HR’s D&I struggle

HR faces many challenges, some of which cause a great deal of frustration. However, the solving of these problems can lead to huge advantages for both the business and the individuals it employs. A growing concern of modern day HR is in effectively managing and leveraging Diversity & Inclusion. HR Magazine media partnered the Community Business Conference 2016 and spoke with some of the current thought leaders in HR about this issue and how finding solutions generates much broader gains for HR and the business as a whole. Our cover story explores this seminal sharing from the conference together with that from other thought leaders in the D&I sphere.

Unavoidable? Biases

It is arguable that some of the major Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) challenges faced by HR are simply part of human nature. Biases exist everywhere, in all countries and cultures and businesses, because these entities are formed by people. Many biases are subconscious, and have their roots in the environment we grew up in. It may therefore be concluded that many biases are subconscious and naturally occurring, and so we must consider them unavoidable. Tinna Nielsen, Founder, Move the Elephant for Inclusiveness, however, strongly disagrees with this notion. She stated, “If you can notice your biases, you can challenge and change them!” On the importance of this understanding in relation to D&I she continued, “The first step towards total inclusion is really acknowledging that you are going to be making unconscious choices regarding who you hire, who you work with, and how you work with them.” She added, “These biases can also vary wildly. It may be a person’s religion, gender or race, but they may even be something very superficial such as the colour of shirt someone wore the first time you met them.”

MARK FOWLER, Deputy CEO, Tanenbaum

Religion & culture often forgotten

One area that tends to be fertile ground for bias is religion. Race, sexual orientation and gender equality may have somewhat more traction in diversity-advocating circles, but according to Mark Fowler, Deputy CEO, Tanenbaum, religion remains relatively untouched. Fowler strongly encouraged an open dialogue on this particularly sensitive topic. He stated, “Think terrorism, hate crime, white supremacists and the rise of Trump. It breeds an anti-Muslim sentiment. Hate crimes are on the rise in America.” How is this relevant to HR? External factors will affect your talent in the workplace. Mistreatment based on religion often goes unreported. Fowler explained, “People don’t always come forward to stand up for their freedoms; they will suffer in silence and that is a sure fire shortcut to losing talent.”

Empathetic boardrooms

To start confronting bias Nielsen recommends encouraging empathy at the senior level—with the decision makers. She suggests that it is vital that they understand how it feels to be excluded or treated badly. Nielsen proposed, “We need to trigger the part of the brain where empathy is. Sitting in the boardroom, senior leaders often cannot empathise with what is actually happening further down.” A more empathetic boardroom may be in a position to initiate the necessary change to bring about further inclusivity and diversity.

Regarding the challenge of implementing this change, Nia Joynson-Romanzina, Founder, iCubed (Former Global Head of I&D, UBS) takes a practical approach. She advised, “A small nudge here, a small nudge there can lead to organisations achieving significant change in shifting the paradigm towards greater inclusion and richer diversity. Combating bias is not an exact science and thus there is no fixed plan of action, but pacifism is unlikely to yield results.”

Accommodating workplaces

Fowler believes that taking some practical steps to accommodate people in the workplace is a good place to start. He recommended, “This can be done in a manner of simple ways, for example, simple additions such as including a quiet room for prayer. But there are many other things to take into account such as diet, scheduling, attire and time off.” Of these things Fowler cautioned, “We all have blind spots when it comes to the idea of religion and culture in the workplace. Let’s not rely on our own experience to consider whether there is actually relevant work to do.”

HR role still limited

If biases are to be quashed and companies are to become more inclusive and diverse, it is important that HR is able to play a role in effecting change. There is much talk in HR circles of the evolving role of HR. Much is made of HR as a ‘business partner’ that actively collaborates and influences management. However, Niki Kesoglou, Group Head of Diversity & Inclusion, QBE Insurance Group Limited, believes there is still a long way to go in this regard.

Although keen to stress that she did not wish to generalise across all businesses, she felt that the role of HR has still not evolved enough to keep up with the changing world around it. Kesoglou posited, “There is sometimes a lack of sophistication in understanding when it concerns the role of HR. They continue to focus largely on operations and undertaking transactions, many times on behalf of leaders who continue to operate as technical managers.” Instead she believes it is necessary for HR and Leadership to work together in identifying a company culture that will help the business adapt to change and realise its full potential. Both leadership and cultures need to constantly evolve and adapt to survive the changing world and attitudes of employees and consumers.

Without this active partnership there is a danger that all the talk about D&I will remain just ‘talk’. Kesoglou continued, “You can’t talk about being growth-oriented, collaborative and innovative and then continue to hire, value and reward the same technical experts who are familiar, polite and compliant. In practice, many organisations don’t align themselves in management style, expectations and what they value in people with what they profess to want.” This is a serious concern for diversity and inclusion. It is very unlikely that a modern day company would profess to being against D&I, but the amount they are doing to further it in practice can vary wildly. Kesoglou seems concerned that the HR’s limited focus plays in many companies is preventing them from fully addressing the issue.

NiQ Lai, Head of Talent Engagement and CFO, Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) believes that part of the issue has been ineffective selling of the advantages of investing in HR. He observed, “Unless there is a direct long-term linkage between innovative HR initiatives and financial performance, the funding for extra HR activities will stop.” Has HR failed to sell the advantages of more diversity & inclusion?

ANGELINA KWAN, Board Vice-Chair, The Women's Foundation and Head of Regulatory Compliance, Listing and Regulatory Affairs Division, HKEx

Angelina Kwan, Board Vice-Chair, The Women’s Foundation and Head of Regulatory Compliance, Listing and Regulatory Affairs Division, HK Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) at least seems convinced of the advantages. Referring back to 2008, she proclaimed, “If there had been a Lehman Sisters—and it had been working with Lehman Brothers and Lehman Children—we would be in a different position economically today.”

Leaders still thinking short term

If HR is to take on the role many seem to believe is essential in order to tackle some of the major challenges facing business, including D&I, it is essential that there are business leaders who share this vision. A major challenge facing HR is a propensity among business leaders to think only of the short-term. Developing leaders with a long-term outlook is something many organisations are not doing effectively enough.

It is obvious that the environment, for example, will not survive the drain on resources that a short-term view of business inflicts. There is an urgent need to readdress the balance between short-term requirements and long-term consequences. Key to encouraging more long-term thinking is developing leaders who are able to view things from a broader perspective. As Kelvin Cheung, Chief Operating Officer, Good Lab emphasised, “Leadership is more than buzzwords and sustainability reports.”

ERIC STRYSON, Managing Director, GIFT

Eric Stryson, Managing Director, GIFT shared some key trials and tribulations of leadership development. Stryson stressed, “Human development is the long game.” The first step towards being a better leader is to develop the ability to rise above the drudgery of the present. He continued, “It does take time to open up, and to actually distance oneself from the day-to-day onslaught of emails and business demands. Only then can you focus properly on the problems at hand, both in the environment around you and in your own work.” Once leaders have acquired this ability they will see the advantages of allocating time to personal development and the constructing of broad perspective long-term strategies that take account of more than just the immediate needs of the company and individual.

Kesoglou believes that having the correct leadership is crucial to resolving the earlier-mentioned sometimes rather antiquated viewpoint of HR. She stated, “Leadership is number one. If I could change one thing it would be moving the quality of leadership away from just valuing technical knowledge and expertise, and instead looking to hire more rounded leaders who naturally have soft skills and can grow people, create a collaborative workplace, engage diverse talent and develop an authentic brand.” Identifying what kind of culture a company wishes to promote should also come from the top. She concluded, “Leaders need to understand the business that they currently operate under and ask themselves whether this aligns with their desired state. If not, they need to change how they makkkedecisions, what they reward, hire and promote.in line with that culture. It is leadership that shapes culture, not HR.”

Helpful HR initiatives that nurture D&I

With HR facing a battle against internalised bias, limitations on its influence, and a leadership that finds it difficult to look beyond the numbers of today and see a longer-term perspective, what can be done to resolve the situation? What some HR practitioners are doing to move things forward and bring about genuine change and progress requires further examination.

#1 Collaboration

If businesses become overly insular their leaders can sometimes become a little narrow-minded and miss out on opportunities that perhaps lie outside of their usual scope of thinking. Collaboration with other sectors is one route that could lead to solving internal problems as well as revealing previously unforeseen business opportunities and ensuring that products and services being developed by businesses are of maximum benefit to society.

Jyoti Chopra, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, BNY Mellon highlighted collaboration as being the biggest step HR can take towards addressing workplace inequality. She asserted, “Our alliances with Community Business, Asia Society, Out Leadership and Interbank—as some examples—are vital when confronting D&I challenges. Broadening one’s perspective beyond just one’s own organisation is of great benefit when trying to drive legislative change.”

Ada Wong, JP, Chairperson, Make A Difference was keen to speak about the latest development in cross-sector collaboration: tri-leadership. For the uninitiated, tri-leadership involves collaboration between three sectors: government, business and non-profit. Each of these sectors has differing goals and approaches. The idea of tri-leadership (or tri-sector leadership) is that it takes the best elements of each sector and combines them to produce an all-encompassing and more balanced view of challenges within and outside of business.

Eliza Lee, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, HKU commented, “The paradigm is changing and the main goal is no longer necessarily profit. Collaboration is becoming a greater force than competition.” What this means, in a more tangible sense, is identifying opportunities that tap into progressively humanitarian ideals, rather than just shifting excessive quantities of consumer goods for the lowest possible cost. This shift towards a more CSR-centric model also helps HR attract and retain a diverse range of talent.

Stryson identified a specific example, “Opportunities across the region are being overlooked because we are fixated on consuming. Across the Association Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 200 million people don’t have toilets and hand washing facilities, therefore creating massive health issues and disease which in turn is a huge loss on productivity.” Advocating collaboration between business and government can help identify such opportunities to develop valid business while making a positive contribution to society. Wong added, “The borders of the three different sectors are becoming increasingly blurred and no longer can governments alone solve social problems.”

#2 Attracting female talent

What happens when certain demographics seem to be uninterested in specific fields, or industries? This is the challenge faced by many companies looking for graduates of STEM subjects. The lack of female participation in these subjects means recruiting a diverse workforce is a major challenge for some industries. Sophie Guerin, APJ Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Dell was keen to pass on what Dell has been doing to counteract this issue.

Guerin explained, “Research has shown that around the ages of 13 and 14 girls start to drop out and lose interest in STEM related learning. This means Dell has begun to focus on the grassroots, engaging with girls at a younger age in order to capture their interest.” Schemes such as the Girls Outreach Programme and the humorously named IT Is Not Just for Geeks focus on making STEM more attractive to young teenagers.

Employees at Dell worked with students on the Girl Student Outreach Programme over the course of 25 weeks, educating them on the skills required to work in the IT industry, encouraging them to work on networking skills and inculcating confidence in them. The participants were taken through basic programming languages and worked on computing, networking and storage.

Both programmes work towards tackling low uptake of STEM subjects by girls through providing interaction with Dell representatives. Guerin defined the aims of the programmes, “The goal is to reveal some of the previously unseen avenues of future employment and to make tech more accessible to girls.” Dell—being a computer tech company—is uniquely positioned to offer these things. Combining engaged leadership and accountability, active mentoring of talent and monitoring of development, Dell hopes to see a greater intake of female STEM workers in the coming years.

SOPHIE GUERIN, APJ Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Dell

As Dell’s efforts make clear, other than the macro-ideas to do with strategy, collaboration and long-term thinking it is also important to have initiatives that aim to proactively remedy the issues faced today. When it concerns diversity and inclusion, there are a number of initiatives that various companies are carrying out that are making a difference.

#3 Flexible workforces

Dell is also a strong advocate for a flexible workforce through the promotion of formal flex contracts. Guerin commented, “Currently we have 28% of staff formally registered as flexible workers, and we are really trying to push that up to 50%. It’s great because employees get to choose more of when and how they like to work.” This freedom to work around life’s other demands is a step forward in furthering D&I in the workforce. It is typically women who have suffered from the traditional work life structure, so with a greater flexibility around working hours, it is hoped that one major obstacle to a successful career has been reduced.

#4 Men advocating women

Sophie Guerin was similarly very keen to discuss Men Advocating Real Change (MARC)—a project that encourages men to join and speak for gender equality. She stated, “When it comes to gender equality, it cannot be just women banging at the door asking for inclusion. We need to get men in on the act as well!” It is no secret that a lot of the decision makers are men, so making use of male advocates is seen as a good solution to overcoming potential resistance.

#5 Diverse networks

At BNY Mellon, to promote D&I employees are invited to engage in internal networks that provide a space for various groups to interact. These include LGBT, special needs, GenEdge and Woman’s mentorship programmes. GenEdge is increasingly catching on, wherein the mentorship model is flipped and the younger talent are actually coaching the more mature including higher management, bridging the traditional generation gap.

#6 Local engagement

Company-wide initiatives on improving D&I are extremely important, but Chopra insists that a lack of local engagement with strategies is often the reason little real progress is made. Chopra explained, “A strategy can be implemented and deployed at a regional level but also at a very local level. This is where traction and engagement happens.” She further advised, “You need to spend a lot of time in the region. You cannot run a successful D&I initiative from an office in New York. You have to be present there. APAC is very nuanced and unique, and each of these locales has to be understood. It is the fastest growing region in the world, and without a very local view it is not possible to operate and build successful business teams.”

So although still a challenging area for HR, there are numerous ways in which D&I can not only be enhanced, but leveraged to drive business success. With a bit of initiative and a lot of persistence HR can champion amazing results through nurturing D&I while at the same time contributing to the bottom line which the CFO will be loving too.

FEM NGAI, CEO, Community Business (third from left) with speakers from the Community Business Conference 2016

Tattoos and piercings: is prejudice causing SME's to miss out on talent?