- Diversity ties into companies’ bottom lines, and therefore it should be embedded into core business strategy and processes.

- Cross-industry collective action is necessary to shape the future of diversity and inclusion.

- Preliminary internal work (i.e., self awareness and examining personal values and biases) is necessary for credibility in the diversity context.

- Let’s not skirt taboo issues- it is important to discuss and engage “undiscussables, intractables, and untouchables” in our organizations.

- Diversity is no longer a U.S. centric focus, but rather an increasingly global challenge- Are we ready to take on a global diversity approach?

- Maximize the talent pipeline by improving education at middle/high school and college levels and increasing graduation rates and marketable skills (especially for people of color).

- How do we best address cross-generational challenges in the workplace?

- Who are we excluding that may enhance our diversity efforts?

- Let’s leverage the national excitement around Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to encourage impactful and productive dialogues around race and diversity.

On a broad scale, we have begun to address the ailments of racism and discrimination that threaten the ideals upon which American society prides itself. In the twenty-first century, the United States is more than ever a multi-cultural patch quilt of racial and ethnic backgrounds, religions, orientations, values, ideas, and experiences. Many Americans today would acknowledge this is as being a good thing and one of our nation’s greatest assets. As evidence, shifting mentalities have brought our country to a point where we can realistically look forward to electing a black man or a woman as our president—a tremendous milestone in the long struggle for civil rights and equal opportunity.

Yet while the United States has indeed come a long way since the1960s, there is reason to question whether we have only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of ensuring real equity, opportunity, and prosperity for all groups. Our educational system and workplaces are good areas to apply our analysis of how far we still need to go to achieve true equality and fairness. The present challenge is to identify and understand the more subtle forms of bias and hidden barriers around us—These are perhaps less visible from the surface, but they are no less insidious than the overt forms of discrimination Dr. King fought against, and they continue to marginalize underprivileged groups in very real ways.

Giving Notice challenges all of us to dive deep into this discussion of inequities and how we can create innovative approaches to mitigating them effectively. Our ability to reframe and refresh our understanding of the issues at hand and the work that needs to be done is ever more vital, especially as the playing field inevitably becomes increasingly diverse and globalized.

As found in the authors’ research and clearly evident in the multitude of readers’ responses to Tara Parker’s article, bullying has a very real presence and profoundly negative impact in the workplace today—not only for individual employees, but for companies’ bottom lines as well.  The Corporate Leavers Survey, a nationwide study conducted by the Level Playing Field in 2007, found that over 2 million managers and professionals voluntarily leave their jobs every year due solely to workplace unfairness, including bullying.  In fact, bullying was one of the most frequently experienced forms of unfairness by survey respondents across all demographic groups that was directly associated with their decision to leave their employers. It is important to note that bullying and inappropriate behaviors appear to be disproportionately directed at people of color, gays and lesbians, and women. 

Further jaw dropping is that this exodus of fed-up employees is hitting corporate America with an economic cost of $64 billion dollars annually- that’s almost equivalent to the combined revenues of Google, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, and Amazon.com! Interestingly, this cost is also equivalent to the settlements for all sex and race based lawsuits reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1997 until 2006. This figure does not even include the costs associated with these corporate leavers strongly discouraging others from taking jobs with or purchasing products/services from their employers. 

Clearly, bullying and other subtle, inappropriate behaviors in the workplace are not good for anyone, though unfortunately they are not currently considered illegal in the U.S.  Companies should eradicate bullying in their organizations, if not just for the sake of “doing the right thing,” then because of the direct and egregious impact to their business.  For more information, please visit www.corporateleavers.org

Black men earned 74% of the wages of white males; Hispanic men earned 58%; Asian-American men earned just 1% less than white men. Full-time female employees earned 77% of all men’s median wages. Further broken down by race, Asian-American women earned 78% of the median annual pay of white men; white women earned 73%; black women earned 63%; and Hispanic women earned 52%.*

Though women represent half of all managers and professionals in the workforce, their leadership representation has dwindled from 16.4% of corporate-officer posts at Fortune 500 companies in 2005, to 15.4% in 2007, according to the research group, Catalyst. Women of color hold a humble 2% of these positions.

These less than comforting statistics beg the question of why such a gap continues to exist for women and people of color. Is it their own fault? Some argue that such discrepancies could be attributable to women prioritizing motherhood and worklife balance over the partner track for example, or a lack of assertion on the part of women and people of color to demand promotions and navigate their own advancement.

But as Giving Notice contends, it is critical for corporate leadership to consider what tone they set and to identify institutional barriers in their companies that may be derailing employees, specifically women, gays and lesbians, and people of color. Why is this important? The 2007 Corporate Leavers Survey unveiled that over 2 million managers and professionals leave their jobs every year solely due to unfairness—mostly in the form of hidden biases and barriers—at an annual cost of $64 billion dollars to companies. It is therefore very much the responsibility of the employer to take actionable measures against hidden barriers in the workplace and to ensure a level playing field exists for all employees with regards to hiring, pay, promotions, and career advancement.

Giving Notice encourages employers to start by proactively gathering data (without fear of later litigation) on unfair practices within their organizations that negatively impact employees. Traditionally, the easier diversity approach has consisted of throwing millions of dollars towards cosmetic, one-size-fits-all diversity programs and good marketing to make the “Best of…” lists. But in reality, such hands-off solutions coupled with smoke and mirrors have not effectively addressed the issues at hand nor have they yielded sustainable results, as evident in today’s failing diversity efforts at many companies. For those executives who challenge whether fairness and diversity issues exist and are really worth addressing—the evidence and impetus for change (at least from a business perspective) are in the data.

For more quantitative and qualitative findings from the Corporate Leavers Survey, check out http://www.corporateleavers.com/

*2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey (the latest year for which data is available)

Giving Notice encourages employers to pay greater attention to hidden bias and how it translates to hidden barriers in the workplace, especially for underrepresented groups such as people of color, women, and gays and lesbians. Too often we are quick to deny that we harbor racial and other biases, or else we assume they do not play out in today’s work environments. But field studies like these prove bias plays a very real role in our decisions and actions despite our best intentions. How biased and what biases do you harbor against specific groups of people? Take the Implicit Association Test (IAT) http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and find out!

And if your companies believes they truly “walk the walk” when it comes to equal opportunity, they should test themselves and the level of institutional bias when handling resumes, hiring interviews, promotions, wages, and job assignments.

Unfortunately, more often than not, underrepresented employees fear the potentially negative repercussions of speaking up about these issues in the workplace, and opt for checking their unique cultural attributes at the door. But as the Corporate Leavers Survey found, the subtle, day-to-day cultural biases and barriers will eventually drive them to voluntarily leave their jobs at a highly undesirable cost to companies. Giving Notice recommends that job applicants conduct thorough research around culture and diversity when considering working for a company. Most companies’ websites market impressive diversity statements and awards, but asking current employees to share their personal experiences on the job can offer more realistic insights on the true cultural climate and values of the company.

Given the trend towards an increasingly diverse workforce in the U.S. over the upcoming decades, companies can no longer easily get away with sweeping these diversity issues under the rug if they intend to maintain a competitive edge and maximize their productivity. Employers can do their part by first acknowledging the need to create a truly inclusive corporate culture for all employees- (that means more than just marketing platitudes and generic diversity training). This requires leadership’s commitment to recognizing their own cultural biases and investing the resources to understand and tackle these complex diversity issues through effective people strategies. A key to understanding employees’ day-to-day experiences entails asking the employees themselves and engaging them in the process of bridging cultural gaps. Encouraging open communications and employee participation via anonymous opinion surveys and dialogue groups within and across teams is paramount to this process.

One of the most important goals achievable through dialogue is building greater empathy among employees and appreciation for cultural diversity. Without this, companies will continue to face an exodus of employees who eventually determine it’s simply not worth checking their identities and cultural values at the door.

In her book, Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest are Leaving the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay, Freada Kapor Klein acknowledges that in order to be truly effective, diversity efforts in corporate America need to move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all legal approach and focus more on addressing different types of hidden bias and barriers, which are more insidious and prevalent today in companies than overt forms of discrimination. Ms. Klein emphasizes the criticality of corporate leadership’s commitment to building equitable and welcoming work environments for all employees. She proposes several practical approaches for employers to uncover and effectively address these hidden biases and barriers that continue to drive out their top talent at a cost too high to ignore.

In a recent Legal Times article, Lorelie Masters, president of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, addressed the assumption that women lawyers’ failure to progress in the legal profession is attributable to their own lack of ambition. Ms. Masters dismisses the tendency of law firms to shift all blame to departing female lawyers because they personally choose family over career. She entertains the idea that perhaps a number of female lawyers desire to stay at their firms but are ultimately pushed out by the cumulative hidden barriers and a “veiled sexism” in the workplace characterized by low expectations from their male counterparts. The inevitable repercussions are women getting pushed to the sidelines and bypassed for key assignments and growth opportunities. Are female lawyers’ careers being derailed for them to some extent by their presumptuous male managers who expect their careers will voluntarily take a backseat to motherhood and work-life balance?

Giving Notice’s story of Kristen, a young newlywed woman from rural America who works diligently to build a successful career at her male-dominated company, depicts the types of sexism and barriers alluded to by Ms. Masters. Kristen’s hopes of being recognized as a valuable contributor based on her quality performance and achievements are weathered by the constant challenge to overcome double standards in the workplace (e.g., self-promotion and visibility are vital for competitors, but pose specific challenges for women due to biases against “overly assertive” female personalities). The reality of Kristen’s experience, like many women who are unfairly assumed to be a potentially weaker link, is that she isn’t truly treated as an equal to many of her male peers who are more readily lauded and rewarded for their efforts and ideas, provided more direct feedback on performance assessments, and more likely to be selected for leadership roles and challenging client assignments. Despite her best efforts, Kristen inevitably finds herself discouraged and disadvantaged to the point of leaving the company.

The book outlines pragmatic measures employers should take to ensure an inclusive and fair work environment, such as conducting regular focus groups to promote dialogue, confidential surveys for employee feedback, and system audits to examine organizational bias and improve policies and procedures. When considering companies, prospective employees can take proactive measures by developing a thorough list of job related criteria along key issues (e.g., daily worklife, firm culture and values, etc.) for research and evaluation purposes. Prospective female employees who are concerned with the corporate culture of male dominated companies should ask for candid feedback and draw from the experiences of women who currently work or have worked for those companies.

After a good, hard look at her lifestyle, Smith contends that her stressful job as a forensic psychologist was the cause of the attack. The CNN reporter brought in experts to discuss the case. Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself From Emotional Traps is a recent book that addresses the issue of work related stress. While the author’s advice is sound (detach, depersonalize work stress) we at Level Playing Field Institute also believe that a harder look at the inside of an organization was probably overdue. What drove Smith to take on too much work, too much responsibility and accept extreme levels of stress?

What drives you? Are you willing to change?

“And what are you doing now in S.F.?” I asked. She told me that she’d left a corporate job in NY to join a start-up in San Francisco. “I’d been one of the highest ranking women at Warner Music Group,” she reported.

“Why’d you leave?”

“When I finally got sick of all the guys making deals over at a local strip club, I figured my career was going to stall out.”

She is, as we say at the Level Playing Field Institute, a Corporate Leaver. Her story is why “Giving Notice” was written. Hidden bias, and unfairness sends millions of professionals packing each year.