How can I talk to my boss about (lack of) diversity in our workplace?
July 17, 2020 9:25 AM Subscribe
I (cis fem) am the only POC employed by a business of around 50 people, and the first diverse hire in the company's history. We're a rapidly-growing marketing agency in a highly diverse international metropolis, and we're currently looking to hire around 15 more people with varying skill sets and seniority levels. I want to know that my bosses actually do care about hiring POC in this next round, and I want to know how they plan to enable that. I have booked a meeting on Monday to talk through this with the MD. Any ideas on how I can help this be a constructive and fruitful experience?
It was glaring when I first joined the company, but it has bothered me more and more over time, especially recently. To be clear, I have never experienced racism or discrimination of any kind in this role. I have been treated with respect, and have been given some amazing opportunities. But I have also never heard a word indicating that diversity matters, or is sought after.
We have a very transparent, open office culture and we are encouraged to share about anything that is affecting our mental health in the workplace. But we have no HR department yet. A month ago, I mentioned to my manager that I would be interested in hearing from the leadership team on how they plan to foster diversity. She fully understood my POV and said she would bring it up with them. Five weeks down the road, radio silence. So I asked again, this morning, and finally I have been invited to a meeting on Monday with our MD. I have no idea what she will say, but I want to be prepared to make strong, wise, well-informed arguments about the value of diversity in the workplace. I also want to be able to articulate why it bothers me so much that I'm the only POC - why that makes a difference, and should matter to her, too, but without getting overly emotional or casting blame around. I like her a lot as a person, and she has been a bit of a mentor so far. I want this to be a positive experience.
Can you tell I'm stressed? I feel a sense of responsibility to make sure this goes well, which also makes me a little angry, which makes it hard to think clearly. Any advice and/or emotional support would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, everyone!
It was glaring when I first joined the company, but it has bothered me more and more over time, especially recently. To be clear, I have never experienced racism or discrimination of any kind in this role. I have been treated with respect, and have been given some amazing opportunities. But I have also never heard a word indicating that diversity matters, or is sought after.
We have a very transparent, open office culture and we are encouraged to share about anything that is affecting our mental health in the workplace. But we have no HR department yet. A month ago, I mentioned to my manager that I would be interested in hearing from the leadership team on how they plan to foster diversity. She fully understood my POV and said she would bring it up with them. Five weeks down the road, radio silence. So I asked again, this morning, and finally I have been invited to a meeting on Monday with our MD. I have no idea what she will say, but I want to be prepared to make strong, wise, well-informed arguments about the value of diversity in the workplace. I also want to be able to articulate why it bothers me so much that I'm the only POC - why that makes a difference, and should matter to her, too, but without getting overly emotional or casting blame around. I like her a lot as a person, and she has been a bit of a mentor so far. I want this to be a positive experience.
Can you tell I'm stressed? I feel a sense of responsibility to make sure this goes well, which also makes me a little angry, which makes it hard to think clearly. Any advice and/or emotional support would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, everyone!
Also not in your position but want to absolutely send you support!
In my area there's a local organization that promotes workplace diversity & inclusion - a few years ago I went to a workshop and was given some literature on the value of diversity, which I passed along to my manager. In your situation I might look for something like that and see what resources they have that you could leverage - literature explaining why diversity is important and also good for your business, speakers who might talk with your management team about how to change hiring practices, that sort of thing.
I also know a couple of people whose job it is to promote diversity and inclusion in their workspaces - if you'd like you can pm me and I can ask them for talking points and ideas.
posted by bunderful at 10:18 AM on July 17, 2020
In my area there's a local organization that promotes workplace diversity & inclusion - a few years ago I went to a workshop and was given some literature on the value of diversity, which I passed along to my manager. In your situation I might look for something like that and see what resources they have that you could leverage - literature explaining why diversity is important and also good for your business, speakers who might talk with your management team about how to change hiring practices, that sort of thing.
I also know a couple of people whose job it is to promote diversity and inclusion in their workspaces - if you'd like you can pm me and I can ask them for talking points and ideas.
posted by bunderful at 10:18 AM on July 17, 2020
Prepare yourself for well meaning obliviousness. You are not responsible for changing your corporate culture, but I very much feel you for feeling a need to try to do something about it. I've been in similar places in my career where I was the only woman on an all white, male team, in an extremely male dominated industry, and its been something I personally pushed to hire more diverse candidates. Ahead of conversations like this I've outlined specific steps that define my goal.
This is how I would set my goals for this conversation:
1. you would like an emphasis on more diverse hires, and a success for you would be at least 9/15 new hires being POC
2. you would like those hires to be paid the same as any other new hire of an equivalent level, ignoring prior salary history
3. to facilitate the above, you would like a consultant to be hired to educate HR and hiring managers about discrimination and opportunity history that may not be immediately obvious. (ie a resume that doesn't highlight three different unpaid internships etc.)
4. you (and any other POC hires) would like to be publicly and explicitly supported and/mentored
I would open the conversation to test waters, starting along the lines that in the current environment it's extremely obvious that you are standing alone here, and that you appreciate the hand extended for a dialog, and based on reception proceed from there. In my case, I was directly asked what I wanted to improve and what would be considered a metric for improvement. I asked for 25% women and informal mentoring for us within a year- and I got it. I should have had higher standards (oh hey pay equivalency?! i could have pushed for that!), but honestly had no idea how things would go.
I will note, that as soon as I pointed out the extremely skewed gender ratios, we made immediate changes to the hiring process. Hiring managers were required to interview at least 2 female candidates for each role, and we also increased our diversity at the same time. It still wasn't a 50/50 mix by the time I left, but instead of 1/45 being female, we were closer to 20/50, and along the way diversified by race and age the male hires as well. I personally was asked to participate in the interview process with female candidates in the first few months to ensure we weren't missing anything. and yes, it did involve going above and beyond my regular job, but I was willing to do so as I thought it was extremely important. Once we had a few women hired, we did our best to lift each other up.
YMMV, but it's one strategy. I'm sure others will have more nuanced views and can improve on this. I didn't even know the words "Diversity and Inclusion" when I had that first terrifying meeting 10 years ago, so the world has really, really changed in that time. I'm also happy to chat further via Memail about it. Its a stupidly stressful process to try to push for change at work, but it can be immensely rewarding as well.
posted by larthegreat at 10:22 AM on July 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
This is how I would set my goals for this conversation:
1. you would like an emphasis on more diverse hires, and a success for you would be at least 9/15 new hires being POC
2. you would like those hires to be paid the same as any other new hire of an equivalent level, ignoring prior salary history
3. to facilitate the above, you would like a consultant to be hired to educate HR and hiring managers about discrimination and opportunity history that may not be immediately obvious. (ie a resume that doesn't highlight three different unpaid internships etc.)
4. you (and any other POC hires) would like to be publicly and explicitly supported and/mentored
I would open the conversation to test waters, starting along the lines that in the current environment it's extremely obvious that you are standing alone here, and that you appreciate the hand extended for a dialog, and based on reception proceed from there. In my case, I was directly asked what I wanted to improve and what would be considered a metric for improvement. I asked for 25% women and informal mentoring for us within a year- and I got it. I should have had higher standards (oh hey pay equivalency?! i could have pushed for that!), but honestly had no idea how things would go.
I will note, that as soon as I pointed out the extremely skewed gender ratios, we made immediate changes to the hiring process. Hiring managers were required to interview at least 2 female candidates for each role, and we also increased our diversity at the same time. It still wasn't a 50/50 mix by the time I left, but instead of 1/45 being female, we were closer to 20/50, and along the way diversified by race and age the male hires as well. I personally was asked to participate in the interview process with female candidates in the first few months to ensure we weren't missing anything. and yes, it did involve going above and beyond my regular job, but I was willing to do so as I thought it was extremely important. Once we had a few women hired, we did our best to lift each other up.
YMMV, but it's one strategy. I'm sure others will have more nuanced views and can improve on this. I didn't even know the words "Diversity and Inclusion" when I had that first terrifying meeting 10 years ago, so the world has really, really changed in that time. I'm also happy to chat further via Memail about it. Its a stupidly stressful process to try to push for change at work, but it can be immensely rewarding as well.
posted by larthegreat at 10:22 AM on July 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
If anything I would focus on the outside benefit to the company — that clients (both PoC and not) will question the ability of a monoculture company to market to a broad audience.
And they’ll be right to question it, because right now your company really does lack the perspectives it needs to successfully do cross-cultural marketing. Bringing in people from multiple cultures will help sales and boost the bottom line.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:07 AM on July 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
And they’ll be right to question it, because right now your company really does lack the perspectives it needs to successfully do cross-cultural marketing. Bringing in people from multiple cultures will help sales and boost the bottom line.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:07 AM on July 17, 2020 [5 favorites]
More virtual support and an acknowledgement that it's unfair that you have to do the heavy lifting and teaching here. At this point it really does need to be on white people to educate themselves and be good allies by stepping up to move the ball forward at work, at school, and in life.
Unfortunately, these kinds of conversations can put people on the defensive, so I think it's important to start out by asking a lot of questions to understand what the approach to recruiting, interviewing, and hiring is going to be.
- How does this person view the value of a diverse staff?
- What are they doing to make sure the hiring notices are being seen by diverse applicants?
- What do they think would be a successful outcome of this process from a diversity perspective?
By drawing them out through questions both you and the people responsible for managing the hiring process will be able to see where there are gaps in expertise and planning. Really spend a lot of time investigating what they know and what they are planning.
Once you've got some shared understanding, then you can make some thoughtful suggestions, like the ones shared by @larthegreat. Setting some ground rules about interviewing, hiring an outside consultant to help, bringing in formal DEI training for everyone. I would definitely make sure people have some training and understanding of implicit bias and how that can impact the hiring process.
posted by brookeb at 11:58 AM on July 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
Unfortunately, these kinds of conversations can put people on the defensive, so I think it's important to start out by asking a lot of questions to understand what the approach to recruiting, interviewing, and hiring is going to be.
- How does this person view the value of a diverse staff?
- What are they doing to make sure the hiring notices are being seen by diverse applicants?
- What do they think would be a successful outcome of this process from a diversity perspective?
By drawing them out through questions both you and the people responsible for managing the hiring process will be able to see where there are gaps in expertise and planning. Really spend a lot of time investigating what they know and what they are planning.
Once you've got some shared understanding, then you can make some thoughtful suggestions, like the ones shared by @larthegreat. Setting some ground rules about interviewing, hiring an outside consultant to help, bringing in formal DEI training for everyone. I would definitely make sure people have some training and understanding of implicit bias and how that can impact the hiring process.
posted by brookeb at 11:58 AM on July 17, 2020 [7 favorites]
(Obligatory note: I've got all manner of default privilege but hope to be a positive ally. I coach people to use technical competence and business organising skills toake working and relevant software, and it usually means organisational upheaval.)
Good luck! Remember to persevere when it looks like it's getting worse before getting better. May you find the grown-up fully-formed allies you need easily and quickly -- a wish for you, I understand the reality.
Any change needs to be led from the top, and changes in approach to diversity and supporting protected minority groups always needs to be coached by an experienced HR person who can reform unjust old habits towards "here's how we're going to do this better for everybody" as well as employees support groups for safe spaces.
Change has to be measured, or have you really achieved change?
So have some things you'd like to measure to show a spread of outcomes that aid diversity: representation in client meetings, growing a client base that matches your city's demographics, amplifying minority voices, fixing 'missing stair' or 'glass ceiling' structural habits... Pick a small number and find a way to frame them for the benefit of the company: the outcomes mean so much gain for PoC and minority colleagues and so much gain to the organisation.
Once again, good luck and keep on persevering!
posted by k3ninho at 1:27 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Good luck! Remember to persevere when it looks like it's getting worse before getting better. May you find the grown-up fully-formed allies you need easily and quickly -- a wish for you, I understand the reality.
Any change needs to be led from the top, and changes in approach to diversity and supporting protected minority groups always needs to be coached by an experienced HR person who can reform unjust old habits towards "here's how we're going to do this better for everybody" as well as employees support groups for safe spaces.
Change has to be measured, or have you really achieved change?
So have some things you'd like to measure to show a spread of outcomes that aid diversity: representation in client meetings, growing a client base that matches your city's demographics, amplifying minority voices, fixing 'missing stair' or 'glass ceiling' structural habits... Pick a small number and find a way to frame them for the benefit of the company: the outcomes mean so much gain for PoC and minority colleagues and so much gain to the organisation.
Once again, good luck and keep on persevering!
posted by k3ninho at 1:27 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's a study (or maybe a body of literature now, not sure?) from several years back that if companies interview a single minority candidate, that person has basically a 0% chance of being hired, but if more than 1 makes it to the interview stage, the odds change dramatically, and not in the 1/N --> 2/N way you'd expect if all candidates had an equal shot of getting the position. I believe this informed some NFL coaching team hiring decisions recently, but as I follow neither sports nor social sciences research closely, don't quote me on that. At any rate, this lodged in my brain as an ask for institutional recruitment changes that could be more achievable in workplaces hostile to the idea of having a goal of hiring X more BIPOC employees.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:16 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 7:16 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Many companies that are kneejerk hostile to anything that smacks of a hiring quota will be fine with putting extra effort into diversifying their applicant pool. And then if a greater proportion of the applicant pool are PoCs then that should increase the probability of PoCs getting hired.
They want to hire the very best person for the job, right? Well, they can't do that if a big chunk of the population is less likely to hear about the opening due to assorted racial biases outside of the company's control.
So I would ask that they budget some amount of money towards placing job ads in local or regional publications with high PoC readership, outreach to industry organizations for PoCs, recruiting events at meetings of PoC student organizations, etc. that's in addition to whatever they normally spend on advertising job openings in the usual places. Point out that this targeted recruiting effort will help counteract the unintentional racial bias that happens via networking due to white people mostly knowing other white people.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:35 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
They want to hire the very best person for the job, right? Well, they can't do that if a big chunk of the population is less likely to hear about the opening due to assorted racial biases outside of the company's control.
So I would ask that they budget some amount of money towards placing job ads in local or regional publications with high PoC readership, outreach to industry organizations for PoCs, recruiting events at meetings of PoC student organizations, etc. that's in addition to whatever they normally spend on advertising job openings in the usual places. Point out that this targeted recruiting effort will help counteract the unintentional racial bias that happens via networking due to white people mostly knowing other white people.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:35 PM on July 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
I think an appeal to how diversity makes good business sense will help. There's many examples of tone deaf marketing which flopped because it didn't consider other perspectives. Another point is that white people are not a majority (assuming you're United States), and the experiences of POC can help the company see opportunities that it might otherwise miss.
posted by coberh at 6:01 AM on July 18, 2020
posted by coberh at 6:01 AM on July 18, 2020
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You, the individual, are not the reason for the structural problem and if you, the individual, do not solve it completely that is no reflection on your efforts, your work, your energy.
Sending you good wishes for Monday. May the MD rise to your level, and may you find openness and support in your institution.
I wish I had concrete suggestions for how to structure the conversation, but I don't - I hope you have friends you can pre-game with, and that others chime in here with specific advice.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 10:03 AM on July 17, 2020