••• SPONSORED SECTION •••
North Carolina is becoming more diverse. Most of us see it every day. The U.S. Census Bureau counts it: Minorities comprise 40% of the population, up from 30% in 2000. But race and ethnicity are only the beginning. People are different in many ways, and they all need to be represented in and respected by businesses. Business North Carolina recently assembled a roundtable, comprised of panelists who deal with diversity and inclusion issues daily. They discussed their importance to businesses, sharing examples of how they’re being embraced, where more work needs to be done and how to address the difficulties of implementation. The conversation was moderated by the magazine’s publisher, Ben Kinney.
The transcript was edited for brevity and clarity.
The discussion was sponsored by:
• Disability: IN North Carolina
• IBM
• Reynolds American
• Womble Bond Dickinson
HOW DOES DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IMPACT AND BENEFIT BUSINESSES?
WALKER: It has been important for Reynolds. Diverse thoughts drive innovation, and that drives businesses forward. Diversity is crucial for us to be able to transform, so it’s vital to have that innovative thinking and diverse thought at the table for us to be successful. Many of our employees have worked at Reynolds for a long time, and they have a lot of experience in our industry.
ROBINSON: It affects retention. Companies say it all the time: We don’t have problems recruiting employees, but we can’t retain them. Why? The company’s culture is bad. If you’re not driving diversity and inclusion, then you don’t have a culture of belonging. That will drag down employee morale, impacting productivity. They say happy wife, happy life. It’s the same with employees. If you retain and engage your employees, then you’ll have the innovation that drives your program. The math is simple.
SALUTA: We all have different reasons, and that’s a demonstration of its importance. One reason that is often overlooked is the competitive advantage it offers for securing and keeping clients. Fostering diversity is important to our firm, but many of our clients demand that we prove those efforts with numbers. Our firm guarantees that for any promotion, any leadership position, any pitch to clients, at least 30% of the lawyers involved are diverse — women, people of color, differently abled, LGBTQ. That’s part of our Mansfield Certification, a program that helps law firms and legal departments ensure opportunities for advancing to leadership are fair and equal.
KEUL: People too often approach discussing disability with a charity mindset; we’re doing something for someone who is less than OK. They don’t recognize the return on investment that comes from hiring people with disabilities. Professional services provider Accenture’s groundbreaking 2018 study looked at more than 400 U.S. companies that were voted the best places to work for disability and inclusion. Those were compared to a similar number of companies not engaged in those two points. It found that the companies rated best produced 28% more revenue than their peers who weren’t. They also had twice the net income and 30% better profit performance. If we employed 1% of unemployed people with disabilities, it would give a $25 billion boost to GDP. You’d have to be out of your mind to not see its economic incentive. Seventy percent of people with disabilities are unemployed, and most want to work. This isn’t charity. Disability intersects race, gender and other aspects of life. It is one aspect of diversity where all of us can be part of the club, today and tomorrow.
HOW DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION FOSTER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION?
ROBINSON: I witnessed the downfall of the U.S. hosiery industry when I worked as DuPont’s global marketing director for about 15 years. I never saw one business leader who looked like me at the first international hosiery show I attended. Fast forward, and the industry is only a shadow of its former self. But Sarah Blakely, who founded shapewear-maker Spanx, is still here and a billionaire. I was on the team that introduced her to Lycra. She is a consumer of her product. If the industry had been innovated with diverse perspectives across the board, would it still be going strong? Your organization must mirror the market that you’re selling to.
KEUL: The other side of the disability equation is consumers. Ninety-two percent of Americans say they would prefer to shop where people with disabilities are employed and treated well. Eighty-seven percent would move their business to a store that treated people with disabilities better. There’s tremendous potential to hire people with disabilities. How are these decisions on the margin? They should be front and center. It’s the next place we need to go.
SALUTA: Our firm has affinity groups, where people can find a place to belong. And there’s support from outside groups such as National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Lambda Law Society, which represents the LGBTQ community. There are many other groups and events where minority corporate counsel can find a place to belong outside
the firm.
KINNEY: I was NC State alumni association’s president a few years back. We were trying to grow membership. The biggest gain was from our affinity groups. That changed our board structure. The folks running those groups became integral members of the board.
WALKER: We have several thousand people who are members of our employee resource groups. ERGs cut across LGBTQ and different races. An eighth one was recently added around disabilities, and about 200 people joined the first week. It was exciting. We continue to create that inclusive culture and use it to recruit. We take members of our ERGs to job fairs, so they can speak to job candidates about Reynolds’ inclusive culture. We’ve gone to places such as the National Black MBA Association. It has helped our recruitment efforts.
WHAT DO PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEES WANT IN REGARDS TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION? WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM?
WALKER: They’re looking for organizations that will invest in their development and career paths. They want help finding a path forward in the industry that interests them. Many times in our industry, people are hesitant to talk to us. But when they discover the opportunities, including how we invest in their development and the culture that we’re creating, then their perspective changes. It’s important for businesses to think about the benefits they offer and how they relate to their diverse populations. Our company implemented a 16-week leave for mothers and fathers. When they return, they can flex their schedule over the next eight months to make sure they’re there for their child. Make sure health benefits support different populations. It’s important your policies reflect that, too. We have a women in leadership program, and we engage with women leaders around the globe. Specific development programs help people identify challenges. We have a Black employees program that offers that type of training. Companies should think about enacting them.
SALUTA: Young candidates don’t see diversity as a perk. They want to see it when they walk in the door. It was something you strived for years ago. It’s expected now.
ROBINSON: The company must be committed to their success. And if it is committed, then they need to visually see that they are welcome and belong. ERGs can do that. Celebrating holidays of different cultures helps, too. These initiatives and programs are put in place to make everyone feel that they belong. One of my clients was continuing to struggle with employee retention. While it offered room for advancement, its culture was bad. We say it all the time: You need a good workplace culture. It’s a business imperative. Your human capital is your most precious resource.
KEUL: People want to bring their authentic selves to work. But disability is often a
well-hidden secret. About 75% of disabilities are hidden. One in four people have a disability, and you wouldn’t know that most have a disability by looking at them. Statistically, at least one person at this roundtable discussion has a disability that we’re not talking about. Many people who reach upper management don’t reveal that they have vision or hearing problems, a heart condition, diabetes or some other type of disability. When you talk disability, you’re talking globally. That’s how we represent people with disabilities in the workforce. How sad is that; you go to work and can’t share such a big part of your life with your co-workers. Our board president, Chauncey Barnhill, works for Wells Fargo. He’s a man of color and has been deaf in one ear since he was a teenager. He worked his way up through the ranks, becoming a senior vice president. He never mentioned his hearing loss along the way. It only dawned on him to discuss his situation when he became board president. That’s sad, hiding something that’s so common. Why are we in such great denial?
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES TO INCORPORATING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION?
ROBINSON: When you create a culture of belonging, you have created success. You brought along everyone, your diverse and nondiverse talent. You need inclusive and equitable initiatives to create diversity. Once you’ve successfully created a diverse pool and diversity through initiatives, then you’ll know you created a success when you have a culture of belonging, where everyone is happy. How do you do that? You have to engage your non-diverse talent. You do that through education.
Some current problems are driven by misinformation and fear. It’s fear of losing your job, being replaced. It’s fear of being pointed out because you’re seen as privileged, but you’re not. There are disruptions and voices in social media that are driving fear toward companies, which are afraid of losing their customer base, which often lacks diversity. Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson, as examples, backed off investing in diversity programs as a result of that. But if you keep reading, you learn that African-American farmers are coming after them. You don’t fix one problem by eliminating initiatives. You create more. We must ensure that we’re creating a culture of belonging for all our talent. Technology, including artificial intelligence and similar efforts, is impacting business decisions. They’re hiding behind some of these, saying they’re cutting the budget, and in turn diversity and inclusion efforts, because stock prices have dropped. Some retailers say the’re solely focused on business, cutting budgets across the board. It goes back to the fears of losing customers and losing revenue. But you have to be resilient and stay in the storm. Many organizations that I work with are doing that.
SALUTA: Criticism is an opportunity for the consumer, candidate or business to make a choice and take a stand, saying loud and clear that this is important. It’s our values and is what we believe. If there is criticism, then there’s a clear delineation of consumer choice. About two years ago, universal proxies for shareholders for shareholder elections were introduced. There was a fear that when that happened there would be activists who would try to move out shareholders. But it might be an easy place for diversity advocates to say your board must reflect your customers or shareholders. You might need to start thinking about how universal proxies might affect it.
KEUL: There’s a tendency to think that special groups get special treatment. We must turn that on its head and get away from these weird words that are putting diversity and inclusion efforts on the margins. Fear is at the heart of this. But attitude is baked into the cake, too. Attitude is the No. 1 barrier to employment for people with disabilities, and I’m guessing it might be at the top among all the other diversity groups. Attitude will change by virtue of people getting more information and having more experiences. The element of diversity is really just part of the whole human condition. We should be celebrating it and not denigrating it. We shouldn’t go off in our little tribes over it. No one is getting any special treatment. We all deserve an opportunity.
HOW CAN BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZES ADVOCATE FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION?
KEUL: There was a call out about ERGs and business resource groups. So, Novant Health engaged us, asking for an educational framework that it could put on its staff platform and influence patient care. Novant did this after calling in the community and listening to its members share how they saw people with disabilities being treated by the healthcare provider. What were the complaints? How can we create a more impactful environment? They’ve gone top to bottom, left to right examining the things that they’re doing. We recently received a high compliment: The content that we provided received high marks from nurses. They are hard to convince. They thought it was excellent training for making people more aware of how to better help patients with disabilities.
WALKER: Reynolds holds inclusive dialogs, which are discussions with our employees. They’re an opportunity to bring up and discuss fears and concerns. They’ve helped people see diverse viewpoints more clearly and better understand why employees are in the place they are, whether it’s a disability or something else. Education is so important, because it helps people think differently.
ROBINSON: Organizations must have internal and external initiatives. Some believe they only need one or the other. I’m a strategic partner with Catalyst, an international nonprofit whose mission is to help women advance through the workplace. It works with Fortune 500 CEOs from companies such as Target and Bank of America. Collectively, they have a critical mass of 30% women in leadership, the C-suite and on boards. The data says if you get 30% or more, then you’re in great shape. I also work with Paradigm for Parity, which was co-founded by former DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman. She helped form the group, which works to address gender and racial gaps in the corporate sector, because she didn’t want to watch her daughter go through the same struggles that she went through in her career. It’s the same reason I started my organization. Paradigm for Parity has a profit-and-loss program, which prepares women for operational roles. Corporations can send female employees through the program. Within six months of completing it, 11% have either expanded their role or have advanced in their role. Those are two examples of external programs that are underway. One more is how you shape your advertising, marketing and branding. The diversity of your customers needs to be reflected in them.
SALUTA: Many businesses of all sizes provide diversity training. But recently published Harvard University research says only about 10% of those offerings have action items. It’s one thing to educate people on the issues, but you need to explain how to implement that information in the workplace. Here’s how to have a critical conversation about your co-workers. Here’s a script of a possible conversation you can have with a co-worker after you’ve made a gaff.
WHAT ARE SOME MYTHS AROUND DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION?
KEUL: There are many myths connected to hiring people with disabilities. One is making accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act is expensive. They aren’t: 58% of them cost nothing. Most accommodation requests that have a price tag cost less than $500. Most people with disabilities arrive at work with a good idea of what they need, and it’s a matter of talking about making it happen. People with disabilities don’t have a higher absentee rate. People with disabilities don’t have higher safety concerns. Actually, they are some of the safest employees, because they place a high value on being able to work. These myths are borne out by bad situations that have been blown up during public discourse.
ROBINSON: Diversity does not replace jobs. It increases job opportunity. It grows businesses. Look at the demographics. There are more generations than ever working side by side. You have more intersectionalities. You have these differences that can contribute to diverse perspectives. We must continue to educate the market and our businesses on the value and business imperative of diversity and inclusion. What would be the outcome if we don’t incorporate diversity? We have hard research that says that it increases profit. If you don’t believe that, then look at the industries that passed on it. They don’t exist. It’s an opportunity to create a business or an organization that creates more jobs.
KEUL: Innovation comes from different thinking and a different way of viewing the world. When you talk about people with disabilities, you have to mention people with neurodiversity. These individuals bring a completely different perspective on problem solving, initiating situations and creating strategies than neurotypicals. So, why would we marginalize a group that could be useful to us? Why wouldn’t we leverage this talent? ■