In part 3 of my blog,  I re-assessed the ‘business case for D&I’ and whether a  ‘human-centered approach’ would be more appropriate for creating diverse and inclusive workspaces. In this fourth and penultimate part of my blog series on ‘Unpacking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I examine the role of technology and data in pursuing D&I strategies in the workplace. I look at how tech has been adopted into the organizational fold, and also list out a range of tools that are currently available in the market which support and enhance D&I. 

D&I Tech  Solutions

When we talk of tech in D&I we are referring to “Enterprise software that provides insights or alters processes or practices, at the individual or organizational level, in support of organizations’ efforts to become more diverse and inclusive.”  The development of new technologies – specifically AI, machine learning, algorithms, text mining, sentiment analysis, and natural language processing – has provided novel capabilities that can be applied to diversity and inclusion challenges. The primary purpose of these technologies lies in reducing unconscious bias, addressing inadequately diverse talent pipelines, and providing D&I analytics or insights to help guide decision-making. Organizations are increasingly turning to technology to drive consistency, scalability, and better insights for their diversity initiatives.  They are also beginning to allocate more significant resources to the problem, which has opened up opportunities for technology to step in. The D&I technology market is gaining traction and poised for rapid acceleration, with the capabilities to offer new insights that can drive new behavior and actions to further accelerate progress. There is a robust market for D&I technology tools, with an abundance of D&I technology providers (the market size is estimated at over $100 million dollars already). 

Let’s examine some areas where technology can support our D&I efforts and tools that are available in the market.

1)  Talent Acquisition

D&I technology for attracting, retaining, and managing talent has been a significant area of growth (it is said to be the largest segment of D&I tech at 43 percent). Tools in this category are generally focused on

• Providing organizations with access to larger, more diverse candidate pools via inclusion features for attracting a diverse workforce, reducing unconscious bias in the recruiting process, and facilitating effective candidate selection (Some popular tools include Fairygodboss, Headstart, InHerSight, Teamable)
• Text evaluation to minimize bias in job postings (such as Textio)
• Enhanced search capabilities to access candidates by specific attributes, such as gender or background/ethnicity. (See tools such as Atipica, Entelo, LinkedIn, PowerToFly)
• Job posting outreach tools with recognized networks of diverse candidates
• Automation capabilities to remove resume names or identifying information to eliminate unconscious bias in the recruiting process, match existing job descriptions to broaden the potential candidate pool, and facilitate more objective matching (examples of tools include Blendoor,  Eightfold AI, TalVista, Whitetruffle)
• Video-based AI to assess interviewers’ potential biases through speech and body movements during interviews with candidates ( 8 and Above )
• Candidates’ cultural alignment scores to help companies understand how well a candidate might fit into the team (Fortay)

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), organizations can not only access a larger, more diverse pool of candidates but also ensure a more developed competency-based approach. Whether it is by means of adopting ‘blind recruitment’ or standardization of interview processes to reduce bias, more enterprises should leverage tools that allow assessments based purely on qualification or skills.

 2)  Learning & Development

In the space of L&D, organizations have traditionally provided sexual harassment training or unconscious bias training as part of their D&I efforts. However, new approaches to D&I are gaining momentum. For example, tech providers such as BeingVR and  Equal Reality provide virtual reality awareness, unconscious bias, and diversity training to help employees better understand colleagues’ points of view – including those of a different race, gender, or ability – and practice behaviors in the workplace situations. In other words, virtual training today makes it possible for employees located in different parts of the world to understand and engage with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, within the organization. It allows them to experience the challenges that an underrepresented community or a differently-abled person might experience in the workplace and offer everyone the opportunity to share their unique perspective. Such technology can also find, flag, and offer structure to eliminate bias in performance feedback and scores and recognition practices.

Other service providers in this space deliver micro-training, such as using a chatbot to interrupt bias and recommending unconscious bias learning content within platforms such as Slack. Numerous tech solutions help diverse employees find mentors within or outside their current networks or technology to offer personalized career and targeted skill development.

3)  Employee Engagement

Listening and engagement software is another critical category of D&I solutions (seen as the smallest segment of D&I tech at 12 percent). Here tech and data work to enhance employee experience, communication, and boost employees’ voices. A lot of the feedback and listening service providers enable organizations to tailor survey questions and use sentiment analysis to identify themes in the feedback. Other technology in this category helps organizations evaluate their cultures in real-time and identify when teams may not behave in inclusive ways. 

Leadership and employee engagement technology, provided by  Cultivate, can measure differences in how a manager communicates based on internal communication data  (email, chat, and calendar, etc.) This helps the manager improve self-awareness and understand if they are acting consistently and inclusively. BalloonR is a technology that gathers feedback and ideas from all employees without allowing bias to influence feedback. Bunch.ai helps organizations analyze their cultures in real-time, based on Slack communications, and identify when teams may not behave in inclusive ways. 

Many vendors, including Culture Amp, and Qlearsite, allow organizations to customize employee survey questions to focus on diversity and inclusion topics. Some of these vendors use natural language processing and sentiment analysis to identify themes in written comments. 

4)  Analytics

D&I analytics are integral to developing insights in the workplace, guiding decision making, and prioritizing the D&I areas that need improvement. Common data captured for analytics include:

 Easy-to-use dashboards for company leaders, focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as information on diversity representation within the organization (check out tools such as  Allie, and Diversity Dashboard)

• Critical sources of talent (check out Joonko and TapRecruit)
• Organizational diversity, using Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) to assess whether diverse people are included similarly or differently from majority groups within the organizational network (OrgAnalytix and TrustSphere). This evolving area of analytics helps organizations further build awareness of their culture and opportunities to create a more inclusive workplace
• Data on pay equity (PeopleFluent, Workday)

Intelligence gained from these solutions helps assess the impact of specific D&I activities on business outcomes, for example, where to invest for maximum ROI (Pipeline focuses on gender equity and estimates the financial impact of achieving it for each client organization), and estimate the financial impact of D&I initiatives (such as achieving gender equity for an organization). Not only are there standalone and niche solutions in the market, such as Visier, but many of the leading Human Capital Management technologies have capabilities here as well.

In an insightful interview with leading Data Analyst in this space, Stacia Garr drives home the value of tech and data in D&I when she makes an important point about how  “we’re beginning to understand that bias may begin with individuals, but quickly becomes systemic — codified into our processes and now cultures. And once bias is part of how we work, it is very difficult to change through one-off efforts like training. In fact, training individuals who then return to an institutionalized system of inequity sends all sorts of mixed signals — and can actually undermine even the good faith efforts companies try to make.” That’s where technology comes in with the potential to bypass these obstacles and provide scalable, sustainable ways of improving D&I.

For all the benefits of D&I tech solutions, it is not without certain risks.

1. Implementing technology that itself may have a bias due to the data sets on which the algorithms are trained, or lack of D&I in the technologists who created it.
2. Creating legal risks if problems are identified and the organization fails to act
3. Enabling the perception that the technology will solve bias problems, not that people are responsible for solving them.
4. Reducing people’s sense of empowerment to make critical decisions
5. Implementing technology or processes that are disconnected from other people processes of technology
6. Enabling employee perceptions of ‘big-brother monitoring or over-focus on ‘political correctness 

Yet, not leveraging and tapping into technology isn’t really an option as it will make organizations obsolete and redundant. As technology evolves and becomes more sophisticated there are ways of addressing or controlling these concerns. However, it does fall upon us to fully understand the benefits and limitations of AI and other tools that we adopt for the organization and also maintain some checks and balances to ensure neutrality.  Most importantly, it is recommended that you use tech as one piece of the larger D&I puzzle rather than as the sole source of information (and decision-making). At the end of the day, there is thus a huge opportunity to use people-data to benefit diverse individuals and to make entire companies more inclusive. In fact, CIOs and technology leaders must also play an active role along with HR, legal and privacy teams in setting up the organization for long-term sustained performance of its D&I efforts. With the rapid advancement of data-driven technology tools, workplaces of the future will have better D&I fundamentals, allowing them to access the true potential of people, communities, and society. 

In the next blog, I examine some best practices and organizational success stories of D&I across industries and sectors.

#diversityandinclusion #asktherightquestion #syngrity #inclusionintheworkplace #diversitytechonology

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

Sources:

https://www.myhrfuture.com/blog/2019/7/16/how-can-you-use-technology-to-support-a-culture-of-inclusion-and-diversity

https://redthreadresearch.com/hr-technology/

https://www.toolbox.com/hr/diversity-inclusion/guest-article/4-areas-where-diversity-and-inclusion-di-technology-can-enable-organization-wide-change/

https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/diversity-and-inclusion-technology.html#regForm

https://www.cio.com/article/3374838/diversity-and-inclusion-technology-tools-on-the-rise.html

The post PART IV – ‘Unpacking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ Blog Series appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Health and Safety

1) Use technology and data

A lot of organizations are forming qualified employee-run covid war rooms to support and enable the return to work to ensure that data is used as a guide, not conspiracy theories.

The government of India has created the Aarogya Setu Application which is a mandate for everyone. Whilst some organizations are creating an automatic contact tracing application for their employees, we could further the use of the government authorized application.

Organizations Must do a Risk Assessment

Risk professionals may not have ever created models for global pandemics this swiftly. A good risk assessment helps organizations manage risk and also prepare for the new normal. PwC has collated a checklist outlining what risk functions can do now.

1) Assess real-estate footprint

Tons of money is spent on real estate to open offices. With the new hybrid style of working,  organizations  are assessing the real estate footprints to optimize cost

2) Plan and execute RTW in a phase-wise manner

Employers are introducing a phase-wise return based on sites, job roles, and responsibilities, zip code-based health and safety information. It is important to assess who needs to return to the workplace and what is critical to quality. Here is a list of questions that may help you decide.

3) Covid-specific BCP/DRP

While understanding BCP/DRP, 2 decades back one often wondered why we needed something like a disaster recovery plan and when will it come to use. While floods, terrorist attacks, earthquakes, etc. seemed real who would have envisaged a pandemic. The last year and a half have definitely been the right time for all the training that happened in this area. Be ready and be alert is the mantra.

Ways of Working

1) Communication strategy

Re-acclimating an onsite workforce presents an enormous change management challenge for executives, who now need a communication strategy that can help employees who are returning to the workplace, as well as those who continue to work remotely, embrace a shared vision of what comes next.

2) Reevaluate performance measures

Times have changed and so are the ways of working, ways of assessing & ways of rewarding. Employers are proactively re-evaluating and realigning business performance, individual performance, and compensation structures that are appropriate for their business.

3) Hybrid working

It may never go back to the old normal. Some employees may not be comfortable coming back to work given the risks of contracting covid. Some employees might have preexisting conditions and they might not want to take the risk of catching an infection. Organizations are being flexible to all these new ways of working.

Focus on People

There is a need to be people-focused while employees return to work. The pandemic has instilled a sense of fear in the people and organizations are realizing that if their safety (Physical, emotional and mental) is not addressed and assured, they may lose their best talent.

1) Training is essential

Onboarding employees to the new normal and expectations from them is imperative. Expect issues to arise and questions to be raised; be ready to address them.

2) Create people-specific empathetic policies and culture.

The Work from Home in the last year-plus has given new responsibilities to the people at home. Organizations are being empathetic towards their new responsibilities and are looking at providing them with alternatives.

3) Organizations need to practice focused listening

This is a byproduct of people-focused policies. Without employee buy-in, even the best-crafted plans are likely to run into trouble. Organizations more than ever are keeping a keen ear and are listening to the information they are receiving about employee wellness, safety, and concerns. Agility is at the core here. The workforce strategy now Is agile, dynamic, and responsive.

By enabling real, two-way communication, leaders may turn the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity to strengthen corporate culture, increase employee engagement and boost productivity and loyalty over the long run.

4) Focus on wellbeing and mental health

Everyone took a hit during the last 1.5 years. In India, in the second wave in April 2021, almost everyone has lost someone they knew. This trauma will take a long time to leave. Organizations should focus on mental health and wellbeing data, either through Employee Assistance Programs, Mental health counselling, and workshops. Once people Return to Work, organizations need to bring life to work.

Is your organization investing in the above-mentioned strategies? How are you contributing towards the entire Return to Work process in your organization? Do drop us a comment. Get in touch with us to train your teams in the right protocols whilst they return to work.

Vikram Badhwar is the Founder of Syngrity, a leadership, communication, and positive psychology coach, and an experiential educator.

Malati Vasudeva is a Lead Consultant with Syngrity. She is a Human Resource professional with a global perspective, a keen psychology student & has over 25 years of industry experience in areas of  Learning & Talent, Leadership Development, Diversity & Inclusion, and Human Resource Processes.

The post Return to Work – The New Normal Post Covid appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Reassessing ‘The Business Case for D&I’

In part 2 of my blog series, I unpacked the role unconscious biases play in how they could derail diversity and inclusion goals, if left unmanaged. In this month’s blog (part 3), I discuss ‘The Business Case for D&I in Organizations’, more specifically, I reassess the ‘case’ for the ‘business case for D&I’.

Almost everything available on this topic indicates that D&I is good for business. A study by Mckinsey (2019) based on 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies find that executive teams with higher gender and ethnic diversity are 25 to 35% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies with less diversity. Moreover, the study finds that the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance.  It appears that building a diverse workforce isn’t just beneficial; it’s integral to success in the modern business landscape. Let’s explore why:

Diverse competencies and perspectives

If each employee brings a set of skills to the organization, by its very nature, a diverse workforce provides a diverse set of competencies and perspectives.

What makes that so valuable?

A homogeneous workforce often suffers from a narrow or blinkered skill set. While narrow skill sets/competencies/perspectives may be perfectly suited to the current goals of the organization, it’s not going to remain that way in the future. Many homogeneous teams are already missing out on a huge window for growth by failing to recognize opportunities for innovation that could drive their organization forward. The broader the set of skills and perspectives, the greater the chance at achieving breakthrough products and services and new markets.

Many of the world’s most successful organizations are already aware of this. Research conducted by Forbes Insights’ on Global Diversity and Inclusion: Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce found that 85% of surveyed companies with over $500 million in revenue either agreed or strongly agreed that ‘a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial to encouraging different perspectives and ideas that drive innovation’.  

Diverse candidate pool

This is a significant benefit in the workplace. By hiring diverse candidates, an organization has its pick from a much larger pool of talent.

Why is that an advantage?

Expanding the top of the hiring funnel to include a more diverse set of individuals is guaranteed to improve results down the line. While choosing candidates from your alma mater (think unconscious bias)  might seem like a good idea, there are a huge number of qualified candidates who didn’t attend that school/college (or who aren’t even recent graduates of any school). It’s worth looking outside of your own ‘box’ to find talent. Further, when hiring for diversity, we need to keep in mind that diversity in itself is a very broad term, with many connotations. The key is considering those myriad connotations as you work to diversify your team.

On a related note, as millennials come to dominate the labor market, D&I becomes an important element. According to Glassdoor, 67% of job seekers today weigh diversity as a factor before evaluating companies and job offers. Another survey from Deloitte also reveals that 83% of millennials are engaged when their organization has a diverse work culture. Millennials have a unique outlook on diversity and want to work in an environment that fosters progressive change and collaborative teamwork.

Diverse Culture

Hiring for cultural fit is a popular strategy for organizations, but there’s a point at which it becomes a barrier to diversity and growth. Celia DeAnca explains in her Harvard Business Review article:

“We might be creating a situation in which companies will be very diverse in appearance, but intrinsically homogeneous. They will be hiring the same profile of people even though they might have very different backgrounds. Thus the company will appear diverse—but we know that appearances can be deceiving. Hiring similar candidates isn’t a culture-building exercise—at best, it’s simply ‘culture maintenance’.” 

Diverse Markets

An organization with a diverse workforce has a huge advantage when addressing constantly evolving markets. This is particularly important for companies that deal in retail and consumer goods. A Deloitte Review publication states that:

“Leaders of retail and consumer goods businesses, in particular, will need to take steps to understand and create affinity with an increasingly multicultural and multifaceted consumer base”.

But, the benefits don’t start and end with retail. Organizations of all types can gain from access to an expanded customer base. As the shape of the market changes, it takes diverse views to see its various movements. In keeping with this line of thought, organizations with inclusive business cultures and practices are 57.8% more likely to improve their reputations. Consumers are more likely to purchase or consider purchasing, a product after viewing an advertisement perceived to be diverse or inclusive. 

The points listed here are just a few of the many benefits of diversity in the workplace. The substance of it all is that in this modern business landscape, it’s absolutely crucial to embrace diversity early on, and into the future.

BUT… (and this is where the problem with the ‘business case’ arises)

In spite of these business benefits, we find that organizations have largely failed to adopt a learning orientation toward D&I, and haven’t made enough progress. A PWC Report states that only 5% of organizations they surveyed are succeeding in key dimensions of successful D&I programming (the dimensions include: Initiating a continuous data-driven process for understanding the facts of what’s happening in the organization today; Creating a business-focused vision and strategy for D&I that reflects the reality of today and the real potential of tomorrow; Engaging leadership around an inspirational D&I strategy by articulating the business case and establishing supportive governance; Executing the D&I strategy across all elements of the business).

So what’s causing this disconnect? Why hasn’t everyone jumped on the D&I bandwagon? Do top executives actually not find the business case compelling? What complicates this further is that, for every study that endorses the correlation between D&I and better business performance, we also find data that indicates how the business benefits may be circumstantial or that the correlation is inconclusive.

I think this is an important aspect of any discussion on D&I in the workplace. I bring this up not because D&I is redundant, but because it’s time to stop framing these efforts around a business case. I question whether the ‘business case’ is the right approach when discussing the human experience in the workplace? The business case model works well when decisions like “should we upgrade the computer monitors?” need to be made. Further, it’s a methodology employed to convince senior organization leaders to enhance the diversity of their workforce and the inclusiveness of their organizational cultures. 

But, this approach seems wrong when used as a primary criterion for addressing the D&I challenge in the workplace. It is true that business outcomes are negatively impacted when diversity and inclusion are deficient, but shouldn’t the psychological and emotional trauma to disadvantaged employees and the need to be a ‘just’ and ‘fair’ workplace take center stage in our logic? Isn’t it time to try a more human-centered approach (akin to the moral case) to why D&I matters in the workplace?

I accept that the ‘human-centered or moral approach’ is tough to crack as it only works when organizations are willing to reshape their power structure. But the ‘business case’ claims of D&I will continue to remain ‘weak’, ‘circumstantial’, and ‘inconclusive’ if it is underpinned primarily by a return on investment (ROI) approach. It will just perpetuate an  ‘add diversity and stir’ attitude by organizations that may or may not see gains in a firm’s effectiveness or financial performance.

Increasingly, companies are taking these kinds of principled ‘human-centric/moral’ stances. Salesforce has invested millions in analyzing wages and closing the gender pay gap. Many companies took a stand in North Carolina against the “bathroom bills” that discriminate against transgender people. Microsoft eliminated “stack ranking,” which amplified bias against women’s advancement. 

Issues of gender pay parity in India are far from encouraging with only a few companies being equal pay organizations (last year, Tata Starbucks became an equal pay company, Software firm Adobe achieved gender pay parity in India in 2018). Unlike in the UK and some other countries in the West, where it is mandatory for employers with 250 or more employees to calculate and report the gender pay gap in their organization, in India, there’s no such rule. While some companies have started tracking the compensation divide between genders, the data is circulated only within the management. Those who voluntarily reveal this data are mostly multinationals, extending their global practice in markets beyond their home country. However, some organizations are making efforts to engage with D&I in important ways. For e.g. Zomato announced  26 weeks (roughly six months) of paid parental leave for both men and women (in 2019) and extended the same to non-birthing parents (who adopt children). Zomato also revived the controversial Period Leave for women and transgender employees who are unable to attend office owing to the discomfort of their menstrual cycle.

So the question before us is, whether we should abandon the business case for D&I? It is worth noting that one of the reasons we don’t have compelling evidence about the economic impact of diversity is that we haven’t truly moved to inclusion and belonging. I’ve said this in Part I of my blog series, diversity by itself will not produce the benefits that organizations seek to achieve. Being genuinely valued and respected involves more than just ‘feeling’ included. It involves having the power to help set the agenda, influence what—and how—work is done, calling out injustice, taking a stand, and having one’s contributions recognized and rewarded with further opportunities to contribute and advance. 

My view is that by taking a more human-centered or moral approach, we will find multiple ways in which diverse workforces benefit companies and society. To put it another way, D&I initiatives will eventually lead us to the benefits of the business case; but I don’t think we should start there.

In the next blog post, I lay out some ways in which organizations can restructure power and work towards more meaningful inclusion and belonging. 

#diversityandinclusion #thebusinesscasefordiversityandinclusion #asktherightquestion #syngrity #inclusionintheworkplace

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

SOURCES

https://blog.vantagecircle.com/diversity-in-the-workplace-and-why-it-matters/

https://www.catalyst.org/research/why-diversity-and-inclusion-matter/

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters#

https://www.fastcompany.com/90462867/why-the-business-case-for-diversity-isnt-working

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-28/business-case-for-diversity-isn-t-enough-to-end-corporate-racism

https://sifted.eu/articles/diversity-business-case/ 

The post PART III – Unpacking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Blog Series appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

Last month’s blog was about going back to the basics and trying to understand what terms like diversity, equity and inclusion mean, especially in a workplace setting. This month, the blog picks up from where we left off to unpack unconscious bias and how it affects diversity and inclusion efforts in an organization.

Let me start out by saying that this is not an easy concept to unpack. I’m not a psychologist, far from an expert on the subject, and definitely hold a lot of unconscious biases myself. But the intent is to talk about it, put it out there, and start from a place of honesty and deep authenticity – a step that I think many organizations are beginning to see value in, and embrace.

What is unconscious bias?

Unconscious biases, also known as implicit bias, are attitudes and stereotypes accumulated throughout our lives that can influence our decision-making, particularly when something must be decided quickly. These biases are not always ‘negative’ but can lead to inaccurate assessments based on faulty rationale. For example, we might put someone on a pedestal because he/she has an Ivy League education without considering more information about him/her; we may judge a person negatively, as lazy because they are larger or heavier than average.

No matter how much we deny it, unconscious biases influence most of our decisions. Science tells us this is because our brains can consciously process 40 pieces of information per second—while we unconsciously process 11 million pieces. Therefore, for us to function with all the stimuli bombarding us, we create mental shortcuts that make decision-making easier. Studies tell us that this bias served to distinguish friend from foe to help early humans survive. The ability to quickly and automatically categorize people is thus a fundamental quality of the human mind. Categories give order to life, and every day, we group other people into categories based on social and other characteristics. 

Developing biases start at an early age, Social scientists believe children begin to acquire prejudices and stereotypes as toddlers. Many studies have shown that as early as age three, children pick up terms of prejudice without really understanding their significance. Soon, they begin to form attachments to their own group and develop negative attitudes about other groups, or the ‘out-group’. Once learned, stereotypes and prejudices resist change, even when evidence fails to support them or points to the contrary. People will embrace anecdotes that reinforce their biases, but disregard experience that contradicts them. 

Given that these biases form early on in life, and are integral to the way we make sense of the world, we naturally carry these biases with us everywhere we go, especially into the workplace. This automatically affects things like who gets recruited, hired, promoted, influences the overall culture of the workplace, and frequently leads to racism, ageism, ethnic profiling, and so on.

Let’s look at the different types of biases we hold.

1) Affinity Bias

Affinity bias leads us to favor people who we feel we have a connection or share similarity with. For example, attending the same college, growing up in the same town, or reminding us of ourselves or someone we know and like.  Affinity biases have a huge impact on recruitment. For example, if a candidate we have an affinity with tells us they’re a little nervous, we may smile more or offer more words of encouragement to try and set them at ease. Whereas, if a person we shared no affinity with told us the same thing, we wouldn’t behave quite as warm towards them. After the interview, the first candidate would seem to be a better fit than the second candidate.

2) Halo Effect

The Halo effect occurs when we perceive one great thing about a person and let that color our opinions of everything else about that person. As mentioned above, if we notice that someone went to a highly regarded college we tend to let this achievement influence how we see everything else about that person.

3) Horns Effect

The Horns effect is the direct opposite of the Halo effect, and occurs when our perception of someone is influenced by one negative trait (or what we perceive as a negative trait). For example, if we do not like the way someone dresses we might assume they are also lazy and unprofessional, even though professionalism and competence are not related to attire.

4) Attribution Bias

Attribution bias affects how we assess other people and their achievements. It can be particularly impactful during recruitment. When assessing ourselves, we tend to think our achievements are direct results of our merit and personality; while our failings are the result of external factors, including other people that adversely affected us and prevented us from doing our best. We are more likely to consider the achievements of others as a result of luck or chance; and their failings as a result of their personality or behavior.

5) Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information that aligns with our preconceived opinions. Recruiters must be cautious about this bias. If we make a judgement about a candidate, we subconsciously look for evidence to back up our own opinions. We want to believe we are right and that we have made the correct assessment of a candidate. The danger of confirmation bias in recruitment is that our own judgement could be inaccurate and result in the loss of a good candidate for the job.

These biases often color how we look at race, caste, gender, age, beauty, authority, and so on. The question for us to consider is whether we can truly de-bias ourselves and our practices.  The short answer to this question – No. However, we do have the means to train ourselves to recognize, interrupt and manage biases. The only way to do this is to point them out by educating ourselves and building safeguards in processes so that decision-making is more objective.  

Testing for unconscious bias

Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington created ‘Project Implicit’ to develop Hidden Bias Tests—called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world—to measure unconscious bias. These‘Implicit Association Tests’ (IATs) are designed to tap hidden stereotypes and prejudices that circumvent our conscious control. 

But there is a caveat. An article shows that when some people first took the test, they were happy with the results as it indicated no automatic preference for a race, ethnic group, and so on. According to this test, these people were free of bias, even at the subconscious level. However, when they took the IAT again a few days later, the results revealed a slight implicit preference for certain racial groups over others.

The article states that the IAT might not tell individuals much about their individual biases. According to a growing body of research, and the researchers who created the test, the IAT is not conclusive when it comes to predicting individual biases based on just one test. It requires multiple testing, or an aggregate of tests before it can really make any sort of conclusions (writer Jessica Nordell unpacks the complex and controversial science of implicit bias in her article and the idea that people can act in biased ways even when they sincerely reject discriminatory ideas).

Despite this, testing for bias is an important place to start. If people are aware of their hidden biases, they can monitor and attempt to control hidden attitudes before they are expressed through behavior and cause damage. Recognizing that the problem is in many others—as well as in ourselves—should motivate us all to try both to understand and to act. It can be easy to reject the results of the tests as ‘not me’ when we first encounter them. But that’s the easy path. To ask where these biases come from, what they mean, and what we can do about them, while difficult, is the only solution.

Tools to minimize workplace bias:

Assuming we begin to work towards recognizing our biases, there are many practices that we can follow to control or minimize its impact in the workplace.

1. Set D&I goals. From more innovation to more talented employees to higher retention rates, there is clear evidence for why companies should focus on creating diverse workplaces. Setting D&I goals is the first step that signals wanting to overcome unconscious biases that operate in the workplace. (I explore the business case for D&I in my next blog)
2. Widen your work circle. Work with a more diverse range of people and get to know them individually. This will help expand your horizons, lead to a better understanding of the cultural differences that exist in the world, and reduce the intensity of your biases.
3. Try blind recruitment. Removing information from a candidate’s application that might influence your hiring decision – such as name, age, location, and school name – can help you make a more objective decision on their suitability for a role-based only on relevant skills and experiences. Similarly, it is worthwhile investing in recruitment tools and software as it helps with eliminating biases in how we look at our talent pool and the overall recruitment process, by introducing some kind of standardization.
4. Writing neutral job adverts. Make use of tech tools to check if job adverts for your organization contain unintentional gender/race/ethnicity-specific language that could discourage men or women from diverse backgrounds from applying. For example, words such as ‘decisive’ and ‘self-confident’ are regarded as masculine-coded, while words such as ‘collaborative’, ‘empathy’, and ‘trust’ are seen as feminine-coded.
5. Use artificial intelligence (AI). While the debate on AI rages (the data used by algorithms to make decisions may reflect the biases of those who programmed it, as well as the previous human decisions that it uses as its data points), I personally think AI has significant potential to help limit the impact of our unconscious biases.
6. Invest in training. Regular and immersive training can help organizations address biases systematically and effectively. One-off interventions are less likely to be effective. Deep-diving into biases at various levels of the company can help reveal where biases lie and what biases are unique to groups/roles/teams/departments.  Stacey Gordon, a well-known D&I strategist, highlights that while organizations complain about the costs of such training, it is more important to focus on the cost of what unchecked biases could do to an organization’s image, reputation, and access to talent.
7. Publish data and conduct audits. It is important to publish and disseminate your D&I data and metrics in order to assess whether your commitment and practices to overcome unconscious bias are being met.  Audits and tracking metrics add legitimacy to change efforts.
8. And, finally, Encourage others to speak. It is crucial to ensure that everyone in your organization or team contributes to decision-making processes – not just the people who are like you or think like you. That way, you might realize that a decision may have been influenced by unconscious biases. This can only happen when you create a culture that encourages open dialogue and lets others know that they shouldn’t be afraid to speak up, refute or challenge one another.

These are just some of the many tools and steps we can take to rectify how our unconscious biases seep into organizational processes. But one does not have to wait for an ‘organization’ to take these initiatives. We as individuals can address it within ourselves as a start (we must not forget that we make up the institutions and processes we inhabit). One just has to google ‘unconscious bias/eliminating unconscious bias in the workplace to find plenty of research, innovative best practices, and tips we can apply in our daily life. 

I come back to the point I started this blog with – intent. At the end of the day, while recognizing that addressing unconscious bias is complex and far from easy, none of these ‘tools and practices’ will yield returns unless there is genuine intent, at an individual and organizational level, to educate ourselves about biases and manage it. Without it, our D&I practices will not just be lip-service, but may even be counterproductive to the end goal of inclusion.

In my next blog post, I discuss the business case for D&I goals. Till then, I leave you with an eye-opening TEDx Talk on unconscious bias by Valerie Alexander:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-cqFLS8Q4&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

#unconsciousbias  #diversityandinclusion  #asktherightquestion  #biasatwork  #syngrity

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

Sources:

https://skillpath.com/blog/unconscious-bias-training-for-companies-is-more-important-than-ever-

https://medium.com/@socialbeings/unconscious-bias-a9a145642fd9

https://www.catalyst.org/2020/01/02/interrupt-unconscious-bias/

https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/test-yourself-for-hidden-bias

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/7/14637626/implicit-association-test-racism

https://www.ciphr.com/features/unconscious-bias-in-the-workplace/

The post Part II – Unpacking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Blog Series appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

There is an abundance of resources and materials available online about DE&I in the workplace as a result of the fact that many corporations are pursuing DE&I goals. But what is immediately apparent is that achieving DE&I goals and strategies in the workplace is far from easy or straightforward.

A 2020 PwC Benchmarking Survey states that although global DE&I is a priority area for 76% of the organisations surveyed, many are struggling to translate DE&I strategies into action. In fact, 33% of respondents still feel diversity is a barrier to employee progression and only 5% of surveyed global organisations’ DE&I programmes reach the highest level of maturity. Diversity data on corporate India, while limited, indicates that although organisations are beginning to accept the need for diversity and workplaces are striving to be inclusive, we are dealing with deep-rooted socio-cultural biases and inertia that impede successful DE&I practices. 

The question before us then is how we overcome these chokepoints? What tools, language, and value propositions do we need to successfully meet diversity and enable inclusion in the workplace and possibly larger communities we are part of. In this seven-part blog series on DE&I, I explore a range of questions around these issues in the workplace, whether we are asking the right questions around it, and reflect on where we stand (globally and within the context of India) and need to get to in terms of benchmarks and values. In this first blog post, I start with the basics –  What is diversity and equity? What do we mean by inclusion? More importantly, how do these concepts intersect?

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Despite the renewed momentum around DE&I, there remains a visible lack of clarity around each of these terms. In some circles, we hear one or more of these terms used interchangeably. Elsewhere, we find DE&I used as a kind of non-specific catchall, when it might be more productive to zero in on a specific part of this concept for the purposes of identifying improvements and launching initiatives. It’s therefore helpful to define diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Diversity refers to political beliefs, race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, class, age, and gender identity differences. In the workplace, diversity means your employees consist of individuals who bring new perspectives and backgrounds to the table. It’s important to remember that diversity is less about what makes people different—their race, socioeconomic status, and so on—and more about understanding, accepting, and valuing those differences.

Whereas diversity refers to all the many ways that people differ, equity is about creating fair access, opportunity, and advancement for all those different people. It’s about creating a fair playing field, to use a familiar metaphor. To use a common example, not everyone within an organization will own a car, or even be able to afford public transportation on a daily basis. An organization can create a more equitable environment by accommodating the full spectrum of transportation needs, from policies around start times and working hours to allowances for both automobile and public transportation travel. Successful equity initiatives, then, must build fairness and equal treatment into the very fabric of an organization on the premise that not everyone has the same set of resources. 

Finally, inclusion means that everyone in the diverse mix feels involved, valued, respected, treated fairly, and embedded in your culture. Empowering all employees and recognizing their special talents is part of creating an inclusive company.

How do diversity, equity, and inclusion intersect?

All three components of DE&I are important一diversity without a sense of equity and inclusion can result in a toxic culture, and inclusion without diversity can make a company a homogenous monolith, stagnant and uncreative. Further, companies are starting to focus more on diversity, but many disregard the equity and inclusion piece of the puzzle. Without a concerted effort towards all three components, the workforce is bound to feel out of place and unsupported. There’s a common misconception that environments in which diversity and equity are priorities naturally lead to inclusion.  The truth is that even among the most diverse teams, there is no guarantee of equity and inclusion. Women might be well represented at the senior management level, but still not feel included due to longstanding gender norms, salary discrepancies, and other factors.

Diversity and inclusion expert Verna Myers, founder, and president of Verna Myers Consulting Group coined the phrase:

Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.

The phrase is powerful in the way that it distinguishes the two terms, which for many, mean the same thing.  It articulates (though somewhat abstractly) that diversity is about ‘representation’, and inclusion is about ‘involvement’.  They are really different things, and it’s important to help people understand that. It’s not just about having people from different social backgrounds in your organisation, but about supporting, nurturing, and facilitating their progression within the workspace. Myers says that embracing inclusion requires “the institution to fully integrate its understanding of and appreciation for the diverse cultures and backgrounds of its employees.”

Let’s look at an example of women in tech industries. A large percentage of women drop out of the IT industry in their mid-30s, mainly because women do not get the support from their managers/organisations to continue after a parental break. As a result, women refrain or hesitate from taking a break/sabbatical after a long-running engagement or starting a family because they know that once they come back, things would have changed at a much quicker pace than they could keep up with. For all we know, they might not feel included during conversations, as their peers might not consider the fact that they have just come back and need to be briefed about what has been going on around or what they could do to get up to speed. If employers are unable to help women keep up with the pace and address their blockers, it will not help – no matter how well they advocate for women in tech (or any industry for that matter).

Some immediate responses to the example above come to mind. Perhaps initiatives such as getting leadership to start working themselves flexibly. e.g., working from home and encouraging others to do the same to maintain a work-life balance; using flexible working hours to accommodate family needs and commitments; ensure employees are aware of their rights with regards to flexible work; institutionalising regular communications to all employees at monthly catch-ups, conferences and one on one conversations discussing the benefit of flexible work; providing employees time, resources and space to upskill themselves; any training which would enable them to get acclimated to the market changing trends and ensuring employees are aware of coaching and mentoring programs that will help them hit the ground running could improve the ways in which women in the workplace feel included.

But such efforts that help organisations move from just being ‘diverse’ to ensuring inclusion is a big shift. In order to do this, a lot of organizational cultural training is required. Myers highlights the significant way unconscious biases and blind spots operate in our unconscious mind. She says, “our brains are highly habitual. Our brains start reaching conclusions without immediately telling us that it’s doing so. It’s looking for things that go together” (In my next blog, I unpack the idea of unconscious bias, how it operates, not just in the workspace, but outside our working lives).

More importantly, Myer’s phrase about how diversity and inclusion are connected is not the end goal.  We must take her phrase one step further and examine ‘who is doing the asking’ and ‘who is doing the dancing’. Very often, it’s a specific group that controls the ‘dance floor’ that others dance on. The person has to be invited by someone else. The person has to be asked to dance by someone else.  You may be included, but someone else has the decision rights on whether and when that will happen. 

What seems to me to be a better vision for DE&I is to create a sense where marginalized or underrepresented peoples are no longer dependent on an offer of brief ‘inclusion’ but where they are equally able to be ‘party planners’ within the organisation. In other words, we should be striving for ‘belonging’ so that people are being asked for inputs on the music, food, and decorations of the party. You don’t have to wait for someone to ask you to dance. You can determine who you dance with.  You have as much a right to influence the playlist as anyone else – even if your music choices might be different than anyone else’s. ‘Belonging’ is not just a ‘nice thing’ to have, it is truly the point at which we start to see real benefits when it comes to team and business performance and the return on investment (ROI) in DE&I.

At the end of the day, representation and inclusion matter and it’s great that workplaces are beginning to recognise the value of diversity in ensuring a better workforce, brand image, reputation, innovation, and generating profits. But, organizations must commit to going all the way and proactively invest in tools needed to create organization-wide accountability, redesign working models, and change cultures to become not just inclusive but belonging-oriented, if there is to be any real transformation.

In the next blog, I unpack unconscious bias and how it affects DE&I efforts in the organisation.  Do let us know your thoughts on DE&I or share experiences around it in the comments section.

#asktherightquestion  #diversityandinclusion  #organisationalaccountability

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

Sources:

1. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/global-diversity-and-inclusion-survey/global-report.pdf 
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inclusion-isnt-being-asked-dance-daniel-juday/ 
3. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2016/05/diversity_is_being_invited_to.htm/ 
4. https://www.achievers.com/blog/the-definition-of-employee-engagement/ 

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Source for AQI: https://app.cpcbccr.com/AQI_India/

The air is cleaner, for sure.

I was walking my dogs on a 50 meter stretch of road just outside my house, at night, two days back. There is a tree just next to a street light at the end of the lane. For the last 4-5 years, I have observed these tiny particles in the air that become visible with the street light. Sometimes these particulate matter is so dense that the leaves of the tree appeared hazy. Not any more. In Delhi, the AQI levels are ranging from 70 – 120 past these days. As I write this, the AQI is 67. Living in Delhi, these numbers almost sound unreal. We are used to the range of 250 – 999. Plus there is no construction and there is less/no traffic.

Birds in my neighbourhood.

I wake up to the constant chattering of the birds.

From my balcony, you can observe various species of birds like the Black Drongo, Pigeons, Common Mynahs, Pariah Kites, tones of Rose Ringed Parrots, Indian Rollers, Laughing Doves, Koels and an occasional Shikra. It’s such a pleasure to wake up to this chitter chatter. With all the infrasouds in the atmosphere and human involvement, one hardly gets to hear a cacophony of birds, any more. Try identifying the bird calls that you can hear.

Dolphins in Mumbai. Photo Courtesy: The internet

The animals are out.

Whilst my two beagles can’t get over the fact that I am at home, all the time, the dolphins have returned in Mumbai waters, the swans returned in Italy, the Neelgai is seen in Noida; sometimes I feel that they are thanking us for remaining inside so they can roam around freely. The waters are cleaner for the fish to swim. There is lesser pollution everywhere and animals are just rejoicing. They seem the happiest. The cats are a different story.

5 stages of grief during a pandemic. Photo Courtesy: Syngrity

David Kessler, author of The sixth stage of grief, adds another stage of grief; finding meaning in all the grief. He also explains anticipatory grief.

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