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into senior management positions.
He also highlights interview
policies at Google: at each stage,
candidates are asked the same
questions, and the final stage
involves a committee reviewing all
of the applications, where, in order
to eliminate any potential bias, the
hiring manager is not present.
Global tech giant Microsoft –
whose board of directors is almost
50% women and ethnic minorities
– has not only invested heavily in
unconscious bias training but has
also made this training publicly
available via its Global Diversity and
Inclusion page.
In the past few years, Microsoft has
also hosted an annual Ability Summit,
bringing together employees from
across the company including people
with disabilities, parents of children
with disabilities, engineers and
accessibility focused specialists to
provide opportunities for learning,
networking, and leadership
engagement.
Meanwhile, US biopharmaceutical
company Gilead, with headquarters
in California, is one of the businesses
to have earned an 100% rating within
the Human Rights Campaign’s
2018 Corporate Equality Index,
and Novartis, a multinational
pharmaceutical company, proudly
employs an equal number of men and
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“We need to see authentic
leadership across all levels
of the organisation”
women and is committed to achieving
balanced gender representation in
management by 2023.
Less well-known companies are
also making exemplary progress.
Kate Conway, head of D&I and
Community Affairs at global
professional services organisation
Aon, which provides risk, retirement
and health solutions, explains that the
company runs specific programmes
to attract women on to its actuarial
programmes and BAME talent into
its insurance graduate pipeline.
She believes that visible and vocal
leaders are important to promoting
diversity but that “harnessing the
passion of all colleagues across
the organisation” is essential. “It’s
important that everyone has a voice
and can contribute to our culture,”
she says.
Avoiding tokenism
Tokenism is a pitfall for many
organisations. Frost warns that the
appointment of a CDO risks being
viewed as a simple, single solution
to a multifaceted problem that
requires a fundamental change in an
organisation’s thinking.
This sentiment was articulated
clearly in an article by Forbes written
by professional speaker and self-
confessed “D&I enthusiast” Janice
Gassam, published in April.
“While having a CDO is better
than not having one at all, tasking
one individual with the job of
changing toxic workplace culture,
implementing employee resource
groups, developing strategies to
attract and retain diverse talent and
figuring out how to create a more
inclusive environment for employees
is a lot, to say the least,” she wrote.
Similarly, a target- or quota-
driven approach represents only
one step in a complex journey. The
Rooney Rule in the US – a policy that
requires National Football League
Teams to interview ethnic-minority
candidates for coaching positions – is
an example of how affirmative action
can work positively. But companies
should be wary of using quotas as a
crutch. Douglas explains that she
prefers goals to quotas, as they help
to maintain focus; achieving a specific
numerical target is less important
that the sustainable actions behind it.
The role of talent
acquisition
What role should talent acquisition
play in this discussion? Hema
Bakhshi, chief workplace officer
at Adoptt, a niche workplace
transformation company, thinks its
role is crucial.
“It’s the first point of contact
that the external world has with
the organisation; almost like a shop
window,” she says. She advises
companies to think about their
processes in a much more “holistic”
way, looking at how technology might
be able to highlight any biases in
their processes.