During lean times for your business, cutting back on benefits may be necessary. But there are ways to take away perks without employees resenting you, and MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen could study the list.

The head of the furniture company, which owns the iconic Herman Miller brand, has apologized for dismissing employee concerns about potentially not receiving their bonuses this year. Instead of acknowledging their financial disappointment, Owen chided staff, “You can visit Pity City but you can't live there. So people, leave Pity City.” (The now-viral comments went over especially poorly because, on top of her $1.1 million salary, Owen receives $3.9 million in stock and bonus compensation.)

“I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive,” Owen told employees by email. “What I’d hoped would energize the team to meet a challenge we’ve met many times before landed in a way that I did not intend and for that I am sorry.”

Hopefully the apology is sincere and accepted. We all make mistakes as leaders, but by leading with empathy, we can avoid particularly embarrassing moments.

Data-Driven DEI: Dr. Randal Pinkett explains metrics and blowback.

Birds of a feather: It’s a subtle form of bias that leads to problems.

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(Source: Wiley)

After a rush of diversity initiatives were created in 2020, the recent wave of layoffs sweeping the nation has hit DEI departments particularly hard. Last year’s attrition rate for DEI roles was 33% compared to just 21% for non-DEI roles.

Why are DEI positions declining? How do we measure and track DEI, anyway? And what should businesses make of a recent backlash? According to a Gartner director, “42% of employees resent DEI efforts and … 44% of employees agreed that a growing number of their colleagues feel alienated by their organization’s DEI efforts.” There have also been training-program reassessments in mainstream publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Randal Pinkett is CEO of BCT Partners and author of the new book Data-Driven DEI: The Tools and Metrics You Need to Measure, Analyze, and Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The author — who, incidentally, won NBC’s The Apprentice in 2005 — spoke with b. about how data can drive DEI in the workplace and why he believes it's so essential.

b.: Data can be useful across all aspects of business. Why is data important for DEI?

Pinkett: Data is to DEI what an instrument panel is to a plane. Long before there were instrument panels, people were able to fly planes. However, it was significantly harder without the instrument panel…

Similarly, improving DEI can be achieved without data, but it is significantly harder. Data makes the DEI journey more efficient and effective at every step along the way.

b.: What tools and metrics do you recommend?

Pinkett: Data that characterizes the representation of different groups in the workforce. This … should be disaggregated by demographics, role/level, department/division, and office location. Comparisons should be made to suitable benchmarks such as local, regional or industry demographics.

Data that characterizes gaps or inequities between groups… This could be represented by rates of change across hiring, promotions, complaints, retention, and separations, and/or gaps in time-to-promotion and pay/compensation…

Data that characterizes how people are experiencing the organizational culture and climate with respect to feelings of inclusion and belonging.

b.: Why do some companies see DEI positions as expendable?

Pinkett: Because they are unfamiliar with the business case for DEI, or … do not take it seriously, or they simply reject the findings. This is a problem because it compromises their competitiveness and does a disservice to their employees.

🤿 DIVE DEEPER:

• Are Your Layoffs Targeting One Race or Gender?
• 7 Ways to Improve Workplace Diversity and Inclusion
• Non-Binary Pronouns on Resume Show Clear Hiring Bias
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the U.S.: An Examination of 680 DEI Statements

b.: You mention “diversity of thought” in Data-Driven DEI. What are some examples, and how would hiring managers take that into consideration?

For example, some people prefer analytical thinking and naturally focus on logic and numbers. Some people prefer practical thinking and naturally focus on process and sequence. Some people prefer relational thinking and naturally focus on people and feelings. Some people prefer experimental thinking and naturally focus on possibilities and the future…

Managers must be mindful not to translate their personal or organizational preferences into decision-making blind spots … or a workplace that excludes certain ways of thinking and knowing.

b.: DEI is becoming a very hot flashpoint in the culture wars. What is your read on this?

We are now in an era of “reversity,” or organized resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. I think this is far more than bad; it is perilous to our democracy and our society. Perhaps what troubles me the most is the way these efforts are being framed: that DEI is meant to “indoctrinate” people when it is meant to liberate them; that DEI seeks to “rewrite our history,” when it is designed to balance how our history is told; and that DEI is “divisive,” when it is — both in words and in deeds — meant to be inclusive.

This interview has been edited for length. Read the Full Q&A at business.com!

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Dr. Steven Rogelberg is a Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte and former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

We know about race-based bias. We know about gender-based bias. We know about age-based bias. But there are two other subtle biases that we discuss less often:

• “Birds of a Feather Flock Together”: We tend to trust people who share our beliefs, personality traits, hobbies, attitudes, and appearance more than people whom we perceive as different, studies show. For example, taller people tend to marry taller partners, and attractive people are more likely to marry equally attractive partners.
• The Mere Exposure Effect: The more we interact with someone, the more we generally find ourselves liking them. They “grow on us” over time.

These two biases can lead us to problems. We tend to recruit, hire, and promote those who are like us. For example, when interviewing someone similar, we rate them more highly than someone different. We also tend to spend time outside of the workplace (i.e., happy hour, weekend activities) with those who are like us; in essence, Bias No. 1 perpetuating Bias No. 2.

That could mean discrimination based on immutable characteristics (race, gender, age, etc.), but it could be as seemingly benign as bonding over sports teams or movie fandom or fashion brands. Be aware of and actively counter these biases by trying the following:

• Self-reflect on your current proneness to “birds of a feather” and mere-exposure-effect mentalities. Are they manifesting? Do an interaction audit of sorts.
• Be intentional and create a plan to generally give equal quantity and quality time to your direct reports and team members.
• Actively engage with those whom you perceive are not like you in terms of hobbies, personality, attitudes, and appearance. Take initiative.

Holding biases is part of human nature. Working to overcome them and level the playing field requires care and effort, but doing so is essential to helping a diverse team thrive.

Looking for more guidance? Check out these tips for avoiding proximity bias.

• 1830: James Starley, inventor of the bicycle (and the cycling industry’s first entrepreneur), was born.
• 1862: Congress opened the U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado.
• 1946: Influential economist John Maynard Keynes died.
• 1989: The Game Boy, Nintendo’s handheld video game console, was released in Japan. It has sold over 118 million units.
• 2014: Kraft Foods recalled nearly 100,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer hot dogs after a packaging mistake failed to mention dairy content.

Written by Skye Schooley and Ali Saleh. Comic by John McNamee.

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