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Following more than two weeks of impactful and inspiring protests, we are moving into a period of action--both in government and business. Last week, an enormous number of organizations formalized long-overdue commitments to listen, learn and do better to eradicate the injustices we’ve knowingly or unknowingly upheld as the beneficiaries of a racist system.
Some corporate statements were exemplary in their unequivocal condemnation of police brutality and demand for accountability, their clear declaration that Black Lives Matter, and the outlined action steps they would be taking to educate, advocate, and invest in systems and programs that support Black individuals and communities (some notable examples: Ben & Jerrys, Justworks). Other promises came through as statements of solidarity from corporations promising to do better, but the details remain fuzzy. If you’re in that second camp, you’re likely asking: What concrete steps can we take as an organization to make good on this promise? Here are some of our favorites:
1. Set specific goals around the recruitment, retention, and promotion of Black people and other minorities in your organization.
Publicly disclose diversity figures so that progress towards goals can be measured. (Note: Make sure you’re further breaking down figures by gender and including specifics around the diversity at management and board levels.)
Tie executive pay to diversity metrics. In August 2015, as part of an initiative to improve diversity in their workforce, Intel tied executive compensation to meeting the diversity goals they set. By February of the following year, they had surpassed their initial goals by raising the number of women and minority new-hires to 43%.
Support Black employees through mentorship programs partnering them with company leaders and ensure diversity in high-potential leadership programs to help develop future leaders.
Develop student internship programs that track into full-time jobs for Black graduates, and partner them with management and executive team sponsors.
Sponsor early-pipeline talent development programs and recruit from HBCUs.
Partner with networking communities like Sistas in Sales, and organizations focused on shaping an early pipeline of talent from populations underrepresented in certain industry sectors, like Girls Who Code.
Hire recruiters that deeply understand DEI principles and will take a holistic approach to your talent strategy--from making the hire to retaining the employee and promoting them to management.
2. Support your Black employees.
Black employees have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 layoffs; if your company is planning to make layoffs, consider the diversity and equity implications of these decisions.
Create intentional spaces to uncover the experiences, sentiments, and needs of Black employees. Employee Resource Groups are a great way to provide this space. Additionally, the insight gleaned from ERG meetings can be leveraged in the creation of forums that couple anti-racism and anti-discrimination presentations with anonymized real stories from their peers to educate, motivate and inspire all employees to be strong allies. (Note: make sure you’re properly compensating ERG leaders for the extra time and energy they dedicate to their ERG commitments, too)
Expand mental health benefits for all employees. Most employees are (hopefully) thinking deeply about race right now and confronting difficult emotions in doing so. Many of your Black employees are (and have been for a long time) facing the chronic stress of dealing with racism and the trauma and grief of having repeatedly witnessed and lived in fear of the violence committed against Black people; many of your white employees who are awakening to the consequences of their White privilege are grappling with identity crises and feelings of grief and guilt. Counseling is a great way to help employees release and work through these feelings and emotions in safe spaces. Several companies increased mental health benefits to help employees deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health. More companies would do well to follow suit and expand mental health benefits in this case as well.
3. Make training available to all employees to help them understand racism, bias, and what they can do about it.
Evaluate existing employee experience and identify weak points. Anti-racism, anti-bias and ally training should be specific to the needs of your organization, and the specific gaps you uncover. While there isn’t a one size fits all option, a good place to start is with these Undoing Racism Workshops.
Make trainings a part of a holistic DEI strategy. Training alone has been shown to be ineffective due to the intent-behavior gap, a phenomenon that exists where even when individuals know the right thing to do, they fail to act accordingly. An example?: succumbing to the instant gratification of staying silent instead of taking action to engage in the temporary discomfort of calling out racist comments to interrupt bias.
Accompany trainings with clear action plans for anti-racist behavior to be implemented and followed by all departments in your organization.
4. Support your employees participating in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Match employee contributions to organizations--both grassroots and national--working to repair the effects of systemic racism. Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project, The Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund are just a few.
Offer paid time off for individuals to protest or self-educate.
5. Support Black-owned businesses.
Commit to carrying more Black-owned brands at your stores or online marketplaces (Sephora, for example, just signed a ‘15 percent pledge’ to carry more Black-owned brands), and ensure you’re selling an inclusive array of products. It shouldn’t be this hard for a Black person to find bandages that match their skin tone.
The average Black entrepreneur starts their business with 1/3 of the startup capital for a typical White entrepreneur. If you’re a technology company with an awesome business platform or software-as- a-service product, offer Black-owned businesses an extended free period. Justworks, for example, is waiving 12 months of admin fees for newly formed, black-owned businesses to help them get started.
Use your platform to spotlight black-owned businesses you partner with.
6. Use your corporate influence and voice to demand local, state and/or federal legislative action.
Contribute campaign donations in support of candidates fighting for police reform and contribute to organizations focused on cultivating black political organizers, like BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity).
Release coordinated statements with other organizations targeted at swaying legislative bodies. Words do matter, particularly those coming from individuals with power and money.
Other suggestions? We’re all ears! Our firm was founded on the concept of equality in 1973, where we operated as one of the first executive search firms to champion and place women and minorities in executive sales roles (the clearest path to leadership at the time). While there’s been some heartening progress since then, there’s still a long way to go to achieve equality in the workplace and beyond. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and we will continue doing our part to drive racial equality and inclusion in the workplace. We also recognize that our team is not diverse enough. We generated the above list as an internal guide so that we are always focused on doing better. We hope you can use this to inform your own organizational strategy and sustained focus on improving the systems we live in, the systems we ultimately create.