Name: Impact Initiative 2024: Building An Inclusive And Future-Ready Workforce
Uploaded: 2024-10-09
Duration: 18 min 42 s
Description: Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft Moderator: Indrani Sen, Fortune

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft  Moderator: Indrani Sen, Fortune

Impact Initiative 2024: Building An Inclusive And Future-Ready Workforce

Photography by Rebecca Greenfield/Fortune

Conferences

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft, Indrani Sen, Fortune

Beck Bailey, Global Chief Diversity Officer, Managing Director Accenture Charlotte Burrows, Chair, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer, Corporate Vice President of Talent and Learning, Microsoft

Beck Bailey, Accenture, Charlotte Burrows, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Microsoft, Indrani Sen, Fortune

Welcome. So wonderful to be here with you all. Uh We're gonna start with some questions that I have for our esteemed guests. Um But I want to just kind of put the word out that we will be. We're hoping that you all will, will ask some questions too. So start thinking about them. We're gonna have some mic handlers coming around a bit later on. Um So we're gonna jump right in and um I'm gonna actually start with you chair burrows. Uh a recent analysis of diversity in the tech industry from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had some rather dispiriting conclusions. Uh It found that racial diversity has only slightly improved over the last two decades in, in tech and that women still make up less than a quarter of tech workers, which is basically the same as in 2005. Um That's far less than their representation in the workforce at large, which is closer to 50%. Um I wonder if I could ask you Chair Barris to kind of set us up in this conversation. You've called this like a snapshot of the industry. That's right. We had a lot of interest in the tech industry in particular because it has been growing jobs. That's great news and we had done in 2016, a snapshot of the industry and diversity there um There in so, unfortunately, what we found when we came back and did this, um you going up to 22 2022 data and the report's title kind of tells you the bottom line, high tech low inclusion. So while there was a lot of growth and a lot of hiring, what you saw was that the needle moved only a little bit since tw 2005 to 2022. So women, although they are almost half of the workforce in the United States are only about 22 to 23% of those who are working in the high tech workforce and also in the high tech sector. And by that, I mean, industries that have a fairly large concentration of um tech workers. At the same time, we did see some unfortunately very modest but some improvement for people of color, um vastly underrepresented, underrepresented for Latinos and for African Americans. Um African Americans are about 12% of the workforce, a little right around just under 7%. Um is what we found with respect to the workforce and the tech sector, um the tech workforce and uh the tech company and uh sector of the industries as well with uh Latinos, we saw some more progress over the last two decades. So, but still very underrepresented. We're talking about 9.9% of tech workers and in the tech workforce. And then, um they are, of course, something like 18.7% of the um entire US workforce. So there's still some work to do. And because we are the primary, um, you know, agency charged with looking for discrimination, we are thinking about this in a whole host of different ways. Um And to, to really understand what is going on with the industry. Um What I will say is that we're 60 years on since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of, since our agency was created, our anniversary is next year. And so we see this as there has been progress and I mean, that very sincerely, but we have a long way to go and I'll stop there because I, I'm excited for the conversation. So I'm gonna actually turn now to, to Lindsey Ray and Beck, you guys have been both working on this issue and kind of living it for many years now. Um I wonder if you could add some nuance to these pretty stark numbers that we're hearing from chair burrows. Um Are you seeing differences across tech in different sectors? Are there any outliers or success stories that you could point to? Um And what can we learn from those? Yeah, I think if I pick up where, where troughs sort of started the conversation you know, at Microsoft, we're gonna be 50 next year, right? And if we look at sort of the example of women in tech, you know, we have uh not yet published our recent report that will come out later this month, but, you know, women representation in tech roles alone is at 27% which is above the averages that were just mentioned. And women for the company are over 31% And that's on purpose, right, that we've been able to slowly grow, you know, year over year for at least the last five years. But it's as a result of a holistic strategy and, and in partnership with many partners, customers, not for profit organizations that are in our broader ecosystem so that we can grow the workforce, not only sort of bringing people into tech, inviting folks into the technology profession who maybe wouldn't have considered tech otherwise, but then making sure that once they arrive in tech, we are growing them intentionally and investing in their careers and their mentorship and their sponsorship so they can stay and thrive in tech. And I would just add that, you know, it's part of our business, right, that having representation in the technology industry allows us to create products that people love. And so when you look at sort of Microsoft's evolution from software to hardware to cloud to now A I being able to advance representation along the way through those industry shifts, has you know, been really bolted to the fact that, you know, for Microsoft, we have this huge inclusive mission that, you know, calls on us to empower the people and organizations on the planet and we can't do that without representation inside Microsoft too. Do you want to weigh in on this one? I will um I think similarly to our friends at Microsoft, our commitment to inclusion and diversity is central to the business strategy. And I think that's a key takeaway for all of us that we have to be thinking of. How does this tie to our business results for us thinking about um just 10 years ago, really moving to a skills driven organization because we wanted to be the leading provider of digital related services that meant we would have to recruit differently and build our workforce differently in order to achieve that. So we sat alongside that ambition, the ambition to be the most inclusive and diverse company in the world. Now, a great example of that is in India where we were in hyper growth, breaking through the myth that there weren't women available for those tech driven roles. And at that time, maybe 31% women in our workforce to today, over 49%. And just this year, we reached 50 to 50 parity in our accenture technology centers for women. And that required thinking differently about recruiting, measuring the recruitment process and our performance achievement process for equity, right. Where people are experiencing an equitable outcome and then really focusing on our culture and the ways that we support people to be successful. You know, listening to them, what do they need in order to thrive if it's return ships for women, coming back into the workforce, better parental policies, better flex work policies, whatever is going to actually help them thrive in that role. Yeah, I mean, hearing both of you talk, it's, you know, this is, this is such difficult work, it's difficult work to do and it's difficult work to express to explain. Uh sometimes success can be kind of incremental. Uh And yet, you know, it's still important. Um One of the big questions swirling around today, not just on this panel in the whole country and the panel previous to us is um do these efforts work uh does being intentional about de I and ESG more broadly make any difference? Um I wonder if you could talk about some of the biggest challenges both in doing and in showing this work. And, and I, I would love for chair burrows as well to, to weigh in on this, you want me to start. So I, what I would say is um the federal government obviously uh is a national employer. We're I think the biggest employer in the United States. And uh we also believe that this is important to our mission. So what does work? And I wanna be clear even though I gave you some, um, you know, not happy news at the beginning that this does work. And one of the things that, uh, particularly, and you intuitively, you know, this, but what we have also found and what research has found is that everybody does better if they feel respected and valued in the workplace and they're given those tools to really contribute. And that's how, as an employer and I'm speaking both as someone who has been working in civil rights employment for a long time, but also as the head of a roughly 2300% organization that, that gets people able to contribute and do well. And we have seen that over and over our mission makes it easy to bring people in for, you know, a diverse group of folks really interested in our work, but to keep them there and keep them feeling like they are valued and contributing, that takes more. And so I do wanna make sure that not withstanding that. I think that there are some difficulties that if this does work and it's really important. I think in this moment, I know there's a lot of pushback to understand that and to stay the course, um whether it be a diversity equity inclusion accessibility program or whatever one is calling it to be intentional about making sure every you get the best talent in the door and make sure that they all feel included and um able to contribute I I would add that, you know, it does work but it does require strategic patience and operational urgency, right? That making sure that at least when I look at Microsoft's journey, the work that we do in partnership with schools as early as middle school up through high school and university and then reimagining those on ramps to tech for adults who want to have a career change. All of those pieces of the puzzle really matter. And, and it is the totality of the system as well as the many things that sort of you and, and beck both pointed to that allow progress to be made, right? And I think it's, at at least for us it is about really learning and listening to sort of the employee experience and the ways in which people are feeling like they do have access and opportunity or not. And then really thinking creatively and collaboratively, I mean, the beautiful thing about this work is that, you know, we all partner with so many of our peers and our colleagues across industries across, you know, small companies, large companies to try and make progress together. Um And I think it's something that's really special about sort of this work because it, it does require all of us. Absolutely. Yeah, I think, you know, I'll have just that I think it is important to be evidence based right, to have the receipts. And for us that's thinking about um the measurement of our progress. And I know that this works because I can measure it. And we think really holistically about the quantitative and qualitative data, we need to know whether what we're doing is working or not and adjust our approach accordingly. The only thing I would add is, you know, uh accenture and other companies, Microsoft, we do release our data, right? And so the transparency and accountability to point on places where we are making progress, but also to be accountable where we know we have more to do. I think it's really important, you know, as I said, we're about to publish for, you know, the sixth year or DN I report but 11 years, you know, consistently and I think that that's part of the rhythm of being able to keep the conversation moving. Right. Right. And as you say, it's the, it's the areas for improvement as well as the successes, right? And the learnings from failures sometimes too. I won, I wonder if we could uh open this up. Uh We have some mic handlers here and if anyone has a question for our esteem, panelists, we would love to uh to hear from the rest of you. Um If we don't have any questions, I also have more questions. Um You uh Lindsay Ray, you touched on the need for a kind of a collective uh or at least like collaboration across industries. I know that Beck, this is something that you've thought a lot about also um when we're facing these kind of these, these huge intractable problems, do you see potential for collaboration across industries or for sharing of some of those learnings that we've been talking about? I mean, I would say absolutely right. As a company who's been doing this work for four decades, I often look to smaller organizations to see how they're innovating with sort of less of a legacy or less history because they can do innovative creative things that big companies can't. Um And then I have the opportunity to also share, you know, decades of love learning and best practices that would benefit smaller companies or places to start around data or learning or, you know, sort of transparency, motions, engagement of senior leadership and grass roots. And so, you know, it really is that sharing of information and sort of wisdom and, and uh creativity that I think keeps the conversation well and Lindsay Ray is on the top of my text chain. So, you know, um but I would say, you know, it is that collaboration, it's a space where the natural competition of companies can be suppressed a little bit because we are invested in what is, you know, societal good as well as good for our businesses. And, you know, we look at things like uh what you've done at Microsoft Lindsay Ray with accessibility and how widely you share that so that all of us can learn, you know, that's really appreciated that leadership role and that sharing and collaboration or a project that our companies undertook together with the prince's trust. Like we have to think about NGOS and governments and how we partner together in the UK. We looked at, you know, how is generative A I going to impact the youth population. And from that, we've been able to create a project that's going to scale up 1 million folks in the UK from socio economically disadvantaged communities to use gen A I to build their skills, to have mentorship, but also to use those tools to get their jobs. And so it's that collaborative energy that allows us to do that singularly, we wouldn't be able to do that on our own. I love that you brought up skill upping. It's obviously an issue not just for the next generation, but for those of us already in, in uh you know, decades into our careers, we might need some, some retraining or upskilling. How do you think about that challenge for the, for this A I driven era? Well, for us, I think the first question we ask anybody coming to accenture is what was the last thing you learned? And we do that because learning is so critical to staying relevant in our, in our field. And we want people who have both an appetite and an ambition for learning. It doesn't matter if what you learned was Python or generative A I or how to play Chapel R on the guitar. It just really doesn't matter what, what is important is that appetite for learning. Because we know that the talent market is constrained as, as chair Burroughs research shows. But we're not constrained. We can invest, we can skill, we can grow the skills that we need to drive the business forward and keep everyone skill relevant. And at the pace of change we're in, that's just, it's hypocritical. You can't allow people to lag in their skills to add on to Beck's point. I would say like it's, it's not only important that tech workers get upskilled and res skilled on the new era of A I, but we will only be successful if everybody has access and benefits from that technology. It's part of why we need representation in the engineering of A I but also access to and so you see corporate partnerships on, you know, making sure that we continue to invest in broadband and access to devices and access to digital skilling beyond the workplace through linkedin learning and other platforms. Because I think like accenture, there are lots of companies who are deeply committed to making sure that this next era of tech really does leap frog inclusion. So more people benefit. Absolutely. And if I could just add on that, the EOC has had I launched in 2021 an initiative looking at artificial intelligence and how that is affecting employment um both in terms of recruitment, et cetera. But also this question of, you know, the entire lifeline and making sure, you know, that as A I becomes more important and to how we work, the people who get the opportunity to learn how to use these new tools in their jobs will have a um running start. So as those opportunities who gets trained in an institution and organization really matters to the future of their ability to succeed, to being, you know, able to contribute and for the organization to that talent from everybody. And so that's another thing that we're looking at and reminding people about. But we've also done um a couple of quick documents that are on our website eoc.gov on disabilities and a um I'm so glad you raised that and how to make sure that as you use A I particularly for recruitment that you don't leave people out, don't leave talent on the table unintentionally um with disability issues. And then also for race, gender, national origin religion um under title seven as well as um color, I guess. I love that note to end on that. Don't leave talent on the table. Um So I would like to thank so much our esteemed panelists and the audience for your engagement with these super important issues going forward. Thanks for having you so grateful for you.