Can you come as you are?
Why we must do better than a diverse talent pipeline
Well, can you?
Not like: Can I wear my loungewear to the office in this post-Zoom world on the horizon? (We hope at least you have the freedom to dress your way, though please follow appropriate guidelines when deciding whether to wear shorts.)
We mean how you express your ideas, how you disagree with people, how you learn. For those of you who answer yes, first of all, that's great! Second of all, we encourage you to take a moment and consider why. Is it because you look around and see people behaving similarly to you? Is there something specific that your employer does to create an environment where you feel safe? Many people are not as lucky - especially those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in their workplace or team.
Whether you answered yes or no, stop reading this newsletter and watch (at least) the first few minutes of Jodi-Ann Burey's exceptional Ted Talk on "The myth of bringing your full, authentic self to work."
💯 If you're someone who feels out of place at work, Burey's talk is validation to the max.
🤔 If not, her master storytelling can help you understand what it's like to be left out. And spoiler alert: just telling people to "come as you are" doesn't solve the problem.
So...why are you still here? We're serious about watching that talk. We'll let you off the hook for the rest of this issue if you DO IT NOW.
Why hiring is only half the battle
Hiring for a diverse workforce is super important. You probably hear a lot about why and how. (Speaking of which, check out this amazing new hiring platform Talent Diverse!) But many companies fail to think beyond their inflow and their diverse talent heads right back out the door. “Unfairness drives turnover”, according to a 2017 study of people leaving tech jobs in the US.
There's a lot to gain by ensuring a fair and inclusive workplace:
💸 Employee replacement is expensive! Conservatively estimated, unfairness costs tech companies $16 billion a year.
🙋🏽 Inclusion drives employee engagement. Deloitte conducted research capturing the views and experiences of 1,550 employees in three large Australian businesses to back this up.
📈 Companies with more diverse teams are top financial performers, according to a McKinsey study on 180 companies in France, Germany, the UK, and the US.
And we’ve seen it in action from some of our very own colleagues, like Severin Discher, Director of IT Security at TIER, who summarized a point we heard repeatedly from co-workers and managers on diverse teams:
“Collaboration refines ideas into the right solution. Diverse experience and background brings us the widest perspective possible.”
Unfortunately, inclusion is often not a priority in employee retention strategies, which favor free coffee, hip offices, and a gym discount. None of this is interesting if you don’t feel comfortable at work. We’ve met a woman who left her job due to unwanted stares at her head covering. We know someone who resigned because colleagues repeatedly misspelled and mispronounced his foreign-sounding name, not taking the time to learn something so essential to forming and strengthening relationships.
This is why workplace diversity needs to be more than a numbers game - because inclusivity is what will make the diverse talent come, stay, or leave.
What can employers do?
If you're really serious about creating inclusion at your workplace, step one is to accept that this is work for those of us in positions of power: hiring managers, people and HR teams, the C-suite. If you are in one of those positions, use your power to make change. If not, advocate for people in these positions to bring change.
So what does this change look like?
🧕🏿Understand and manage your employees as individuals
One company who takes a deliberate approach to not just diversifying their talent pipeline, but also creating an inclusive work environment, is Ecosia. Engineering Manager Jessy Halison helped the engineering team reach a 50/50 gender split, but says servant leadership is what keeps people there.
"We adapt the way we work with each person individually,” helping them grow in a way that takes their unique experiences into account and making sure the whole team understands that people are different.
⚖️ Close the racial-gender pay gap
Do a salary audit. Close the gaps. And set diversity targets for promotions in addition to hiring - only 21% of US companies set gender targets for promotions.
✅ Have a comprehensive D&I strategy
...not just a one-off initiative. The harder and more controversial steps like setting diversity targets and measuring progress towards them signals more commitment than hosting a D&I talk. Looking at five common D&I strategies, this study found that implementing all five had a much more significant impact than one alone and that 62% of employees would have stayed if their company had taken steps towards creating a fairer workplace.
In case you're curious, here are the five common strategies they looked at and some examples we found of companies implementing them. What does your company have?
🧑🏾⚖️ Make procedures for handling misconduct and unfairness transparent
One in ten women who recently left a job in tech reported experiencing unwanted sexual attention and 20% of LGBTQ employees experience bullying (Tech Leavers Study, 2017). Having a clear process for collecting and acting on reports doesn't erase harassment, but it does make employees feel like their concerns are valid and important. Make sure everyone knows how to report something and what to expect when they do.
For those who made it to the end
I hope this isn’t awkward, but HI! I’m Galuh, one of the women behind this newsletter.
After debating whether I should say bye or not (and whether you, dear readers, would care), I decided to just do it. So yeah, this is my last newsletter with the Women of TIER. It’s been an honor to use this newsletter to give you a little taste of what it's like to work in a boy's club industry for someone who is not only a woman, but also a person of color and an immigrant.
As a co-founder of Women of TIER, I can only hope that more people find their WHY and fight the status quo. And you readers who read this newsletter to the end give me hope!
Can’t say goodbye without some shameless self promo. Check out Mestara, my newest women’s empowerment project: a mentorship & training program for women who still have less opportunity than me.
Thank you for sticking around! 😊😢😭
You might hear from us less in the summer. We’ll be enjoying the sun and mentally preparing ourselves for in-person human contact. But fret not, we’ll be back.
With that bittersweet feeling,
Sadie and Galuh