you to take a lesson from Nancy and figure out what your own chocolate bar is. Then, figure out a way to not to only share it with others, but more importantly, share it to constantly remind yourself of what and who you have to be thankful for and to pass that on.

Like this post, you may also like:

Love Lives Here a new book out by Maria Goff. Maria and her husband, Bob, who wrote Love Does, give out real keys to their own home as their chocolate bars. This is a way to show that love resides in their home and is therefore something to be shared.

Count Your Problems and Be Thankful

Leaders Start With Gratitude

March 21, 2017
Why? Again.

I’m back to being asked why again about 200 times a day. Thus is the life of a parent of a two, almost three, year old.

I do not have a conversation with my little girl EVER these days without the question of “Why?” coming out of her mouth. While she was stalling on bedtime the other night, I began to take a tally and we got to 16 Whys? before I finally shut her down. I couldn’t take it anymore!

But the irony of all of this is that I’m now reading Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. The key take away is:

“Great leaders are those who trust their gut. They are those who understand the art before the science. They win hearts before minds. They are the ones that start with WHY.”

I’ve watched my mom live this quote when I hear her speak to groups about the work she does leading a hospice organization. She always tells a story about a real patient that addresses the heart before the head and answers WHY she, and the people she leads, do what they do.

I wonder if I was a Why? fanatic questioner as a two, going on three year old? Maybe my mom started by answering Why? for me before I even had to ask it.

So, think I’m going to try to switch my methods and cut my little one off at the path by answering her Why? before she even asks it. And maybe we will all get to bed a little earlier, or maybe I’ll have to wait out her development and continue to answer Why for now, even when I’ve already answered it. But I know from the example I’ve had, I’ll start with Why as both mine grow. Hopefully this will help them to become leaders.

Do you start with why?

March 7, 2017
The Conundrum of Incentive Pay
I know of two people who have left their job in the last year because they felt like they were slighted when it came to how their company handled incentive pay. Both of them- one working for a global behemoth of a company and one working for a family start-up- were promised things when it came to incentive compensation and then the rules were changed on them in the middle of the game, thus slighting them in pay they felt they were entitled to.

And I can think of one company owner who is a friend that has tried and tried to come up with an incentive plan for her business development people that works, only to come out with frustrating results in that the intent didn’t drive the desired outcome. In some cases, it drove the exact opposite.

Incentive compensation is tough. It’s why many companies avoid it all together. But I can’t give up on the fact that tying at least part of pay to outcomes and results that contribute to a company’s bottom-line, and the hard workers pocket all at once, aren’t a good thing.

Here are some things that stand in order to do incentive pay well:
1. Align any incentive plan with your company values that drive everyday behaviors. This should dictate that an incentive to perform is not an incentive to cheat. Be like Southwest Airlines, not Wells Fargo.
2. Combine incentives programs with overall social recognition that includes monetary and non-monetary rewards for a job well done. As a Globoforce blog post states:
In 2012, Aberdeen surveyed more than 300 sales organizations to understand how best-in-class organizations motivate their sales staff. Recognition for a ‘job well done’ scored higher than any other non-cash incentives, including competitions, learning & development, and team-based financial compensation. Further, Aberdeen found that best-in-class companies are more likely to indicate that internal recognition for positive performance results is a vital motivator for sales success.

And this-

“Just remember that your sales people are human, too, and crave recognition and appreciation beyond the basic comp plan.”
1. DWYSYWD- Do what you say you will do. This means if you say you are going to pay x amount out for doing or achieving y, then do it. If you screwed up and didn’t figure out beforehand how this affects your bottom-line, its your fault not your employees’. Of course, this should be tempered with stating that incentive compensation structures are not indefinite in nature, because markets and situations change. However, when you communicate a plan to your employees you should let them know when this structure “expires” so to speak or is subject to review and changes (most likely on an annual basis) to be clear on expectations of payouts.
Like this post? You may also like:

Corporate Recruitment Incentive Programs from Fistful of Talent

Meaningless Core Values – A Dangerous Liability
February 28, 2017
4 Reasons Why Job Hopping is a Good Thing
In my first gig out of college as a corporate recruiter, I had responsibility for the grind of hiring classes of customer service reps. Volume recruiting at its finest.   When I was trained by a co-worker on the company’s process for screening applicants, my fellow team member told me that the process used to include screening people out who were “job hoppers”- those that shown through their resume- couldn’t seem to stay at one job for more than a year or two at a time.

Then the lawyers got involved and told us we couldn’t screen people out for that. I understood both sides. On the view of screening those job hoppers out, the company invested a substantial amount of time in training quality customer service reps. If someone had been shown to not stay with a place for longer than a year or two through their past behavior, (and past behavior predicts future performance had been drilled into my head from an interviewing and screening perspective) the company was making bad decisions hiring those that might not even stay through the entire training period.   And, although rule follower I am not, I could see why the lawyers told us not to. Whisper potential adverse impact and you cut it out.

But now I see another reason why screening people based on their “job hopping” isn’t a best practice.   In today’s workplace, average length of service is declining, hovering at less than five years for all workers. People change jobs quite often, and often for advancement and career growth reasons.

Now when I look at someone’s resume and see they have been in the same job for more than 8-10 years, I am more inclined to think, what is wrong with you? Why have you moved up, done more, gained more experience?

A quote I saw on LinkedIn a couple of days ago said something along the lines of, “What we used to call job hopping is now called career experimentation.”

Whether you think the wording is all bull or not, there some potential advantages to hiring a job hopper:
1. Diversity of experiences, which could lead to an ability to innovate and to contribute in a way that the company may not have thought of before.
2. Indication of motivation and drive. Because many people job hop in order to advance in pay and/or responsibility, job hopping could show a greater level of drive than someone who is content to stay in one role at one company.
3. Ability to find cultural fit. Because job hoppers have seen different work environments, they are better able to compare and contrast environments to know what environments are the best fit for them and seek out those environments and opportunities.
4. A social capital advantage. People who have worked at a variety of places are bound to know more people. And as social capital replaces human capital (who you know and what they collectively know as opposed to just what you know) as the biggest asset an employee can provide, having those who are well networked on your team can lead to better outcomes.
As an employer, you’ve got to weigh your opportunity cost as to what a job hopper may bring to your table. Considering the amount of time and training it takes for them to be a contributing member of your team, not to mention recruitment/replacement costs for particular roles, verses the above advantages is worth the analysis.

Do you love or hate job hoppers?

Like this post? You may also like:

Millennials Stop Apologizing for your Job Hopping
February 21, 2017