Diversity directors now hot commodity

Jobs may be scarce in the time of COVID-19, but one position many local companies appear to be filling is that of diversity and inclusion managers.

And this time it may work.

“In 2016 similar [Black Lives Matter] outrage occurred and few companies took action,” said Stefanie K. Johnson, a diversity expert at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. “But this movement feels very different.”

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And it is more than a feeling for Johnson, who has published scores of articles on the subject of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) including pieces in the Economist, Newsweek, Time, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and the Washington Post. She has presented her work at more than 170 meetings around the world, in particular at the 2016 White House summit on diversity in corporate America.

Johnson said more than half of the Fortune 500 companies, 270, issued statements regarding this summer’s BLM turbulence. Somewhat closer to home a Top 10 accounting firm, Crowe Horwath of Denver, has already set deliberate and substantive goals in gaining diversity in its hiring. Other companies — including Ball Corp., the Rocky Mountain Institute and Country Day Schools — were searching for diversity and inclusivity managers.

“A good number of those companies are making strong commitments,” Johnson said. “A lot of companies have made statements, but they’ve also defined practices and set specific goals.”

In a recent article Johnson penned for MarketWatch, Johnson noted that the clothing retailer Gap, BlackRock, PepsiCo and Google had all set very deliberate goals in Black and other minority hiring, including increasing leadership goals. For instance, Google’s stated on its blog that it will work to increase the number of “underrepresented groups” in leadership roles by 30% by 2025.

At Zayo Group Holdings Inc. in Boulder, the company moved Erika Wayo to lead community and diversity directly under Julie Tschida Brown, the chief people and culture officer.

“Zayo believes that advancing a diverse base of talent and an inclusive work environment are key to business success,” says a company statement. “We value diversity and inclusion — in opinions, approaches, discussions and talent — because this leads to more innovative teams and better business outcomes. Zayo’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is central to our business. We believe that a diverse workforce and inclusive environment drives innovation, productivity, employee engagement and business success.”

While stressing that Zayo has long sought diversity and inclusion in its workforce, company co-founder and CEO Dan Caruso took up the matter of the current BLM movement to note it can do more, as well.

“For years we have operated on the belief that Zayo is stronger if our teams consist of a diverse group of talented individuals, where diversity includes many dimensions (e.g. gender, sexuality ethnicity and personality type),” Caruso said in a LinkedIn post. “I believe we’ve done a great job in creating an environment that fosters diversity. However, I think we can do better at attracting people of diverse ethnicities to Zayo.”

Both Johnson and John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, stressed that innovative companies, almost by definition, need diversity. “We know that diversity drives innovation,” Johnson said.

Tayer noted that companies involved in innovation simply require depth in the insight into market communities and the creativity that spawns. “There are a lot of stories where businesses have completely missed market opportunities,” he said.

“To be innovative you need a diversity of backgrounds and thinking,” Tayer continued. “Also you need to involve them in product development and all business development decisions.”

But for this to really work there needs to be a real connection between the business community and the community as a whole, Tayer said.

“To attract the right people you not only need inclusivity in the business, but you also need a welcoming and inclusive community.”