Posts Tagged ‘diversity’
Take 5: Bottom Line More than Money
Study after study has shown how gender diversity on top correlates to greater company profits, but this isn’t the only argument for why organizations should advance women to senior ranks. It pays to diversify for an array of other reasons too. Here are my Top 5:
#1: More diversity, more innovation.
Using a sample of Fortune 500 firms, researchers found a positive relationship between board gender diversity and innovation. They also observed a positive correlation between board racial diversity and both firm reputation and innovation.
#2: More women, fewer problems.
Analyzing 201 Norwegian firms, Sabina Nielsen and Catalyzing guest-blogger Morten Huse found that the ratio of women board directors was positively correlated with a decreased level of conflict.
#3: More women, stronger corporate ethics.
Every year, Ethisphere recognizes companies that demonstrate “real and sustained ethical leadership within their industries.” A study of the companies that make the coveted list found that they had an important factor in common: boards of directors with a high percentage of women.
#4: More women, more effective problem-solving.
A study by researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Union College found that the number of women in a group of people significantly predicted the ability of the group overall to effectively solve problems.
#5: More women on top, more women in pipeline.
Studies by the RAND Corporation and Catalyst, among others, show a clear and positive correlation between the percentage of women board directors in a company’s past and the percentage of women top executives in its future. This suggests that one way to cultivate a healthy pipeline of women is to ensure that gender diversity starts on the top. The more women there—the more women everywhere!
Diverse Links
Among the highlights from last week’s Catalyst Awards Conference was the standing-room only session, “Connections That Count: Using Social Media for Diversity and Inclusion,” featuring Catalyst’s Emily Troiano and Mike Otterman, plus social media and D&I experts Joe Gerstandt and Jessica Faye Carter. As Emily and Mike explain in this guest post, tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs start conversations and spark action—and their impact on diversity and inclusion initiatives can be profound.
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When companies use social media to connect with customers, profits can soar. When harnessed by popular uprisings, regimes can crumble. And when used to reach out to diverse communities, social tools can foster and enhance diversity in organizations.
While the terminology around social media may be confusing, or even overwhelming, keep in mind that it’s all about people, connections, and relationships—not technology.
For example, starting a public blog written by a diverse team of employees who focus on their company roles can show potential applicants and customers that you value D&I as an organization. An internal enterprise-wide “microblog”—powered by Yammer, for instance—is a great way to communicate D&I messages from senior leaders to the rest of the organization. Employee resource groups could also use this tool to let others in the organization know about activities and ideas worth sharing.
LinkedIn features thousands of groups related to women and people of diverse backgrounds. These groups can contain a rich pool of talent—and should not be overlooked in recruiting efforts. You can tap into them directly by placing job postings within the groups or by joining them and discussing opportunities with members.
Companies using social media for recruiting, however, need to make sure that D&I doesn’t stop at the door. If an organization presents itself as inclusive and diverse via social media, it needs to make sure the culture actually is inclusive. New employees can be unsettled—and jump ship—if there is a blatant disconnect between how a company portrays itself online and the reality of the workplace.
We believe that social media access is true measurement of an inclusive culture. With the proliferation of mobile internet, it’s increasingly pointless to block access from company computers. And if a company blocks Facebook or Twitter, what does it say about its culture and its trust in its employees?
Are you tapping the power of social media to foster an inclusive workplace? Jessica Faye Carter and Joe Gerstandt are trailblazers exploring the intersection of social media and D&I. Check out some of their work here and here. Get engaged, get connected, and see you out there!
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Emily Troiano manages Catalyst’s Information Center and fills numerous library roles, including responding to research requests on a variety of topics from member organizations, Catalyst staff, members of the media, and outside researchers. Ms. Troiano also works on standardizing virtual work at Catalyst, is heavily involved in managing and developing content for Catalyst’s intranet and external website, has authored a tool on workplace trends, and has served on the Catalyst Award Evaluation Committee.
Michael Otterman is a social media content writer for Catalyst and is the author of two non-fiction books, Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage and American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond. He is a graduate of Boston University (BS, Journalism, 2003), University of Sydney (MA, Peace and Conflict Studies, 2006), and was Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Sydney, from 2006 to 2009.
Diversify or Die
Why does the phrase “diversify or die” get thrown around a lot when it comes to diversifying output, but not talent?
From real estate, to retail, to the newspaper industry, and even wedding planning, the phrase refers to the idea that it’s better to not have all your eggs in one basket.
This makes sense when we talk about products and services, but what about employees?
Diversification of talent fuels innovation and can drive profit, yet companies are slower to accept the need to diversify their staff than they are the need to diversify the items they sell.
They shouldn’t be. Diversity of product and talent should not be overlooked—both can be vital to business success.
C This
The gender gap receives attention as a serious business issue as more corporate leaders adopt programs and policies to remove barriers to advancement of women. Women are being recognized as a source of talent and future leadership, and progressive business leaders are working toward a truly level playing field. Some recent stories point to research by Catalyst and others to support these actions.
Women in Power Is a Leadership Issue
In a opinion piece in The Globe and Mail’s Time to Lead: Women in Power series, North American Vice President Deborah Gillis uses facts and research to counter the misconceptions that women have made it and that promoting women disadvantages their male colleagues. The fact is that women continue to be underrepresented at senior levels of business and in Parliament. And corporations with women at senior levels are growing their bottom line—and opportunities for all their employees.
READ: “More Women in the Workplace is Good for Business”, by Deborah Gillis, The Globe and Mail, 10/13/10
Women on Boards Correlate to Stronger Financial Performance
Corporate recruiter Janice Ellig, CEO of Chadick Ellig, cites research by McKinsey & Company and Catalyst to demonstrate effect of senior women on financial performance. “It’s not just in the boardroom, it’s at the C-Suite too. Those are the people making the decisions.”
Gender Diversity: Not Just a Woman’s Issue
Gender equality is still an issue at work, but it is not a women’s issue. Gender initiatives have traditionally focused on improving women’s participation in the workplace, but recently (in sociological terms, anyway) there has been a shift towards making “gender-“’ a gender-neutral problem.
Powerful Women Make Mistakes—and Make the Most of Them
Moira Forbes blogs about the similarities between an effervescent seven-year- old’s “awesome” pink cast and the lessons some powerful women have learned from apparent setbacks.
READ: “What Do Highly Successful Women and 7-Year-Olds Have in Common? by Moira Forbes, Forbes, 10/12/10
C This
A little-noticed provision in new U.S. legislation requires all federal financial agencies and firms to establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion to boost diversity. Banks and firms that fail to diversify their ranks do so at their own peril. According to the rule, failure to make “a good-faith effort to include minorities and women in their workforce” can result in cancelled government contracts. More on this ground-breaking provision in today’s C This.
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Laying Down the Law
Championed by California Democrat Maxine Waters, a powerful provision within U.S. financial reform legislation will hold federal agencies responsible for failing to diversify. “Firms must take steps to be more reflective of America,” said Michael Yaki of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “This is a wake-up call for Wall Street.”
Stop, Think, Act
“Would I want my daughters working here?” It’s a simple question, but it stops many men in their tracks. “If the answer is no, then you should own part of the solution,” insists Deloitte’s Ann Weisberg.
CEOs Speak
What traits do more than 300 CEOS from 40 countries have in common? Researcher Robert Rosen endeavored to find out.
READ: “The Secret to Leadership Success,” by Harvey Schachter, The Globe and Mail, 8/9/10
A Deadly Figure
Since the start of this year, The New York Times has published 698 obituaries— and only 92 were of women. This statistic made Fast Company magazine cofounder Bill Taylor wonder “about who deserves such recognition in the first place, and what their stories might suggest about a life well-lived.”
READ: “The New York Times Is Dead Wrong,” by Bill Taylor, Harvard Business Review, 9/2/10
No Trend Here
New market research has found that single, childless women aged 22 to 30 earn, on average, 8% more than their male counterparts in many U.S. cities. Is this a cause for celebration? Not so fast. “This small slice of data is unlikely to be indicative of a larger, penetrating trend,” wrote DailyFinance’s Melly Alazraki.
READ: “Young Single Women Now Earn More Than Men,” by Melly Alazraki, Daily Finance, 9/1/10
Diversity of Nature
Guest blogger: Laura Liswood, Secretary General, Council of Women World Leaders, and Senior Advisor, Goldman Sachs
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I love nature and its diversity. It provides many wondrous experiences—a plethora of flowers and animals, diverse landscapes, and a fabulous array of human beings.
And yet nature is tricky, too. I’m particularly focused on two parts of nature.
One part is that nature promises to happen “naturally.” And some things do. The sun rises and sets naturally, salmon swim upstream to spawn naturally, birds migrate naturally.
For women, we have often been told that our progress will occur naturally. That is, fill the pipeline, get into the organizations, educate and provide healthy lives for girls and women, and we will prosper and succeed naturally. Turns out some things just aren’t as natural as we thought.
For example, the World Economic Forum has published a gender gap index for five years. It tracks the gaps between resources allocated, and positions in society, for men and women in four areas: health, education, economic empowerment and political participation. The good news is that gaps in healthcare and education are almost closed in many countries of the world. Many of us believed once those gaps closed, the economic and political gaps would close naturally. Nothing could be further from the truth. The gaps in the latter two categories are staggering—only 59% of the gap closed economically (and even worse in some countries) and just 17% of the gap closed politically. It turns out we will need much more affirmative approaches to close these two gaps, and that won’t be easy nor will they close naturally.
Companies are hiring women (and other diverse groups) in higher and higher numbers. But they don’t seem to be making it to the top—women are 50% of the labor force and only 3% of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Nature abandoned these groups.
The second bone I have to pick with nature is the sleight of hand it has played on us in regards to diversity. There is no question that diversity of plants, animals, foods, people, or ideas is a good thing. But when organizations commit to that goal of diversity when it comes to people, they often stumble. As Catalyst points out in its extensive research, even in a simple dyad of diversity—women and men—we are baffled and burdened by stereotypes and preferences and assumptions and archetypes.
In my book, The Loudest Duck, I reflect on how the Noah’s Ark approach that many organizations take isn’t working. (“If we could only get two of each in the Ark, we’ll have our diversity.”) The workplace giraffe looks at his colleague, the zebra, and thinks, consciously or unconsciously, that this zebra is one funny looking animal and can’t possibly perform given its stubby neck, silly stripes and propensity to “talk” kind of strangely.
Our unconscious beliefs and perceptions about who others are get in the way of creating a fair and meritocratic workplace for those who are diverse. I once saw a sign that said, “We hire because they are different and fire because they are not the same.” Nature provided us with diversity. If only it had given us the tools to naturally use it.
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Laura Liswood co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders with Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland. Liswood serves as Secretary General of the Council, which is composed of women presidents, prime ministers and heads of government. In 1997, Liswood co-founded The White House Project, which is dedicated to electing a woman President of the United States. Her work with women presidents and prime ministers was the inspiration for the Project, which seeks to change the cultural message in the United States about women as leaders. In 2001, Liswood was named Managing Director, Global Leadership and Diversity, for Goldman Sachs, a global investment bank, and today is a Senior Advisor to the firm.
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