Episode 76: Tips for Fostering Workplace Diversity

Welcome to the Workplace, a podcast by Cal Chamber. I'm Alan Zarenberg, President and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce. With me on the podcast today is Jonathan May, Senior Vice President of External affairs and Chief Diversity Officer for the Albertson Companies and a member of Cal Chambers Board of Directors. Thanks for joining us, Jonathan, and welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Alan. It's great to be with you.

Great. First off, let me just say it's important to note that you are the Chief Diversity officer for an enterprise Albertsons company that is one of the largest retail employers in the United States, providing what, approximately 270,000 jobs, 2200 supermarkets across 34 states in the District of Columbia. And for our listeners in California, you probably know them as Albertsons Supermarket, Safeway Supermarket, and Vons. So Albertsons also operate 1700 in store pharmacies across the country that serve roughly five and a half million patients each year. So as we discuss one of the most pressing issues as we face as a society, racism, inequality and diversity, we want to talk about how it's impacting employers and and workers in the state. And I think what we'd like to glean today from Jonathan's expertise as an expert in the field of diversity. How does Albertsons approach this? How do you train your workers? Do you train your supervisors and your employees differently? And maybe we can learn some best practices. So, Jonathan, thank you so much for being with us today and participating. So could you talk a little bit about how you approach diversity at Albertsons, how you do training? And I think in the end here when we'll come back to this, how do you sustain this throughout an ongoing working relationship?

Thanks, Alan. When we think about diversity and inclusion, we ask this fundamental question, and I would ask it of you, I would ask it of our listeners. What is the fundamental goal of your company, your business, your organization? What's the thing you are most pursuing? Well, I'm going to assume that your goal is to be as effective as you can possibly be, to be as profitable as you can possibly be, as impactful in a positive way as you possibly can be.

So assuming that's the case, my question to you is, are you serious about that? Are you committed to that? And I'm going to assume that you are serious about it and that you are committed to that. Well, then if you are serious about it and you're committed to it, then I think you would agree that you should want to do everything possible to try to leverage different resources to help you be as successful as you can possibly Be well, I'm here to tell you that one of the things you can do, your organization can do to be as successful as it can possibly be is to leverage the benefits of diversity and inclusion. And I say that because research shows that companies that embrace diversity and inclusion generally outperform those that do not. There have been lots of studies. McKinsey & Co. Is just an example of many that have done research on this. Looking at literally thousands of companies across a range of industries and just a couple of factoids I'll mention here. It's been shown that companies in the top 25% for gender diversity, top 25% in terms of their management, are 21% more likely to experience above average profitability than those on the other end of the spectrum. Likewise, with regard to racial and ethnic diversity, 33% more likely to experience above average profitability than those at the other end of the spectrum. And I say all that to say, Alan, to your question. How do we approach diversity and inclusion at my company, and how should other companies approach it? I believe you should begin fundamentally with looking at the business case for the why. Why is it that you should care about diversity and inclusion? I think too often folks think of diversity as kind of a social program that people should do, kind of a goody good type of effort. And that might be reason491 for doing that, but there are literally hundreds of other reasons why it's really important. If your goal is to be the best, you can possibly be.

Great. As I referenced, you know, you Albertsons has a presence in 34 states. You must have a very diverse workforce throughout the country in many different respects. And so how do you approach dealing with your workers and your supervisors on making sure they understand the benefits of diversity? And then next, how do you practice it? How do you make that a priority for them? Because it's a priority for the.

Company. So we know about the business case of diversity that I just described and we educate all of our workers about the business case for diversity, inclusion, why it matters, why it's important. And I just gave a couple of examples to many, many other benefits with regard to diversity in companies and companies, diversity and inclusion, and companies need to embrace them. So the reason why diversity can be hard is the reality of unconscious bias. It's the reality that our minds can take in about 11 million pieces of data at any split second, but at a conscious level, we are only aware of about 40. And so we reach conclusions about people who we want to hire, who we might want to promote, who we might want to develop, if you will, to help them in their career. And we reach conclusions. And often we're not sure why we pick this person as opposed to that person. And so, Alan, we provide training to all of our associates on not only the why diversity inclusion happened to be important, the business case I mentioned, but the challenge in carrying that out. And that is the reality of bias that if you can fog a mirror, we all have. And so we talk about the reality of the bias that folks have. But then more importantly, what can you do about it? What steps can be taken to lessen the impact of bias in the way that we do work? And so that's part of the training that we provide, as I mentioned, to all of our associates to be effective. Training can never be one and done. It can never be thought of as check the box and then you're done. Don't have to worry about it. Like any sort of improvement that people make, it needs really persistent follow up and reminders about the importance of this, we call them behavioral nudges, reminders about it. And so follow up every six months or so with some additional teaching or training just to remind people of the benefits of diversity inclusion, but more importantly, what they can do to lessen the likelihood of.

Bias. So you made a great point in the beginning here, which is, it sounds like is a great point that you remind people of diversity is good for your business. And no matter whether you're a privately owned business, a small investor, or a large publicly held company, diversity because it's good for the business is good for the investor. And so as with everything, I'm sure it's always good to remind your staff, your associates, your employees that, you know, we can't stay in business unless we're successful. And here is a good approach to an underlying foundation to success is diversity. And then how did you develop your program beyond that to make sure that people practice diversity? And how did you develop a training? Is it a module, is it a platform, is it in writing, is it online? How do you go about presenting that? And is this something that other, I think we're asking so that the listeners would understand. How do I go about doing this to help me be a more successful.

Business? Sure. And so I developed the training at our company based on input from a number of different resources and organizations. And the training that we have done has been multifaceted. And so it began initially with in person meetings where I talked about the business case for diversity and inclusion. I told personal stories about what it feels like to be discriminated against for no other reason than the color of my skin. And I talk about again the reality of bias and I talk about ways to mitigate, to lessen the impact of it. And so it began with large group presentations. The next step along our journey was a module. It's interactive, it's about 25 minutes and it walks people through a presentation, it asks questions along the way, wait for them to respond correctly, and then moves on. And that's a module that we have developed internally in house and it's now part of our new hire training. So it's required. When we launched this several years ago, literally every person who worked for the company was required to go through it as well. In addition to that, we do what are called follow up trainings that I refer to as behavioral nudges. We just had a behavioral nudge just last week that I did. It was virtual, literally thousands of people on. But just a virtual behavioral nudge to talk again about the reality of bias. The more important steps that companies can take for others who are looking to launch their own program. Maybe they haven't done anything in this space at all and they're asking themselves, okay, great, I know I need to do something. What should I do? I would say that the best thing to do would be to look to see if there are consultants out there who can come alongside. But I realize that might be hard to do. I understand that. And so the next thing I would say is there are a lot of resources online that you can go to to help deepen your understanding of the benefits of diversity and inclusion, but more importantly, how you can accomplish that in your organization. I would look to organizations like McKinsey, like Lean In. There are lots of videos as well that are available on YouTube that talk about reality of bias. And so I would recommend to the listeners that they just take the time just to go online to look at the resources that are available. And I think you would find that there is a lot of information. I also would recommend a couple of books and there are a lot of books out there, but I'll just mention two that have been most impactful to me.

The first book I'd recommend is a book that's called Blind Spot. One Word, Blind Spot, Hidden Bias of Good People, Blind Spot. And then the second book I would mention, and I think most people likely have heard of it, but it's called White Fragility. And it talks, as some of you know, about the reality of privilege. And I'm not going to say much more because I don't want to give too much away, other than to say that both of these books can really shape a person's thinking and really open their eyes even more to the reality not only of bias, but. But steps that can be taken to lessen their.

Impact.

Great. And we'll make sure we get those up on our website to go with the podcast so people can refer to those. So, Jonathan, is this, for people, a difficult topic to. Is race difficult for people to talk about? And when you find that in your training, do you have to train your supervisors differently than.

Your subordinate associates? And how do you overcome that? Are there things that are lessons that you can pass on to employers and HR people to make sure they understand? Yes, it's difficult, but it's necessary, and you can overcome that.

Difficulty. So let me tell you what we have done and others can do as well.

Shortly after the recent events in Mr. Floyd's murder and other events, they occurred around the same time and frankly, have been occurring for decades, but particularly the tipping point was Mr. Floyd's murder.

My company CEO called together a group of some of the African American leaders in our organization, some of the directors, store directors, and others in the corporate and division office. And he began in that session what we refer to as a courageous conversation. And the goal of a courageous conversation, more than anything, is to listen. It's to learn. It's to share how you are feeling. It's to kind of peel back one of the layers of the onion, if you will, and to say, this is how I am feeling. And this is the question that I think is really pivotal to ask early on. It is, how are you feeling about what's going on in the world today with regard to social inequity, racial inequity? How do you feel? How is it impacting you? How is that impacting, if at all, your ability to do your job well?

Are you feeling comfortable being yourself at work? These types of questions, what more can the company do to be a welcoming environment for you? As an employee of my business, what can we do? What more can we do?

These are the types of questions that are, frankly, a little bit hard for some people to ask. I understand that. But they fundamentally set.

A place in your work environment that lets folks know that they can be heard, that they are valued, their opinions are valued. People want to know not only what they think, but how they feel.

That creates an environment where an employee feels that you care and put yourself in the position of the employee. Don't you want to work in a place where you get a sense that senior management really cares about how you feel. And if you're hurting, they care. They want to know how you can help. And so, again, I know that this can be hard, but just because it's hard doesn't mean we should run away from it. And so I would encourage companies, businesses, organizations during this time that is a pivotal time like I've never seen in my life, where we're talking about how we can do better as a country with regard to race relations, to really give folks an opportunity to share how they are.

Feeling.

Well, that's, I think, if nothing else, that's the most significant advice that we can provide to employers throughout California through this podcast. And obviously, the agenda begins at the top, and the ability to listen and to be inclusionary begins at the top. But it has to be, it sounds like it has to be embraced by your management to be able to listen to your workers, listen to your management, and to be able to, I assume, make changes where it's necessary to be more inclusionary and to make sure that you do everything you can to eliminate the bias in the.

Workplace. Absolutely. I'm going to mention a quote that I think frames this well.

It's by Tony Robbins. And then the second part has been added on by another person whose name is David Lapin, who is a diversity and inclusion expert. The quote goes like this. For things to get better.

We need to get better. We collectively as individuals, as associates, as employees, we collectively as a society, we need to get better. But here's the second part.

For we to get better, the collective, for all of us, me needs to get better. And by that, what I mean is we need to look individually in the mirror and we need to ask ourselves, what can I do? What can I do differently? What can I do better? So that I can add to the likelihood that all of us, as the week, get better, what can I do? What am I willing to do? And so my challenge to myself and to everyone is ask yourself, what can I do? But not only what can I do? What will I do? And not only what will I do, but step up and do it. Maybe that involves a conversation with someone different from you to better understand what it's like to walk in their shoes. Maybe that involves picking up the book blind spot that I mentioned and to learn more about that or write fragility or other books that are out there. But what will you do today and tomorrow, not a week or a month from now, to be a better me, if you will? Because when we all focus on being better. Me's that it improves the we, it improves the society in which we live and it begins with us.

Individually. So one final question if I might, Jonathan. So you used the word and you talked about this unconscious bias. But whether it's conscious or unconscious.

It seems to me that people bring in, maybe not knowing it, their biases to the workplace. And I assume that is a challenge for the workplace, for the employer. But as you started off the conversation, it certainly is going to help with the success of your company to have diversity. And so do you try to in your training, try to make sure people understand, you know, you may bring biases to the workplace, but we're going to do everything we can in the workplace to provide equality for everybody. And I think you made it sound very interesting. Here is to make sure that you understand your co workers in the shoes they walk.

In. Yes, yes, yes. But I think that the reality is that even though we have the best of intentions to not have our biases impact our actions, the best practices now indicate that you need structures in place for meaningful change, for meaningful diversity in the workplace. So what I'm talking about is something that McKinsey and Lee Nin have also talked about in their research. But when you look at the group of folks who are interviewing new hires, look at the panel of interviewers and ask yourself, is there diversity here? Is there representation? Are there women? Are there people of color? If not, are there folks we can bring into this discussion to help us collectively make the decision about who we're going to hire? Because the reality is that there is bias. And until you have different structures in place, it's going to be very difficult to change it. On the other side of the ledger is the candidate pool.

Is that slate of candidates the top four folks you are looking at to hire? Is there diversity there?

Research has shown that if there are four candidates, one of the candidates happens to be a woman. And the panel that's doing the interviewing, all men, non diverse men, the chances of that woman getting the role are nearly zero. It's hard to believe, but that's what research time and time again has shown. So Alan, all that to say structures need to be in place as well. And by that I'm talking about looking farther, looking wider at the folks that you are considering for even making aware about the opportunity to work for your company or your organization, cast a broader net. If you can't think that you can find a new one, look further, look farther, look harder, because they are out there, talented people of color, talented women, trust me, they are out there. Just take a bit more time to look and then bring ideally at least a couple diverse candidates into the final list, the final slate of candidates that will start to move the numbers, if you will, so that management in your organization reflects the demographics of the communities that we serve. I was just doing some research earlier. The largest ethnic group in California, as some may know, but Perhaps not all Latino, 39% Caucasian 37% Asian 15% African American, 6% multi ratio 3%. Ask yourself, the numbers that I just listed there, how does that compare to the management of your organization? If there's a delta there, then there's an opportunity.

There. So in closing, and I certainly one of the things that I gleaned from our conversation and of course training and recognition and listening are all important, but to practice diversity is going to lead to the most successful way to lead to a diverse workforce and a successful.

Workforce. Absolutely.

100%. Thank you so much, Jonathan. And this was for me, very informative. And like I said, for everybody who listens to today, it's all important for us to know that Jonathan is an expert in this area. This is what he does and is successful at it. And so what we glean from the workplace today are not only best practices, but successful best practices that provide not only a more diverse workforce, a more equitable workforce, but I think, as we all start the conversation, a more successful company. So, so thank you so much for being with us.

Jonathan. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you.

Alan. Thanks for joining us on the workplace. Please comment, share and subscribe to Cow Chambers podcast by visiting cowchamber.com.