How Great is your Working Team on DEI? Facts #5
My Team is Diverse
When I hear my clients say “I have a diverse team”, my follow up question is by asking them to define what they mean by diversity, and I’ve only heard two responses:
“We have diversity of thought and experience”, followed by examples of how diverse their team is:
- Michael is the head Chef, he is from Ontario and studied at Vancouver Career College;
- Michelle is the head server, she’s from the Interior and studied at the UVIC;
- Mick is the head of Sales, he’s from Vancouver, and studied at UBC;
- Mitch is the head of operations, is from Vancouver and studied at the University of Fraser Valley.
Usually, the Michaels, the Michelles, the Micks, the Mitchs do not identify as members of under-represented groups. There is a difference between diversity of thought and experience and diversity of representation. And yes, representation matters, and when we focus on diversity of thought and experience, we focus on keeping things as they are; as in maintaining status quo, and maintaining Whiteness and White monopolization of power.
The second response I usually get is: a lot of our staff are of East and South Asian origin”.
Yes, this is a great starting place, and we need to be mindful that a lot of people from East and South Asia are highly educated (look at the fancy letters after my name), our credentials are recognized, and because of the lightness of their skin (colourism and skin-tone bias), it is easier for them to get recruited and be accepted.
Did you know that for every dollar a White man makes in Canada especially here in the lower mainland, an equally qualified East Asian/South Asian makes more?
East Asian/South Asian women make $1.019 for every dollar a White man makes; East Asian/South Asian men make $1.023 for every dollar a White man makes. Yup, they make more. Learn more at: https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/racial-wage-gap-for-men/
If you want to gauge if you are truly diverse (and please be cautious here, this is no way a reflection of whether or not you have an organizational culture of inclusion), look around your board room tables, your executive tables, your management tables and your staff tables, and count the number of Black and Indigenous board members, executives, managers and staff. After the count, note how many times you have valued the opinion, or thoughts of these staffs who look different among your staffs. Have you asked any of these staffs what they think before a decision is made?
Fast Forward – One more important question I like asking is, “have you never ask any of your Black or Indigenous staffs how things are done in their countries or communities?” it is a great thing for your organization to be diverse, do you treat all your staffs equally? how inclusive do you respect these staffs’ opinion, comments, thoughts, suggestions, etc.?
Stay tuned to read the full book coming out next year!
