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Diversity in Employment
An Interview With Trainer And Consultant Lila Kelly
by Tim Miejan
For more than 20 years, Lila Kelly has been a leader in the Twin Cities in areas
of diversity in employment interviewing, structuring the recruitment and selection
process, diversity in the workplace, career-transition skills, recruiting, and human
resource management. She works to bridge the gap between employers and an increasingly
diverse labor market.
A message on her website clearly explains her motivation.
"Growing up in a small town in Minnesota didn't seem to offer much diversity,"
she writes. "Sure, two of my best friends were the only African American and
Asian American kids in my class, but we were kids and never talked about our differences.
That is, until many years later.
"I was shocked to hear some of the things that happened to them that I was totally
unaware of as a child. This opened my eyes to a whole new world and, in 1992, started
me on my diversity journey.
"As I continue in this journey, I realize that gender, class, physical appearance,
and being a white person who is doing diversity work in an increasingly diverse country,
is very much part of my own diversity. Having traveled this journey for over 12 years,
and realizing that this is a life-long process, allows me to relate to where others
are and help them move along in their journeys."
Ms. Kelly, who established her independent consulting firm Lila Kelly Associates
in 1992, spoke with Edge Life about the challenges of achieving diversity in the
workplace.
How do you define diversity?
Lila Kelly: I like asking people that question. It's more than just a one- or
two-line answer, because there are different dimensions of diversity. Authors write
about what make us human and what may set us apart. Some of the primary dimensions
of diversity are race, gender, age, our abilities, or disabilities. Those are some
of the core things that basically can't be changed or would be very difficult to.
There also are secondary dimensions, such as religion, marital status, economic class,
your job position, and those affect who we are and how we live our lives and how
we're treated.
Diversity also relates to what's happening between people cross-culturally with all
the "isms" -- racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism (devaluing others because
of disability). We're talking about all the things that have to do with being included
or excluded, how this plays out in the workplace and whether people are included
or excluded from being promoted, or even being hired, and how people treat each other.
What skills are required to manage a diverse workforce? What do you teach managers
when you're consulting on diversity?
Kelly: It's a couple of different tracks. One is the personal track, which starts
with learning about themselves and their own cultural upbringing and what they know
and what they don't know about diversity and all those "isms" that I mentioned.
We identify their awareness about different cultures and the histories of different
people who are now together in that workplace. It's not just what's happening that
day, but it's about where we've been, what has brought us to who we are today and
how we interact with people. That's the work that individual managers need to do
on themselves first. They need to start there.
Secondly, it's about learning about the different people who are in their workforce
and understanding those cultural backgrounds and histories. They can read and study
up on it. They also can sit and have conversations with people. They can put themselves
into situations where they are the minority and see how that feels and then talk
with people and have conversations. Ask people what it's like for them, working at
the company.
So, it's going quite a ways beyond just seeing them as an employee doing a job.
Kelly: Yes, because it's not just about employees. It's about future employees,
so it affects recruiting. It's also about customers. Society is becoming more diverse.
It's affecting everyone and it will continue to become more diverse. So as far as
managing diversity, who are your customers? Who do you want your customers to be?
And how are your products and services best suited for a more diverse population?
On the other side, it's very important to have policies and procedures and a diversity
action plan in place to address educational needs -- marketing or business strategies
-- and how to handle discrimination if that happens in the workplace. It's important
to put yourself into a proactive situation. A lot of companies find themselves in
a reactive position. Something happens and then they have to hurry up and do this
training, hurry up and write a discrimination policy, hurry up and hire a lawyer
-- or whatever. If a manager can get ahead of the ball, they'll be a lot better off.
More of a preventive stance?
Kelly: Yes, just to be prepared for the future. We're not going to go backwards
with this.
Why is having a diverse workforce a benefit to an employer?
Kelly: If it's not diverse and everyone looks the same and thinks the same, it's
just not going to be as creative. There are shifts in the market that can put a company
out of business if it doesn't see that coming. For example, a Swiss clockmaker rejected
an idea of using numbers on the face of the clock instead of using hands to show
the time. They thought, "That's silly. We've always done it this way with the
hands." So somebody else took this idea and it has become accepted worldwide.
It's good for business to have innovative, thinking people.
It's also important to have your workforce reflect the population that you're serving.
It will help you provide products and services that fit the needs of people, because
your workforce is going to understand what those needs are. It's also going to help
with future recruiting, because if you're welcoming to that diversity, you not only
will attract more people, but you'll be able to retain people.
On your website you said, "To understand the diversity of others, we first
need to understand our own diversity." Will you elaborate on that?
Kelly: For most of us, we don't know what we don't know. We might read a book
or see something and think that we know about that culture or that group of people,
but our understanding is just the tip of the iceberg. We can go into our own background
and childhood and see what we were exposed to. Did we have friends who were of different
ethnicities that came to our house, we went to their house and our parents knew each
other? Did we know people who have different sexual orientation or have disabilities,
and how deep of an understanding do we really have of people who were different than
we were? Many people haven't been exposed to any diversity or than maybe religion
-- and that's part of diversity, too.
The thing is, we're all in this together. To get in touch with where we've been helps
us realize where we still need to go -- and in that process, we realize that we're
all learning this together. If you look back in history, these discussions about
diversity -- and bringing different people to the table to talk about diversity issues
-- have only been going on a very short time. I think we also need to realize that
white people are part of diversity and that white males are a part of diversity.
We're all moving forward in this together.
What do you think the field of diversity training will look like 10 years from
now?
Kelly: Some people are developing some good diversity training programs, and
I think those need to be looked at as a long-range program with action plans over
a five and 10-year period. It needs to be ongoing. Some people and some organizations
are getting good at really training and educating people on things that make sense
and that actually create real change.
On the other hand, there's still a lot of diversity training out there that is of
the quick-fix mentality. One company wanted to hire me and a couple of colleagues,
and they wanted to send all their employees through four hours of training. Basically,
they wanted everything fixed. That was their plan for diversity training. And, by
the way, could we also throw in sexual harassment on top of that?
There are plenty of diversity trainers out there who will jump on that and say, "I
can do that." That's ineffective. Ten years from now, quite frankly I don't
know if we're going to see a lot of difference in that. I think some of it will continue
to get better, but I think there'll still be a lot that will stay the same.
Twenty years from now, if we jump ahead a generation, I have a lot of hope in the
younger generation. It's going to be a lot more diverse. I think the younger generation
doesn't have some of the same hang-ups as people of my generation, who have been
struggling with this for a number of years. I think a lot of the answers are going
to come in another generation.
We hear about Minnesota Nice and Minnesota Ice. To what degree is diversity a
problem in the Twin Cities?
Kelly: I think what you're talking about more than diversity is racism.
I think Minnesota Nice has been around for a long time. Those who come here to visit
find people nice here, and I think that's true compared to other states. That's been
said about Minnesota for a long time. People of color, however, have a different
perception of it. One comment that I've heard several times from people from the
South who come up here is, "At least in the South, racism is out in the open
and people will tell you they don't like you because you're black or whatever. But
in Minnesota, people are nice to your face, but then you don't want to turn your
back on them."
You don't know how you stand.
Kelly: Yes, they'll try to undercut you or try to hold you back other ways. So,
I think racism is alive and well here, as it is across the country.
So that would be reflected in business as well?
Kelly: Yes. A resumé study was done a year or so ago. Four thousand resumés
were sent out to a Boston college and a Chicago college, with identical backgrounds.
Half the resumés had white-sounding names, and half the resumés had
black-sounding names. The resumés with white-sounding names got 50 percent
more responses than the ones with the black-sounding names. Right around the time
that study came out, I had two people, one from a large organization here in town,
and one from a small, family owned business, who told me that exact thing was happening
in their businesses. Like I said, I think racism is alive and well.
What recommendations do you have to employees to cope with issues regarding diversity
in their workplace, who work in companies that are not quite so progressive in that
area? Do you have any suggestions for them on a personal level?
Kelly: That's a great question. I think if you talk to people of color or people
who are gay or people with disabilities in those companies -- and I've talked to
a lot of people in the research I've done and I continue to hear stories from people
-- they would say that their company is not very progressive.
Nowadays you find that it's easy to say, "I'm going to sue" or "I'm
going to sue them for that." And I think that should be the last resort. Oftentimes
that only is going to hurt you and possibly give you a bad reputation if that gets
out that you did that at your last job.
It's hard, but it's important to try to work with a company that does anything with
diversity, if they have a diversity council, if they have somebody who will listen.
Perhaps a manager, or a human resources manager, is willing to listen to constructive
suggestions in a way that's helpful. A suggestion would go further than a complaint.
If an HR manager or a manager hears a complaint, they might start protecting themselves,
because they figure a lawsuit might be coming.
So one suggestion would be to try to find a ear that will listen. I'd put suggestions
in writing, because people talk all the time and a lot of times it just gets lost.
Whether it is leading to a discrimination lawsuit or whether it is leading to a good
suggestion, by writing it down it will help you formulate a plan of action.
If it's a suggestion, you start the conversation around some change your company
could make. You keep a document of that and then you maybe have another discussion
later on progress that has been made. All of a sudden, you're building a nice plan
for them to be able to be more inclusive, to offer some education in certain areas
that you see the company needs. It could be a promotion for you to work yourself
into a position where you're helping that company -- if you want that. Not everyone
wants to go that route.
Another suggestion, when doing a job search, too, is to do some research on different
organizations and find out which ones are more inclusive and which organizations
are doing something with diversity. Nationally, several reports have been done on
the best diversity, the best companies for Latinos to work at, the best companies
for women. If you are looking at smaller companies, get out and talk to people in
your community to find out what the environment is like there, what the culture is
like at that company.
Do you have any final comments related to how we can all see each other as equals?
Kelly: Unfortunately, in this country, especially since 9/11, there has been
a lot of fear and hatred towards not just Muslim or Middle Eastern-looking people,
but anyone who's different. It's important that we try to value each other and appreciate
each other, more so than be afraid of each other.
For more information on Lila Kelly Associates, visit www.lilakelly.com or call
(651) 636-0455.
Tim Miejan is editor of Edge Life magazine. Contact him at (651) 578-8969, toll-free
1 (888) 776-5687 or e-mail editor@edgelife.net
Copyright © 2005 Tim Miejan. All rights reserved. |
| May 2005 |
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