Does your company really care about racial equity?
Your company has recently issued a statement about their commitment to racial equity in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and societal unrest.
And you’re just not sure you’re buying it.
I don’t blame you.
As someone who has worked across organizations in the fields of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for the last dozen years, I too am skeptical.
Because, what I see companies doing – what they have done for far too long now - amounts to PR. A well-written diversity tagline. Potlucks and other events that are more about optics and selling the image of change, than real change. And as we have seen this week, emphatic statements on the behalf mostly white and mostly male executives about their personal outrage and commitment to racial equity.
Let’s be real – if these actions were enough, we wouldn’t be in the place we are today – where in Canada, despite making up 23% of our population, racialized people hold a mere 6% of Board of Director seats in FP 500 firms, their women only representing 6.5% of total management positions, and where Black university-educated Canadians can expect to make 80 cents for ever dollar their Caucasian colleagues earn.
Clearly, we need to move beyond the glossy PR slogans and social media posts to actually change the way that our organizations operate and how the people within them make decisions. And maybe your company is making progress toward that. Or, maybe not. Either way, we have an opportunity now, when people are listening and saying that they care, to know where our organizations stand and to press for progress.
So, here is how you can start, by gaining clarity on how your company is *really* doing with racial equity. What progress has been made? How committed are they? These are the things to look for:
1) How racially diverse is your company across job levels? Any company can show solid representation of racialized people, but very few excel at demonstrating equitable representation of racial groups across job levels – especially in the senior level and executive ranks. This metric shows you how hard your company may be working to not only find diverse talent for these senior roles, but also whether they’re doing enough to grow and develop racialized talent from within
2) How well are you recruiting and hiring racialized talent? We’ve all heard it: “there just wasn’t enough diversity in the pipeline.” This is the chance to test that (false assumption) by finding out what your firm is doing to market roles to diverse communities, how they’re investing in building a diverse pipeline of future talent, and importantly, the diversity numbers across the hiring process. For example, how many racialized people applied for roles, how many were interviewed, how many were offered jobs and how many accepted? These metrics can tip you off to where there may be barriers that prevent racialized people from successfully being recruited and where your company needs to do more
3) How good are we at supporting racialized people? Does your company have a mentorship, sponsorship, development or coaching program? How many of the recipients or leaders in those programs are racialized people? What proportion of people who have been promoted are racialized and do they make as big of leaps across levels as Caucasian peers and are they promoted as rapidly? These numbers will give you insight into how good your company is at spotting, nurturing and rewarding racialized talent
4) What is the racialized experience? Your company may have succeeded at bringing in diverse talent, but are they able to engage, include and retain them? Get your hands on engagement survey data, split out by racial groups as well as exit-survey feedback and departure data. Are racialized people more likely to leave than Caucasians? Do they leave on their own accord or are they more likely to leave involuntarily? Is your workplace one where racialized talent feel safe, supported and as though they belong?
5) What is the plan to improve? The numbers at your firm may be (likely will be) disheartening. It’s not ideal, but let’s see this moment in time as one where we can influence greater and faster change. So, what is your company planning to do to improve the representation (diversity) and experience (inclusion) of racialized talent? What are they willing to put behind that plan to ensure its success – how much time, money, resources, executive support will underpin the plan? And importantly, what will happen if the plan is not achieved? Who will be held accountable and how? Is the plan a nice-to-have or is it written into your business strategy and communicated as an essential part of your corporate objectives?
While it *never* should have taken this long for our collective corporate consciousness to take a stand for racial equity, none of us can deny that we have an opportunity and a platform like never before to drive change. And while it can be uncomfortable being the one who is pressing for progress and holding our companies accountable to provide answers, it is an essential part of us moving inclusion, diversity and equity along from being fluff and PR to having a substantive, long-term impact.
So, I hope that you and your equity-minded colleagues get the numbers that you need to see whether your company is indeed as committed as their LinkedIn post would have us believe, and that you continue to have the tenacity to influence positive change.