Diversity & Inclusion with Helen Young Hayes
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
In keeping with our multi-layered focus on diversity and inclusion, we were pleased to host a virtual fireside chat featuring Helen Young Hayes [BEN Colorado Board Member, Founder/CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions, and Author of Colorado Inclusive Economy] to discuss the imperative for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. To keep the conversation alive, we asked Helen to answer a few outstanding questions.
We have talked a lot on this call about HR practices, talent pipelines, etc. What are some of the tools or best practices that we can use in compensation?
Good Practices:
1. Look at your pay equity and make adjustments as necessary (salaries for POC (People of Color) versus whites adjusted for tenure and category).
2. A best practice from Denver Health is to pay above market average for lower wage roles.
3. A recommendation from Jason Thompson of Cape Inclusion Index (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) veteran who has built programs for US Olympic and USA Hockey): make a practice of offering your women and POC hires the top end of the salary range. For more detail, please see our Colorado Inclusive Economy Toolkit.
My company has done a lot of things this year to increase our diversity and inclusion, including creating an employee council led by a team member who is very passionate about this topic. Some of the suggestions are unrealistic based on our industry, cost, and where we are as a company. How do I balance these well-intentioned employee requests with the reality of my business?
Great question! Respect, transparency, and joint innovation: “I understand where you’re coming from, but given the nature of our business/financial/operating model, those suggestions are unrealistic or unachievable at this point. However, some other ways to get to the same goal include XYZ.”
I’d also make sure you understand what the requests are really driving at what is the issue behind the issue, and working toward relentless forward movement toward achieving a more racially diverse workforce of inclusion, equity and belonging.
Today, about 10% of our workforce is people of color, with a goal to increase that percentage. How do I build a welcoming and inclusive culture now, so that we are successful in our inclusivity efforts?
Very important. This is foundational to your ability to build a multi-cultural workforce. I would pursue parallel paths to understand where your diversity stands today (informed by metrics), while intentionally building places of inclusion and belonging by educating/training all levels of your organization on the internal work that must be done to understand bias, privilege, and institutionalized inequity within your company.
Remember: you’ll invest in what’s important to you. Do you invest in marketing & PR, customer retention, business development? Invest in DEI. There are a lot of resources that address both of the issues (culture & bias) within the Colorado Inclusive Economy Toolkit. We also have a number of DEI consultants who are experts in this work and we are happy to make introductions.
I have well-intentioned colleagues who make statements that they think are supportive to me as a woman of color. In reality, some of them actually show their limited understanding of the issue. How do I address this in a professional and constructive manner?
I still experience these micro-aggressions myself. I like, “That comment is problematic from a race/gender lens for me. I’m happy to discuss why at another time...”
You talked a bit about some resources to expand our entry level pipeline, are there others for mid to executive level?
Locally, I refer individuals to Diverse Talent, which has a national reach for mid-executive level talent. Michelle Campbell, CEO, has been sourcing diverse talent for a long time: Michelle Campbell.
Additionally, Activate Work has placed individuals into mid-level roles. Please also check back with me in the new year as I have a few friends of color who are building recruiting agencies because of the demand for mid-senior level talent.
Like a lot of tech scale ups, my workforce is mostly very talented young adults, many of whom believe that we should be able to quickly and easily diversify our team. How can I help them understand the bigger issues related to this topic?
Tell them about the reality of the tech industry (despite throwing millions at diversity, Tech Giants have made little inroads; a one-million person IT talent shortage in the US), and also that the “fix” will take some time: hiring and promoting at a more junior level, looking for talent from nontraditional talent pipelines (bootcamps, industry certifications, ActivateIT, Per Scholas, CareerWise, Catalyte to name a few) and growing from within.
What is the best way to measure the diversity of my workforce? Is it just the total number of women, people of color, and other minorities against the total population?
I like this scorecard developed by Jason Thompson for the US Olympic Committee.
This is a topic that is very important to me and my team. I want to start increasing our diversity, however I am afraid if we do not have the right inclusivity practices in place this effort will fail. Can you share some examples about what you have seen that has worked and what hasn’t?
Very astute. One of the reasons DEI has failed traditionally is that it’s been relegated to someone in HR, doesn’t have any resources, isn’t viewed as strategic to your company. You can’t just hire people of color and expect them to thrive in your company until you’ve created a culture of inclusion, equity and belonging.
Some good places to start: create a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council for your existing POC and non-POCs to have a healthy conversation; explore best practices for building a diverse culture in addition to equitable HR practices; commit to having your board and your executive team invest time and effort (and adjust compensation) to building a more diverse workforce. Please see our Toolkit for some other tips on why DEI has failed and how to do it right. If you have additional questions, you can reach out to our Toolkit Mastermind, Scott.
“Please join Colorado Inclusive Economy. Don’t try to go it alone. We can both support you and amplify your individual efforts to build a Colorado that works for all!” - Helen Young Hayes