One of our main areas of consultancy and research is in the area of Diversity and Inclusion and we have been offering our services in this space for a decade now. Each year, we learn more about diversity and inclusion, and there are always trends that impact our work. This year there has been a renewed focus on race due to a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter Movement and also on Mental Health as people are facing the challenges of the pandemic.
However, there are other trends that are impacting how inclusive our workplace cultures are. Although some of these may not have the importance or focus that race and mental health have rightly demanded, they are impacting how inclusive our ‘workplace’ may feel. Some of these have made me feel frustrated this month, as they seem such an easy fix – but that is my perspective, and I would love to hear your views. I will share a few I have noticed; we will be sharing more of these during the month on our website.
- Dress code. A few years ago, I was invited to sit on the red couch at BBC Breakfast to discuss dress codes in the workplace. Even then, I felt it was a topic that we should have gotten past. Do we really judge people’s work competencies on their appearance? I loved Netflix’s response when they were asked why they had dropped their dress code policy, and whether they were worried people would dress inappropriately – “Well nobody has come in naked yet!”. Recently, there was a story shared round social media that a company was asking people to dress formally for zoom meetings and asked them to stand and show their full outfit and shoes to make sure they conform!!!
I was also talking to some students and they shared the stress they face in graduate interviews and not knowing what to wear for online interviews. Some of them said buying a suit just for this occasion was causing financial stress, and some had put themselves into debt. Then to see the interviewer was in a hoodie made them feel silly in their suit and regret the money they had spent. However, some organisations do judge you on whether you wear a suit or not. Some people may not realise that it is a concern as they have the money to buy a suit. For those who can’t afford it, then this financial divide can cause some difference in their confidence and even outcomes for the interviews.
My advice – make dress code requirements clear in interview invites. Be aware that stating someone needs to wear a suit may cause financial pressure and you may be feeding your unconscious bias regarding dress expectations, and thus influencing socio-economic inequity for your organisations.
- Zoom and our homes. There was an advert on TV this week about new kitchens… did you see it? It started with 4 people on a work zoom call and one person had a background filter on and the others were encouraging her to remove the filter. She was embarrassed because of her kitchen. The advert stated that you should get a new kitchen so you would not be embarrassed of your house. The final scene was her showing off her kitchen and the others putting a background filter on their screens to cover their less impressive kitchen. This advert really made me mad. Please do not comment on people’s background or house when on work calls. Not everyone has a fancy home office with uninterrupted space to work. Some people are in shared spaces so they don’t want to share their background, or maybe they don’t want to share their home for whatever reason they have (nb: their reason is not essential for us to know!)
In my own work, I get a lot of emails, where people share that they may be joining a call or workshop but their video will be off because they have some stress, or are feeling anxious and we should respect that. I have been on calls with others when they are demanding everyone speak or show their face… please don’t do this. We don’t know what everyone is facing. Allow people to work at their comfort level, or if you do require to see everyone for some reason, then communicate that before the meeting.
- This week we also saw a video circulating on Twitter of a virtual job interview and at the beginning the directors conducting the interview did not have their microphone muted. They were heard talking down on the interviewee’s apartment and living space saying it was really small and that they did not like being able to see his television in the background. The interviewee made a joke out of the situation saying he knew his apartment was bad, so he should be given the job so that he could afford to buy a new one. But the take home message is the same as above: do not comment on people’s homes in the background of their videos. It is worrying enough that people may be thinking these things and silently judging, but for the young man in the interview to hear this being said is shocking and it was quite hard to watch. Not everyone has a working space set aside for working from home, we are all adapting to new environments so whether you are working from your office, your kitchen table or your bedroom, that is okay and you should not have to feel judged for it.
- I read an article this week on the virtual background feature on Zoom and how this is faulty and does not work properly for black people. Black consumers of Zoom wishing to use the feature of uploading a virtual background covering the background of your camera, the facial recognition features are not as “high-tech” when it comes to black colleagues. Many have said they have seen the faces of their black colleagues disappear into the background due to poor facial recognition technology which is biased towards white faces. This unacceptable problem is something we, as white people, do not have to face and do not have to think about facing. An unfortunate oversight that could have easily been avoided has caused issues for black consumers wanting to use Zoom. Please share this issue and contact representatives at Zoom for this problem to be addressed and amended.
- Actions to support people who are deaf/hard of hearing – there have been a lot of challenges for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. One, with everyone wearing masks so you can’t lip read and also all calls being online makes it harder to lip read or follow conversations. This article gives a great review of a company’s attempt to be more inclusive and there are a lot of lessons to learn from this.
We have been following a brilliant Instagram (@signtohear) account who share a sign a day to learn some sign language. Maybe your company could try something like that to increase the knowledge of sign language? There are also clear masks so if you are engaging with people through your work, maybe that would help be more inclusive.
We also need to set better role models. A lot of the TV press briefings have people signing the updates. Downing Street briefings don’t seem to have this service. I don’t know why – it’s such an easy fix and we should make it the norm.
- Inclusive zoom meetings. Through experience and also research, video call meetings have not been the smoothest transition from usual face-to-face meetings. It is difficult for them to be inclusive and for everyone to feel involved. This article explains some great tips for introducing inclusive meetings. Some include having a facilitator – someone to act as a ‘host’ in guiding the discussion and topics. Learning to pronounce peoples names, allow meeting members to share the phonetic pronunciation of their name, and encourage this from everyone (not just those with “hard” names), this represents inclusivity. The same goes for sharing pronouns. Meetings should be recorded and transcribed offering closed captions so that they are accessible to those hard of hearing or for those whose first language is not English. It also allows those who cannot attend feel like they are still ‘in the loop’ and can access these team meetings at a time more suitable to them. Many more ideas are shared in this article so do give it a read.
These are just a handful of the diversity and inclusion challenges that we have noticed over the past few weeks and we will continue to monitor and share these across our social media pages (Facebook and LinkedIn) so please give us a follow on there to be aware of more of these.
Towards the beginning of this year we posted a blog covering all the Diversity and Inclusion Trends that were present in 2019 and we plan to do the same for trends in 2020 in the new year, so keep an eye out for that.
Please be aware of and acknowledge these challenges that people are facing, even if you are not. If you recognise these and share them, we can work together to spark change by spreading awareness and taking action. Be active and loud and we can make a difference.
If you are interested in any Diversity and Inclusion services we offer, you can contact Clare at [email protected] or on +447594946166
