‘We Listened, We Understood, and We Did Something’

BY Angelica Frey | July 03, 2022

When leaders at IPG Media Brands, the global media and marketing firm, noticed that a lot of women, especially the ones with care-giving roles, were leaving the workforce during the pandemic, they promptly convened focus groups. Essentially, women in the groups felt that they couldn’t take a break, said Hermon Ghermay, IPG’s global chief culture officer. The women acknowledged that they had discretionary time off, but felt that they couldn’t use it because they couldn’t fully log off from work and worried about possible retaliation once they got back to the office.

“The only time they felt they could take time off is when the office is closing between Christmas and New Year’s,” Ghermay said.  So her company’s leaders considered how to replicate that break and decided to close the office again, for the week after Labor Day. “This did not solve the systemic issues,” said Ghermay, “but we listened, we understood, and did something.”

Listening, understanding, and acting upon what has been learned, as Ghermay’s example showed, is a superb way to develop an inclusive culture–not just to increase empathy for caregivers, but for all overlooked and under-appreciated workers. That was among the lessons shared by expert panelists in a conversation at From Day One’s May conference in Brooklyn with journalist Siobhan O’Connor.

In the last two years, what people expect of work and leaders has changed, with formerly taboo conversations now being not only accepted, but also expected. “What made an effective leader pre-pandemic is so different post-pandemic,” said Emma Mon, head of global talent at the real-estate service company JLL. “We still have leaders who still try to manage like they did pre pandemic.” In particular, she recalls how, at the height of the pandemic, JLL launched an employee resource group (ERG) for parents and other caregivers. “We had a session, and I could not believe the things in the chat, how many people were saying they were alone, overwhelmed. The people that were key leaders had no idea how to respond to any of that.”

How to make leaders more aware of the diverse life experiences around them–and change their behavior? Among the highlights from the experts?

Shifting From Awareness to Action 

It starts with conversations. Maria Mejia, a learning experience designer at the management-training platform Hone, is one of the people responsible for creating DEI and leadership training materials. “At the macro level, organizations want curricula that will meet them where they are and help them grow,” Mejia said, pointing towards more attention being devoted to the oft-forgotten leader, “the middle manager that now has this knowledge and wants to do something but does not know how to start and is uncomfortable reaching out.”

Emma Mon of JLL and Mejia, who said: “It’s key that leaders max out on demo-ing empathy”

On the micro level, by contrast, four skills in particular can contribute to inclusive culture. “Skills are transferable regardless of role,” Mejia said. These skills are: having curiosity (the ability get past one’s own discomfort); creating psychological safety within a team; developing fluency in intercultural competency (the ability to recognize difference and embracing it); and conflict management. “[Conflict] is going to happen in the workplace, and it’s up to you to find how to work around that,” Mejia said.

Democratizing Learning and Development Programs: The Case for Creative Pairings

Katasha Harley, the chief people officer for the coaching platform Bravely, has been studying intersectional data for a long time, which she sees as a starting point for designing learning and development and leadership programs in a personalized way. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, for example, she had senior leaders reach out to employees for one-hour conversations. “We know that relationships are important in career mobility. This creates new relationships, and then you begin to track how that appears: What do their career journeys look like, based on these experiences?” she said.

This does not solely apply to HR leaders, though. Harley advocates for having people with different roles in the same room: someone from tech, someone from marketing. “Who does this person have the least amount of exposure to?” is what she asks herself. The result is a cross-functional approach of people who would not normally talk to each other in the course of their work.

The full panel, including R. Carmel Boyle-Lewis of NYU at far left and moderator Siobhan O’Connor at far right

Similarly, IPG Mediabrands tackled inclusivity and representation where they observed the biggest representation gaps, which varies around the world. In the U.S., it’s Black talent; in Mexico, by comparison, it’s indigenous talent. The solution was a pilot program resting on three pillars, so that leaders could learn from it and scale it. The first step was focusing on the relationship between employee and manager, and not just their manager, but their skip-level manager. Creating structured ways to meet up on a monthly schedule proved helpful. “The second component is if that’s a relationship between your manager and your skip-level manager, let’s take you out of that group, and look at the relationship that you might have with a sponsor,” she continued. “So we created an advocate program, which is part mentorship, part sponsorship.” As a final piece, the company introduced an external coach for 1:1 coaching, an objective expert for employees to work with. The outcome: “We had a higher rate of people who were part of the program who were getting promoted,” said Ghermay.

Empowering People to Say No 

R. Carmel Boyle-Lewis, the HR director at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, has been spearheading efforts to have staff and faculty be more reflective of the student population. To improve the hiring process, Boyle-Lewis employed what she called “creative tactics.” She and her team created an inclusive recruiting guide, with the goal of mitigating bias and creating job descriptions that eliminated barriers.

“Our faculty is 65% white, which does not reflect the community or the student base,” she said. So she moved toward a new strategy. When there’s a job vacancy, and when there’s no candidate who brings diversity to the pool of finalists, the hiring process for that position freezes. “I brought this practice to my dean. We started doing that to drive home the fact that we want to see individuals to match the student base,” she said.

Leaders should be sensitive to what they’re not hearing from their team members. “Silence can convey something too,” said Mejia, who works with organizations where one of the values is to bring one’s whole self to work. “That means that, as an employee, I am going to get distracted, feel emotions, and that my productivity is not going to be at an optimal level. So it’s key that leaders max out on demo-ing empathy, especially when that community does not look or sound like that leader in question.” Failure of leaders to speak up and connect, Mejia warned, leads employees to create their own narratives. “[They think] maybe they belong somewhere else.”

Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Milan and Brooklyn.

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More than 50% of workers strongly (21%) or somewhat (34%) agreed that their employer thinks their workplace environment is a lot mentally healthier than it actually is, and 43% reported worrying that if they told their employer about a mental health condition, it would have a negative impact on them in the workplace, reads the report.Well-being does not just mean wellness. “We’re looking at well being in the less traditional way: we’re looking at it through the lens of social, emotional, and financial wellbeing,” said Magdalena Dexter, SVP of communication and HR at manufacturing company Saint Gobain, which operates in 76 countries and has a workforce of 76,000 in North America alone. “Think about well-being holistically. It [encompasses] physical, financial, career growth,” Christmas said.When thinking about well-being and how to build it within an organization, the first question Tyler Zalucki, client executive at Marsh McLennan Agency asks is: “‘What is your feedback loop?’ and ‘How are you capturing the sentiment of employees and colleagues through a well-being lens?’”The panelist spoke in a discussion titled, "Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture," moderated by Lizzy McLellan Ravitch, Business Coverage Editor, the Philadelphia Inquirer“In our organization, the respective manager will fill out a survey and speak with individuals to capture their sentiment and aggregate it,” he said. Then, during their town hall, the CFO and HR Director offer solutions to what was shared. “This feedback led to changes like implementing paternity leave, increasing contributions to the 401(k), and making December 24th a full day off,” he said. “It reinforces the sense that ‘my voice matters,’ because if feedback goes into the ether, employees feel unheard.”Getting Specific With NeedsCora Claus, VP of HR at Burlington Stores, emphasized the importance of understanding the employee population: who are they? What do they need? What do they want? “I work for a retailer, largely female based, and for a long time we had a lot of them going on leave of absence, starting their families, and they’re not getting paid but a minimum wage,” she said. “We now are implementing policies: as you’re designing the policies, who are you writing them for?”Getting to know the workforce also means helping to clear away any misconceptions. Scott Thompson is the CEO of Tuition.io, which helps employees with financial education. The total amount of student-loan debt is close to $1.8 trillion dollars, and you might be surprised at who the most affected group is. “The fastest growing segment for student loans is 55 and up,” said Thompson. “That’s parents taking on debt for their kids.”In order to thrive at work, people need to feel included. “As we know, DEI is under intense scrutiny, but at its core, it’s about inclusion—making sure people can bring themselves to work in a way that feels comfortable,” said Christmas. “A lot of people say, ‘Bring your whole self to work,’ but many employees feel more comfortable bringing just 55% of themselves. How do we support that?” Christmas emphasizes the idea that for DEI work to work, “it has to be seen as everyone’s responsibility. This includes sponsoring events and encouraging leaders to show up. One impactful practice is having senior leaders participate in quarterly calls, asking questions, and engaging in the conversation.”Ultimately, a company can have the best programs, but if the leaders don’t buy into them, don’t lead with that and implement them, you really don’t have a culture of well-being. “You can put the best parental leave in place, but if a senior leader can complain that he has 3 people out, it’s going to send waves through the organization about how we truly feel about it,” said Dexter. “It’s not just about having the program, it’s about talking positively about it, showing examples of how important it is to take advantage of it.”Universal NeedsStudent loan debt has only become more challenging for borrowers, partly due to all the noise in the media. Efforts to improve the situation have unintentionally made it worse, as some employers diminished the importance of loan support, assuming it would be resolved under the current administration. “That hasn’t happened—and likely won’t,” said Thompson.“When we break down student loan debt by age segments, we see the impact. For example, a recent college graduate with $40,000 in debt faces a monthly payment of about $500 after taxes,” he continued. “At 25, I would not have been able to make that payment. And it doesn’t get easier over time; most people aim to pay off their loans in 10 years, but it often turns into a 21-year commitment due to the financial missteps that come with starting a career,” said Thompson.And while he is not suggesting that all companies need to contribute to loan payments—though that would be nice and certainly helpful, “offering assistance in understanding options and finding pathways to manage debt is a big win, with spectacular retention benefits,” he said. “It’s about meeting employees where they are and helping them move forward.”In many companies, the adage seems to consist of teams being told to do more with less, and that might be at odds with well-being. “When I think about my own organization, when I think about doing more with less, we have an AI tool that allows you access to compliance resources and will also write emails,” said Zalucki. 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Angelica Frey | November 06, 2024

The Backlash Against DEI: How Perceptions Are Being Driven by Fear and Sensationalism, Not Facts

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There were a lot of people in the room who were saying it’s hard that the topic has become so politicized when that’s not why they had invested all these resources into [DEI].”Earl Hopkins of the Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed Dr. Stephanie J. Creary, of the Wharton School Hopkins pointed to the politicization of DEI and how recently it’s faced a lot of legal and political backlash. “Which has prompted many companies to retreat on their initial commitments, or at least...keep their head down amid the storm,” Hopkins said. 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Matthew Koehler | November 06, 2024

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I don’t know if we have a great answer for that yet, but I know that’s the next mountain to climb.”One way human qualities like psychological safety can be measured, Gabrysh says, is through their impact on other areas. “When organizations embed psychological safety training, when organizations create this safe space, people are more comfortable saying or doing [certain] things. That’s where we start to see change occur, and the rest of the metrics start to improve as a result,” she said.And the utilization of people analytics itself, Taylor says, should engender psychological safety within an organization, “because [workers know] the entire person is understood, the entire workforce is understood, their impact on the business is understood, as well as the business impact on the person. If it’s just a manager making a decision based on emotion [then] there’s no psychological safety in that.”People analytics is also making strides in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, shedding light on areas where it may be lacking and where, Gosney says, leaders can enact change. “People analytics is changing our HR structures to support solving problems instead of supporting traditional processes,” he said. And for UCHealth, it’s paid off. “We’ve improved our BIPOC internal promotion rate by 40% in two years.”Making People Analytics Work For YouSo how can an organization that has yet to dive into people analytics get started?“When you’re talking about people analytics, you need to start with desired business outcomes,” Gosney said, noting the need to first define the goals, objectives, and challenges the organization is facing. “Then you translate that into key employee experience components. Is it psychological safety? Is it flexibility? Is it skills development? Is it retention, or is it engagement? That then informs the questions that you ask in an engagement survey, or the data points that you’re looking for.”The measurement of skills should then impact the action taken by the organization, particularly when it comes to developing talent and filling the gaps. “Developing that continuous learning culture is paramount,” Gabrysh said.Adding AI to the Equation“Data is organized and structured and predicts outcomes, whereas psychological safety is constantly moving,” said moderator Noelle Phillips, senior reporter for The Denver Post. So how can it be quantified? That’s where AI comes in. Herrod’s organization introduced an AI conversation coach–after a deep data privacy review–to boost employee engagement. The AI reviews comments gained from employee listening to identify meaningful themes and recommend leadership actions.The ability to work with AI is also a skill that will need to be accounted for. “We’re all feeling this need, individually and as businesses, to adapt to a dynamically changing market, and AI is compounding that,” Taylor said. Workforce planning will need to happen more often, he says, than once a year. “This is an ongoing thing that needs to happen every day. And it isn’t just an HR job. It’s the manager’s job to make sure that you have the right workforce. And so, having the right data around the skills that you need, the skills that you have, [and] the skills you need to develop internally becomes really important, and you have to continuously shapeshift your workforce in today’s day and age.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | November 05, 2024