5 Things / Outside of HR

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Last year we had a client choose not to renew their contract with us because DEI lived in Human Resources, had no protected budget, and they “had to prioritize employee salaries.” Well, when you put it that way…

I recently caught up with someone I’ve known for years now. Six months into their new role as VP of DEI, they were positively giddy about the amount of support they had. They report to the CDO who reports to the CEO. While they have to take baby steps, they’re accomplishing a lot.

As this person shared with me, it’s a huge advantage when DEI is not part of Human Resources. Not only is their budget protected, but they’re able to think strategically about the way DEI fits into other business objectives. With a near direct line to the CEO, they’re in a position to keep forward momentum.

That’s how you do it (and ICYMI my book and our DEI consulting methodology is called Inclusive 360 for that very reason!)

This Week’s Good Vibes:

1. Charlotte Tilbury Promotes Women in Motorsports

   • Charlotte Tilbury makes history as the first female-founded beauty brand to sponsor the 2024 F1 Academy, aiming to empower female drivers. Through this alliance, Tilbury pledges to elevate the careers of 15 young women drivers, breaking barriers in a heavily male-dominated field, and fostering awareness and opportunities for women in sports. There’s even a Charlotte Tilbury car: it’s branded night crimson and rose gold, symbolizing the fusion of glamour and racing.

2. Walmart Creates a Pipeline for AI Talent

   • Walmart is aiming to fast-track employees into 100,000 well-paying AI and tech jobs in three years by shifting education perks to expand short-form certificates to over 50. They’re reducing their degree program to allow for the certificate program expansion, but employees want it – and this offers the potential for quicker career advancement for non-degreed workers. This benefit is for frontline employees, too, many of whom are BIPOC.

3. Unilever Hires People With Disabilities Behind the Camera

   • Last year, Unilever launched its "Believe in Talent" initiative, mandating disability representation behind the camera, and addressing a longstanding lack of diversity in advertising. With only 1% of ads featuring disabled individuals, Unilever's move aims to reshape industry norms by committing to hiring people with disabilities behind the camera on every ad over $107k. Unilever also developed an open-source toolkit for creating inclusive production spaces. It’s all part of Unilever's broader "Act 2 Unstereotype" initiative, driving structural changes in marketing to combat prejudice and promote diversity.

4. Historic Donation to Albert Einstein College of Medicine

   • A landmark $1 billion donation to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, located in one of the poorest parts of NYC, abolishes tuition fees, providing life-changing opportunities for under-supported students. The donation was made by Ruth Gottesman. With an average medical school debt of $202,453, this donation reshapes medical education, offering hope and access to diverse, aspiring doctors. This is a huge win when there’s a physician shortage. I’m blown away by the power of wealth in fostering equity.

5. New Jersey to Recognize LGBTQ+ Businesses

   • The State of New Jersey will soon recognize LGBTQ+ business certification, alongside women, people of color, and veterans. NJ will only be the third state to recognize LGBTQ businesses in supplier diversity spending in procurement. Supplier diversity is a significant step towards equity and economic inclusion for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs…and btw, Equality Institute is a certified LGBTBE.

This Week’s Call to Action:

Learn about Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teen in Oklahoma who was bullied and beaten by classmates and later died. Oklahoma legislators are currently considering 54 anti-LGBTQ bills. It’s a really tough time to be a young trans person.

5 Things / 360

A new study from Boston College and the Society of Human Resources Management tells us that 65% of organizations believe DEI is important, yet 63% give little to no resources to DEI. This doesn’t surprise me. In my conversations with organizations, I find many who see DEI as an HR or L&D initiative. In other words, recruitment, and training. There are many DEI actions that can be taken that cost minimal external resources, such as policy changes and building inclusion nudges into process documentation. 

I’m a big believer in the 360 approach – beyond HR and L&D, which is why I wrote Inclusive 360 and built our assessment tool. Here’s a beautiful example of how an organization (this one with A LOT of resources!) can become Inclusive 360.

Last month, the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in New York reopened after major redesigns. The building was built on land formerly known as San Juan Hill, a low-income Black and Hispanic neighborhood with 7,000 families. That neighborhood was razed years ago as part of a racist “urban renewal” initiative. To correct historic wrongs, 42% of construction contracts for this massive redesign went to minority and women-owned businesses. They launched a robust training program, helping three dozen new construction workers get union cards. Lincoln Center itself increased its leadership diversity, with about 50% of leaders who are women and BIPOC. Finally, the debut concert for the reopening was a pay-what-you-can show called “San Juan Hill” celebrating the music and culture of the old neighborhood. All of this matters because it shows a 360 approach to equity and inclusion. A holistic approach is what’s necessary for true equity.

More good vibes I found this week:

2. Gay Racer Zach Herrin Made His Nascar Debut This Weekend

• For the first time, an out gay man competed as a NASCAR racer. Zach Herrin made his debut on Friday, hosting a fundraiser for Phoenix Pride in advance of the race. This matters because NASCAR traditionally attracts a more conservative audience, and Herrin is unafraid to be out and proud, with car sponsors who fully embrace him.

3. Fortune 500 Companies Tie Executive Compensations to ESG Performance

• 73% of S&P 500 companies now tie executive compensation to environmental, social, and governance goals. DEI falls into the “social” pillar. The specifics of how pay is linked to ESG performance are vague, but still, this matters because it gives leaders some incentive to hopefully bring more commitment to and engagement with DEI initiatives. No progress sticks without accountability.

4 & 5. Several Major Companies Expand Workplace and Workweek Flexibility

• Having trouble hiring? Consider a four-day workweek. The hospitality temp firm Qwick set a four-day workweek and saw job applications increase by 230%.

• Unilever’s four-day workweek pilot in New Zealand was a big success, with a drop of 34% in absenteeism and stress over the 18-month period. The program is now expanding to Australia. In the program, employees can choose which day they don’t work while retaining 100% of their salaries and commit to doing 100% of their work in those four days. 

• Flexibility is top of mind for Hilton as well…the company is now allowing hourly frontline workers to work at multiple locations. Employees can now easily pick up shifts and switch locations even within the same week, even clear across the country. 

• This matters because flexibility can promote greater employee well-being, which can lead to greater employee loyalty.

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5 Things / Embedded

Happy New Year! I hope you're energized and optimistic about 2022. I am. I'm excited to continue supporting our clients towards increasingly big wins and continue sharing stories of what's going right in DEI. As always, please reply and share some of the stories that inspire you.

The first story I read this year that made me stop and think, "Wow, that's so cool!" is about a new hotel in Orlando that was designed with DEI in mind. The Lake Nona Wave Hotel stocks over 200 beverage brands supporting female, black and LGBTQ-owned businesses, offers size-inclusive bathrobes, and has a library of 100+ curated children’s DEIA-focused books which can be read aloud via an in-room tablet.

And yet, these programs aren't promoted on the hotel's website. They just are. DEI is embedded.

That's what's going to be necessary, making inclusion the default...in case you missed it, the new U.S. Census reported there's no majority racial or ethnic group for those under 18. It's time to get to work.

Here are the other good vibes I found this week:

• NYC will soon have a law requiring employers to disclose salary ranges in job descriptions. I wrote about this in my book, Inclusive 360, as a tool to reduce gender and racial pay gaps and ultimately reduce the racial wealth gap. Similar laws exist in California and Colorado, but it's far from the norm.
  

• Unilever has a new U-Work program designed to provide employees with maximum flexibility. It offers the benefits of full time employment with the flexibility of contract work. This is partly being used by older employees nearing retirement as a way to scale back on hours, but also by other employees seeking more freedom. This matters because, more than ever, employees value flexibility, which becomes a retention strategy, especially for underrepresented talent.
  

• When Mattel began modernizing and diversifying Barbie, such as providing a wheelchair, their other products had to be redesigned as well. This included Barbie's Dreamhouse which now accommodates a wheelchair. I learned about it on the Reinvent podcast (start around 8:45). It's a fascinating story about how to bring the lens of diversity into product design.
  

• NASCAR has a new partnership with the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce. Their sponsorship will pay to educate non-LGBTQ owned businesses on LGBTQ+ inclusion. This matters because the money is being used for education which will hopefully then encourage more acceptance and inclusion, particularly in those states where someone LGBTQ+ can be legally denied access to somewhere like a store or a restaurant. I love this one.

5 things / Unilever

The most inspiring thing I learned this week is that Unilever (the company that owns Ben & Jerry's, Dove, and more) now has an equal number of male and female leaders, in every office around the world. They achieved this goal a year ahead of schedule. I believe if a company as large as Unilever, with 14,000 managers, can achieve this goal, any other organization can.

I also learned...

• The Air Force has lifted its ban on beards and turbans, making this branch of the armed forces more inclusive of its Sikh members. The Army lifted this ban a few years ago.
  

• Netflix offers its workers an astonishing 52 weeks of paid parental leave. Salaried employees who are new parents of any gender, can take up to a year off at full pay following the birth or adoption of their child.
  

• Beginning on Sunday, March 8 (International Women's Day), Yelp will allow users to search a business by whether it's women owned. There are currently 1000 businesses who are already set up this way. To update yours, you can simply check the box in your Yelp business profile.
  

• Microsoft is telling salaried employees to work from home to minimize coronavirus exposure. Hourly shift workers who drive shuttle buses, work in the cafe, and more, and will see their hours cut - but Microsoft will continue to pay their full wages.
  

One final thing: do you like podcasts? I was interviewed on The Belonging Factor podcast last week and you can take a listen here. 

Wishing you a wonderful week, and, as always, you can catch more of my good news every weekday on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thanks for all you do to build a more inclusive world.

5 things / woke-washing

If you're connected with me on LinkedIn or Twitter, you may have noticed that each weekday I post a ~30 second video sharing #1ThingILearnedToday. These videos seldom relate to weddings or travel, but they are about being inclusive of diverse communities, and being a good corporate citizen. Those are some of my passions, and reflect the type of work we're also doing. 

I hope that you enjoy reading the summary of those stories below, or following along with the videos each day. And, if I can ever support your efforts to build your business and be more inclusive, please don't hesitate to reach out. 

#5ThingsILearnedThisWeek:

• Unilever's CEO called out brands that use "woke-washing" in their advertising. In other words, brands should take bold action to establish trust, not just the marketing strategy of "make them cry, make them buy."
  
  

• There is a new rule that there must be at least one female moderator in all 12 Democratic National Committee-sanctioned debates. More people of color will be moderators as well, better reflecting the demographics of the U.S.
  
  

• Ben and Jerry's is hosting a year-long art exhibit highlighting the challenges of mass incarceration and solutions towards prison reform. This exhibit will be on display at their Vermont factory store which attracts 400k visitors per year. 
  
  

• Cracker Barrel used to have a reputation as a company that allowed racial and anti-LGBTQ discrimination. They have turned around in big ways, not only in their inclusion strategies, but also with a 325% increase in stock prices, under the leadership of their CEO Sandra Cochran.
  
  

• California will soon become the first state in the U.S. to ban discrimination on the basis of natural hair. The state's anti-discrimination policy has been updated to expand the definition of race to include "traits historically associated with race" - such as hair.