Giving Notice

As reported by the New York Times, the well-known military contractor, Lockheed Martin, agreed to pay a former employee a hefty $2.5 million- the highest amount received by any one person in the settlement of a racial discrimination case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When the former employee complained about the racial slurs and threats he endured from coworkers and a supervisor over a period of two years, he was simply told by a company manager, “That’s just boys being boys, and that’s the way it is here at Lockheed.” Unfortunately this type of negligent response is not all that uncommon, as reported by hundreds of frustrated employees who participated in the Level Playing Field Institute’s Corporate Leavers study. In this case, Lockheed Martin will have to pay the high price, not only monetarily, but undoubtedly in terms of reputation and business as well. The following are a few practices prescribed by Giving Notice to companies such as Lockheed who are in dire need of a thorough diversity makeover:

• The character and culture of an organization are shaped from the top. Ensure that the CEO and management are fully committed to creating and maintaining a diverse culture and equitable workplace for all employees.
• Undertake a comprehensive audit of company practices (e.g., systems, policies, performance reviews, etc.) to look for hidden bias and hidden barriers.
• Conduct an anonymous, rigorous survey and focus groups focused on perceptions and experiences of all employees. Ensure that there are clear guidelines of openness and confidentiality.
• Analyze the data by demographic groups and business units.
• Develop a systematic plan to address any results that indicate problem areas.
• Institute a new approach based on frequent and regular communications, briefings, mentoring, and regular employee reviews.
• Develop interactive training programs for all levels of the organization focused on hidden bias and barriers in the workplace.
• Continue to conduct company audits, surveys, and focus groups so that employee feedback and overall improvement efforts remain ongoing.
• Revamp exit interview processes to ensure opportunities for organizational improvement are properly captured and addressed.

Ever think that only racists are biased and use stereotypes? Think again. As Giving Notice affirms, it is important to recognize that everyone, even the most well-intentioned person, harbors some level of unconscious bias, and therefore perpetuates stereotypes. Researchers have confirmed that stereotypes are an inherent part of our nature and affect how we relate to and interact with each other. Unconscious bias can negatively impact our decisions and judgments in work environments at every level of an organization. This translates to hidden barriers in the workplace, which are the subtle, day-to-day, trivial behaviors that can distort the playing field and have a cumulative effect particularly for people of color, women, and gays and lesbians. These hidden barriers are perhaps more insidious than explicit discriminatory practices, as they can often go unrecognized and yet affect all aspects of business from letters of recommendation, resumes, and hiring interviews, to promotions, wages, and job assignments.

The next step is to delve deeper and identify one’s own biases. The Level Playing Field Institute has partnered with Project Implicit, a collaborative research initiative focused on examining unconscious bias. They created an objective, online tool known as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) that measures how quickly a person responds with positive or negative words to photos of people. Almost all of the people taking the IAT described themselves as unbiased at the onset, yet a huge percentage of white people show some bias against African Americans, and a majority of people show bias against photos of overweight, gay, elderly, or Arab/Muslim people. Take the test yourself at www.implicit.harvard.edu – you may be surprised to learn that you’re not as unbiased as you think!

Unfortunately, most corporate leaders fail to realize the negative impact of unconscious bias on their organization’s culture, which is critical to creating a truly equitable workplace and retaining the best and most productive workforce. Once the first steps are taken to establish common ground and fully recognize our biases, we can begin to eliminate stereotypes and hidden barriers in the workplace by framing discussions, trainings, policies, and systems around these issues.

The Chicago Tribune recently published an article titled: “The racist in all of us: Are subtle insults and indignities toward minorities oversights or something bigger?” The answer to this question is a resounding YES, particularly from a workplace perspective. In fact, that something bigger comes with a price tag of roughly $64 billion annually to corporations, according to the Corporate Leavers study conducted by the Level Playing Field Institute. This rigorous academic study found that 2 million managers and professionals voluntarily leave their companies each year due to workplace unfairness, mostly in the form of subtle, hidden bias and barriers. Specifically, 3.0% of Caucasian men, 4.6% of Caucasian women, 5.6% of GLBT, and 9.5% of people of color are driven out annually by the cumulative effect of subtle slights and behaviors on the job. Furthermore, these corporate leavers are likely to strongly discourage others to seek jobs at these companies or to buy their products and services.

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.

• you overheard a colleague or manager refer to you as the “diversity hire” on your team?
• you were continuously pigeon-holed into representing your race or gender at diversity and recruiting events meanwhile other coworkers were being selected for the more substantive career-enhancing client assignments?
• you were constantly asked unwelcoming questions at work about your clothes, hair, ethnic attire?
• you were subject to inappropriate comments, public humiliation, or bullying by your coworkers and when you reported these instances to your manager or HR, they were either unresponsive or responded negatively towards you?
• you were of Middle Eastern or Arab decent and a coworker jokingly compared you to a terrorist?
• you genuinely felt that you consistently performed well and exceeded job expectations, only to find out you have been passed up for promotion while other equally or less qualified coworkers were promoted?
• your identity were continuously mistaken for another person in the company for no other reason than they are the same race as you?
• you were excluded from social events at work because of your race, sex, age?

These are only a handful of the many forms of unfairness that cumulatively push out corporate leavers. These sometimes subtle, yet insidious indignities experienced in the workplace by women, gays and lesbians, and people of color inspired Freada Kapor Klein to write the book, Giving Notice.

“Maybe women are just as ambitious as men, so try asking them.”

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.

DiversityInc often reports on similar themes addressed in Giving Notice relating to diversity issues in the workplace and useful advice for employers and employees. Recently, they interviewed a few leading business professors regarding advice for employees of color seeking to build successful careers in Corporate America. One tip that stands out in particular is that before job seekers proactively search for and select jobs, they should conduct serious introspection about who they are, what their real interests are, what an ideal company culture would look like to them, what challenges they are seeking, and what personal happiness means. These personal considerations are fundamental to ensuring the best employer-employee “fit” and avoiding job mismatches. Jandle and Associates, an outplacement counseling firm, found that more than 40 percent of survey respondents reported mismatches as the top reason people get fired (Giving Notice, p. 111).

In light of soaring job dissatisfaction rates across multiple industries, Chapter 7 of Giving Notice recommends that job seekers conduct a comprehensive evaluation of potential employers using the following key criteria: daily worklife; assignment, development, and mentoring; the company/firm culture and value; the gender, racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural climate; inappropriate conduct issues; corporate citizenship; and other diversity issues.

Based on your personal experience, do you have any additional tips for job seekers?

Giving Notice tracks the work experiences of three individuals— Eric, Kristen, and Miguel, who faced barriers in the workplace from the first interviews with their company to the less than satisfactory exit interviews. While their employer failed on multiple accounts to provide fair opportunities and a level playing field for these three hardworking employees, one would think that at the very least, management would attempt to learn from its mistakes by investing in a truly effective exit interview process. However, according to the departing employees, the employer demonstrated minimal interest in the exit interview, and thus an even further lack of commitment to ensuring positive experiences for all employees.

Training + Development Magazine recently featured an article by Freada Kapor Klein about the importance of maximizing employers’ exit interview processes to help understand what steps can be taken to improve the organization and retain current and future employees. The following are a few tips for conducting more effective exit interviews:

• Give employees a choice of who conducts their exit interviews. Make sure their options reflect diversity in demographics and position.
• Don’t just follow a checklist. Allow for creative, open-ended questions (e.g., “What three things could have been done to help you stay?”).
• Find out your company’s reputation by asking departing employees whether they would recommend your organization to a potential recruit. Does their answer depend on the business unit or the recruit’s gender, age, race, ethnicity, or culture? Also ask whether they would recommend your company’s products or services to friends or family.
• Provide departing employees with an anonymous way to offer more feedback.
• Have someone knowledgeable about your company’s culture interview employees 6-24 months after they leave. This allows them to reflect on what your company did well, what they miss, and what you could have done to make them stay.

Bottom line: When taken seriously and done properly, the exit interview process can serve as an invaluable tool for developing and strengthening retention strategies.

Year after year, certain companies continue to land their names on the coveted “Best of…” lists and score high in the annual rankings by Fortune, Working Mother, Black Enterprise and Essence magazines. For most consumers and employees, these rankings and lists are considered credible indicators of a company’s strength in a particular area. But as indicated in Giving Notice, journalism insiders acknowledge the lack of quantitative rigor that goes into these “Best of…” lists. Contrary to what one may want to believe, making these lists is not necessarily indicative of an effective diversity management strategy, but rather a good public relations strategy to boost the company’s own image and land their name on these lists.

Consider the following example: “…a recent survey mailed to one of the largest financial services firms in consideration for list inclusion at a national women’s magazine. The firm provided glowing answers to the questions asked, but when pressed for backup to support its responses, the company said that the information was ‘highly confidential and could not be shared outside the firm’ or ‘confidential/proprietary and could not be used for publication.’ Therefore, every key fact (for example, where minorities rank in the levels of pay, how many minorities are actually in the top 10 percent of wage earners, how minorities are faring throughout all management levels of the company) was not permitted by the firm to be independently verified by the writers and editors of the magazine. They were supposed to rely on the company’s word. Nevertheless, the company made the magazine’s list that year” (Giving Notice, Chapter 3 “From the Top”).

Not only do these lists and rankings lack journalistic rigor behind them, but some of the companies that are heralded on the “Best of…” lists as models of diversity and best companies for minorities and specific groups, are also the same companies that have had disturbing race and gender discrimination suits (e.g., Wal-Mart ironically landed on Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” and Black Enterprise’s “Best Companies for Diversity” lists despite having a landmark sex discrimination lawsuit filed against the company previously).

Perhaps the message to take away is that making these lists does not necessitate a proven track record. So when considering companies for employment or reputation, it is best to avoid placing all faith in the “Best of…” lists and conduct more thorough research by asking actual employees and considering reliable consumer reports and independent sources of information.

In light of the holidays, the New York Times recently ran an article about the hazards of workplace holiday celebrations. The holiday season clearly signifies celebration and merriment, but for many employers it can be a challenging time when planning holiday festivities for a diverse workforce. Questions arise such as how can employers best accommodate diverse social styles, religions, personal schedules and preferences, notions of what is appropriate versus inappropriate? Not to mention how to mitigate the possibility of sexual harassment complaints, liability problems, or other controversies resulting from an overly festive office party. “Easier said than done” and “better safe than sorry” come to mind. In a nutshell, “the best way for managers to navigate this season is to establish a year-round culture of respect for everyone, and to plan holiday celebrations that reflect the makeup of the workplace.”

A noteworthy conclusion indeed, and a message that is conveyed in Giving Notice. When planning holiday festivities, employers should be as inclusive as possible and take into account the many reasons cited as to why employees leave the workplace: being subject to inappropriate conduct, offensive jokes and material, unwanted sexual or other attention, exclusion, public humiliation, etc. After all, an office holiday party should be a pleasant experience for all employees, not the “last straw” or a breeding ground for corporate leavers…

According to a study conducted by Thomas Kochan of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, American corporations spend an estimated $8 billion annually on diversity programs and efforts in their organizations. Not to mention, almost any corporate CEO today would unblinkingly profess his or her commitment to diversity… “We believe diversity is a key driver of our success.” Sound familiar? But corporate leadership’s ability to play the diversity game—that is, mastering the right movements and strategies to create a diversity façade—is not necessarily equivalent to truly embracing diversity and taking the necessary measures to ensure fairness in the workplace for all employees. Leadership may say the right things, but are they actually doing them?…Do they themselves embody them?

Chapter 3 “From the Top” of Giving Notice emphasizes the critical roles CEOs and top management play in establishing and maintaining a diverse corporate culture. Leadership should recognize that their tone and cultural awareness (or lack thereof) have a profound impact that trickles down to the lowest levels of the organization. So, if you feel that your company fails to provide a diverse, accepting, and fair workplace for its employees, ask yourself the following the questions about the leadership: Do they themselves represent diversity in cultures, backgrounds, races/ethnicities? Do they tolerate inappropriate behaviors and unfairness in the workplace or do they exhibit real concern and take real measures to extinguish them? Do they foster and practice open communications at every level of the organization around diversity and workforce issues—and do they follow up and execute?

“When the top actually reaches the bottom, then, and only then, will the diversity movement reach its full potential” (Giving Notice, Chapter 3 Conclusion).