Several years ago, AI started to be hailed as a new way to screen candidates in recruiting, enabling a more effective way to sift through high volumes of job applications to find the most qualified candidates. However, we have since learned that AI is only as unbiased as its programmers, and bias is showing up in big enough ways to enact new legal protection.

Several weeks ago a jury ordered Tesla to pay $137 million to Owen Diaz, a Black elevator operator who worked at its Fremont, CA factory and was subjected to repeated racial abuse, from slurs to swastikas drawn on walls, even after multiple complaints to HR. The only reason Diaz's case was able to go to trial in front of a jury was because he had not signed one of Tesla's mandatory arbitration agreements. This is a watershed moment in DEI.

With the current "war on talent," employers need to do all the can to retain their top employees. Many are looking at compensation with the intent of ensuring pay is equitable across men and women. To get to true pay equity, however, you need to take a deeper look.

March 31st marked the annual Transgender Day of Visibility, and for the first time was acknowledged with a proclamation from the White House. Transgender people - the "T" in LGBTQ+ - are often left in the shadows of recognition, so it was particularly meaningful to have this proclamation issued by the highest level of government.

As seen in The Dallas Morning News

For the past 10 years, annual unemployment for women 18 and over has been consistently lower than men’s. Then came the pandemic. Not only has unemployment skyrocketed, a notable divergence of rates for women and men has appeared and is becoming a disturbing trend. Women are losing jobs, becoming unable to work and staying unemployed at much higher rates than men.

As seen in Forbes

Every person I know who is involved in diversity, inclusion and equity work is exhausted. Down to their bones tired. And so worried that they're not doing enough. DE&I is hard work. If it's not hard right now that is probably an indication you're not digging deep enough, because we're getting to core systemic issues that have been in place for generations.

In the past 4 weeks, Black Lives Matter demonstrations have occurred in ALL 50 STATES across the US. Sit with that for a minute.

Our communities are crying out to be seen and heard and recognized for who we are, in our full multi-dimensional identities, with everything both unique and shared about us acknowledged and valued equally. We want EQUITABLE INCLUSION.

Now it is more important than ever for leaders to EXPAND and EMBED diversity and inclusion throughout their organizations. Sound extreme? It’s not. Here’s why…

Business leaders are largely in desperate situations right now. They’re either struggling to keep their business alive, or scrambling to keep up with newfound demand, with very little in between. DE&I work is at high risk in either scenario because both create an all-hands approach to producing and selling, forcing people and culture initiatives into the back seat - or, even worse, onto the chopping block.

Because inclusion…

Today close to half of entry level roles are filled by women, and only 22% of C-level roles and a pitiful 5% of CEO roles in Fortune 500 companies are filled by women. If balance at the bottom get us to only 5% at the very top, adding to the bottom isn’t the answer.

August 26, 2019 marks the 99-year anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.  And yet, here we are, 99 years later, and corporate America is still predominantly male at every level above entry-level.  At the most senior levels, only 22% of C-suite executives, 23% of SVPs and 29% of VPs are female. Less than 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

What is the agreement between an employer and employee, beyond compensation and benefits? What are the inherent assumptions on each side of the table? And why aren’t we having a more direct dialog about them?

I know, that sounds like motherhood and apple pie.  And you’re probably thinking, yes, we should do that, but I have 10 other burning issues right now and have to make sure I hit my performance targets for the quarter. Let me put it to you another way… Not advancing women creates a huge missed opportunity for your business.

Unconscious bias has become a bit of a buzzword lately, with companies such as Starbucks, Google and Facebook publicly talking about the training they are doing to educate employees about it.  While there is no quick training that anyone can do to “fix” their unconscious bias, opening your eyes to the biases you have that you are not aware of – and their unintended consequences, particularly in the workplace – is incredibly valuable.

I have had several conversations recently with male leaders that have been a bit maddening. Maddening because they get right to core of how hard it is to shift the gender equity paradigm in the workplace.

Whether your company or department has 15 people or 150, if you did not start your business with a gender-balanced team, achieving gender parity can feel like an insurmountable challenge. I’m here to tell you it is not.

I recently analyzed the data in McKinsey’s Lean In reports, Best Places to Work lists and publicly available company annual reports to develop deeper insights on why companies have such a difficult time moving more women into leadership roles.  What struck me is that the majority of the workforces at top-rated companies for women have been with those companies for less than 2 years.

When I was in college, my dad told me there were no senior women in his law firm.  And then he said, “But when there is an executive woman in the room, everyone pays attention. Take advantage of this and make sure you have something smart to say.”