Why acknowledging bias is critical for successful diversity and inclusion initiatives

Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj, University of Reading Henley Business School Associate Professor joins Yahoo Finance's On The Move panel to discuss the role that leadership plays in promoting an inclusive and diverse workspace.

Video Transcript

- Well, we want to turn now to what is going on around the country. As I mentioned, the Black Lives Matter protests that have occurred in many cities, and then as night has turned we have seen some looting. Although it seems as though overnight that was decreased to some extent. A lot of companies, a lot of brands are speaking out trying to figure out what they can do in order to address all of this. And we're joined now to discuss that by Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj. She is a University of Redding Henley Business School Associate Professor. She is joining us from London.

Shaheena, thank you for joining us. I believe Ben and Jerry's was one of the latest companies to come out with a statement in which it actually suggested some specific policy prescriptions as well. What do you think companies can be doing in a real way to address some of these diversity challenges?

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: Hi, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. And yeah, we're certainly seeing a lot of company CEOs putting messages out declaring lack of tolerance for what's going on, which is a really good step. But actually more important than what you've just identified, it's going that step further to be very clear about what initiatives need to be in place. And actually even more importantly, getting beyond the initiatives to be very clear about the accountability and what measures need to be in place to really demonstrate progress. We've seen this before.

- You were about to answer my question. We've seen this before-- what's going to change? Because I can think all the way back-- I covered, you know, not in LA, but I was in news in '92-- the Rodney King riots. And this has gone on for almost 30 years since then.

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: Absolutely. And I mean, you just have to think back to a few years ago when we had the Starbucks situation, where there was a situation where the customer in a branch. And the reaction from Starbucks was to close all their branches and to deliver bias training. Lots of publicity around that. More fundamentally, really important questions are actually not about the activity, but about what happens six, 12, 18 months later. What's changed in terms of policy behavior? How comfortable are staff talking about the microaggressions? And actually measuring the level of comfort in the culture to actually say things are starting to get better, we're feeling more comfortable.

So the really big question here is actually about the data. We've got a lot of inconsistent measures of data. We don't have enough data being gathered. There are usually reasons why, but that's where we need to really be focusing a lot more attention on this.

- Shaheena, you mentioned bias training. First of all, what does effective bias training look like? And then second, when you're talking about data, when it is something that's sort of more subjective, more emotional, how do you measure that in an objective way?

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: Sure. OK, so bias training, really effective bias training, it does two things-- first of all, it allows each of us to recognize that we do hold biases, subconscious ones, that completely impact our decisions It's happening right now as people are watching us and listening to us. The really important piece is twofold-- it's actually about the awareness so we're able to mitigate our decisions and really think about the impact of biases on our decisions.

But secondly, also encouraging groups to take responsibility so that we start to challenge group-think, which is one of the results of being biased. So group-think is really important where people feel comfortable in calling out biases that impact decisions and behaviors towards people.

And that leads to the second point. There's a lot of work being done around engagement surveys, staff engagement surveys. That's the touchy feeling stuff, and it matters. But actually really more importantly than that, what's happening at promotion level? What's happening at organizational level in terms of ensuring that recruitment and retention and people are appointed into roles and sustaining those roles and then that starts to bleed out.

So there's a lot we're looking at at the moment around pay gap reporting based on gender. In the UK, interestingly, that's been suspended because of COVID, which doesn't make sense. We're now starting to talk about ethnic minority pay gap reporting as well. These are hard measures, but they actually are really powerful in starting to put a spotlight on the softer issues that come through within organizations.

- Shaheena, I think a lot of the criticism comes from reactive leadership, right? For so long when you look at the C-suite, when you look at the VP level, when all of the folks you see are white and male, it really kind of feels hypocritical to say, OK, we really represent diversity. We want to invest in these causes. When in reality the company does not mirror that sort of rhetoric. What would you advise to startups right now? We've seen a lot of different organizations pop up in places like Silicon Valley to invest in making sure there is a diversity officer from the get go, and for a lot of those initiatives to be kind of fundamental in the creation of a business.

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: So you know, I think especially when you talk about startups, no one sets up a company to not be inclusive. They just want to get their business up and running, and then these things start to become add-ons and things they need to think about. But actually that awareness around how are we targeting our market? Who are our main stakeholders? Do we have that voice from the beginning? When we build our advisory board, are we clear that that represents our customers, our stakeholders, everybody who interacts with us and benefits from us.

And that level of consciousness and awareness, if it starts well, it's embedded within the DNA of the organization. And that's where you do need senior leaders who, irrespective of their background, they need to take responsibility. They need to champion marginalized groups and say, actually, not only are we just going to appoint a D&I person and make this their responsibility, it's everyone's responsibility. And we will ensure that the accountability is there to make sure that we're actually making progress.

- Shaheena, do European based companies do this better than US companies, or are they just the same?

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: I think it's pretty much the same. I think what we're seeing, and having done work on this not just in the UK and the US, but across 53 countries globally, we see pockets of fantastic practice. Even within multinational companies we'll see pockets of good practice, but what happens is it doesn't always get bubbled up and it doesn't become the norm. So that's the point about data. If you have data and you see a lack of progress, you start to ask why. And when you ask why, you then start to unpick what the problems are.

At the same time when you see progress, you want to be able to share that good practice and say, let's start bubbling this. So it's an area that's emerged. So you've said you actually were dealing with this in '92? Specifically D&I in companies have mushroomed over the last 10 years, so it's still an emerging field. But actually there needs to be a much, much greater look on the results in order to actually say what's being done well and how do we keep amplifying those messages?

- Shaheena, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate you. Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj is University of Redding Henley Business School Associate Professor. Thank you again for your perspective.

SHAHEENA JANJUHA-JIVRAJ: Thank you.