Reference no: EM133653008

Shanti, the Chief People and Culture Officer at Telco Inc., was eagerly preparing for a meeting with her colleagues on the Executive Leadership Team. It was time to talk seriously about Telco's people and culture issues, particularly the challenge of attracting and retaining talent which Shanti believed was a sign of deeper problems with the culture. The organization had been so busy in the past few years responding to the many challenges of the pandemic: how to keep people healthy and safe and continue to manufacture; how to address supply chain shortages and increased demands for speed; people working from home in an organization with limited technical infrastructure to support such a quick change; being responsive to Black employees, customers, and the community in the wake of George Floyd's and other murders; and now, how to reestablish a sense of normalcy in day-to-day operations.

It had been challenging to attract and retain talent even before the pandemic. Four senior women had left the organization in the 18 months prior. Shanti had prepared a report for the executive team about this trend but had not been able to present her findings while she and the People and Culture Organization were in triage mode during the pandemic. She hopes she will have an opportunity to bring the Executive Leadership Team's attention back to these issues today.

While Shanti had found that each woman had reasons for leaving, she thought there were more significant issues they were not sharing. One senior woman left to spend more time with her family, but Shanti knew there were often additional underlying reasons for leaving when a woman said this. A second woman quit because she was pursuing an advanced degree and did not see a way to fulfill her job responsibilities and attend school. She did not ask to be considered for the tuition reimbursement plan and had no plans to return to the organization after completing her degree. Shanti knew that the organization wasn't flexible enough regarding the time and responsibilities needed for her studies. The third woman, the highest-level African American woman in the organization, had moved up the ranks and knew she was in line for a promotion. She took a position at another organization that offered her some more money, but Shanti was not convinced that a higher salary was the only reason she left. The fourth senior woman left without saying why. While Shanti understood the reasons the women gave for leaving, she believed that more significant organizational issues impacted each woman's decision. She worried that the exits were related to how they experienced the organization's culture and their perception of future growth opportunities. Shanti heard that White women and women of color in the organization were also alarmed by the rapid succession of these departures. They wondered, "If senior women were not staying, what did they, at lower levels, need to know to make their decisions about the organization and their futures?"

Additionally, the Employee Survey conducted in 2019, also provided some concerning trends as well. African American and Latina/Latino members of the organization rated questions regarding fairness and the organization treating people with respect somewhat lower than their White counterparts. Women had lower scores with respect to flexibility and feeling a sense of belonging. Although none of these scores indicated statistically significant scores from the majority for these populations, there was a difference. And when Shanti had looked at the turnover data it appeared that involuntary turnover for women was 9% higher than men's; and for people of color it was 7% higher. Also noteworthy was that more employees with fewer than 5 years of service (which included women and people of color) were leaving at a higher rate both voluntarily and involuntarily than a few years ago.

When she had mentioned her concerns to a few of her male colleagues, they said she was overreacting and creating patterns, especially related to the women leaving, where they did not exist. Would they listen and respond to her differently now?

Shanti walks into the conference room and greets her peers. Around the table are

Dan, CEO of Telco; White man, with the organization 22 years, CEO for 5 years
Bill, CFO; Australian White man, with the organization for 10 years
Craig, vice president of supply chain; African American man, 40 years old, with the organization for 10 years
David, vice president of sales and marketing; White man, 62 years old, with the organization his entire career, over 30 years
Joseph, chief legal counsel; White man, 52 years old, with the organization for 15 years
Stan, president of manufacturing; White man, 52 years old, with the organization for 5 years
As Shanti (38 years old, with the organization for 5 years) looks around the room, she is reminded that she is the only woman on the senior team and the youngest member and that most of her colleagues are White men except for Craig, who is African American. And they often would tease Bill (the CFO), who is Australian, about his accent.

After greetings around the table, Dan starts the meeting. "First, it is great to see everyone together again. I appreciate the hard work you each have done in your areas to ensure that our operations ran as smoothly and efficiently as possible during the height of the pandemic. And I am proud of our ability to pivot to remote work, where possible, and to deal with the many challenges presented to us. Today, I want to discuss where we are regarding our people and culture, specifically, how we get people back to the office. I recognize that our manufacturing teams have been operating on site all this time, as well as some team members in IT who have kept our systems up and running."

Each leader shares the current state of their workforce. Stan, president of manufacturing, says that while most of the individuals in his organization had to be physically present to carry out their responsibilities, more and more people want to be primarily remote if they are not directly running equipment. It has become harder and harder to fill open positions with our current lack of flexibility regarding being remote. He also reports that they are experiencing increased absenteeism, quality issues on the line, and safety slips and falls. With the most diverse workforce in the organization, there had been a few racist actions that Stan and his team had addressed. Still, he is hearing that African American and Latino/Latina team members feel disrespected, and he worries that these incidents are only the "tip of the iceberg." He admits that he's unsure what to do, and although he asked for some assistance from his people and culture officer, he doesn't think they are addressing the root cause issue.

David, the head of sales and marketing, shares that although the company's sales are up, his biggest concern is replacing several key salespeople who are retiring and others who have recently resigned. The new hires he did have are pressed to get trained and up to speed quickly with their customers and territories. He says, "Quite frankly, this Great Resignation is kicking my butt. I had a star salesperson who just left without another job. She was unhappy with how customers engaged with her and just decided she had had enough. She was making six figures and great bonuses but she just up and quit like that. Honestly, I was stunned!"

David returned to the topic of remote and hybrid work, saying, "Our salespeople got accustomed to interacting with customers through Zoom. I believe they must meet face-to-face with our customers to continue to build and strengthen the relationships. But many, especially our newer team members, resist, saying, 'We are having the best sales year ever! Why do we need to travel?' They are just not seeing the value in it, although close relationships are a big reason we have maintained our customers and give us an advantage over our competitors. I am not sure how to convince them. I worry I will lose more people if I push too hard."

Craig, head of supply chain, chimes in. "I hope you know that we are doing everything in our power to address the supply chain issues. We are sourcing differently, trying new vendors in the United States, reshoring and nearshoring versus offshoring, and finding ways to work around the challenges so that we don't impact manufacturing. I am hearing from my people that they are exhausted and that, at times, they are being treated rudely by both sales and manufacturing, who don't give them the benefit of the doubt. My people feel beaten down and judged daily, and blamed for glitches in materials delivery. They can only do so much!

"We need to do better in how people engage and support each other. A few African American employees in manufacturing and other parts of the organization recently asked me to meet with them on Zoom. One or two mentioned experiencing microaggressions at work. On Zoom, they don't have to face that quite as much, so many working remotely said they prefer not to come back into the office. Also, some African American team members shared that they feel disappointed in the organization because they do not see enough action in response to George Floyd's murder. And while I know we have been doing a lot in terms of diversifying suppliers, contributing to HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and hiring more diversity, they are not seeing enough of it and are not experiencing any change in our basic culture, particularly in terms of our managers' understanding and interactions. I know we have a lot on our plates, but I think we need to be more visible in the actions that we have taken. We once talked about hiring a chief inclusion and diversity officer. Maybe we should reconsider that now."

After hearing Craig's comments, Shanti knows she has an opening and seizes the moment to discuss her report and observations. She shares not only the concerns that David and Craig raised but reminds them about the four senior women who left before the pandemic and how she sees that trend continuing. From Shanti's point of view, these are all part of the same organizational picture and challenge. However, she does not share her own feelings regarding the lack of interaction safety with the team and at other organization meetings-mainly when she is being talked over or when her ideas are dramatically different from those of her men colleagues and quickly dismissed. She does not feel that sharing those comments or feelings at this meeting would be well received, regardless how good her relationship is with each of her colleagues.

Despite her personal feelings, Shanti intends to use this moment to gain some traction on changing the culture in a way that was not just a knee-jerk, Band-Aid approach. She says, "I appreciate what you are all sharing about what is happening with our people and culture. We are definitely in a time of transformation and need to rethink how we are engaging people and how people treat each other. Our managers are great technically, but I don't think they have the skills to engage effectively with the workforce of today, especially people who are different from themselves. Too many of them are still 'old school.' Some have said, 'We like people like us; what is wrong with that?' Some even believe that the way to produce great work is to control people rather than trust them.

"Concerning hiring and resignations-YES, we are losing people faster than ever. And I worry that we are hiring too quickly and sometimes the wrong people. I don't think we have the culture we need for today and tomorrow. Job candidates, especially women and people of color, are interested in Telco because of our excellent product reputation and historic results-but honestly, once they learn about our lack of work flexibility and current pay scales, many do not accept our offers. Many ask what we are doing about inclusion and diversity. When they read our reviews on Glass Door, many of them say 'No thanks.' And while I think hiring a chief inclusion and diversity officer is a great idea, I am not sure that the time is now for us to bring someone in. First, we need to decide as a leadership team if we have the appetite to make a significant culture change, and if so, what do we do about it?"

Dan pauses to reflect on Shanti's words and what he heard from the others. So much had changed since he had started his career. Back then, managers "ruled the roost," and employees were to put their heads down and do their jobs." Now he needs employees to be able to bring their thinking to the workplace. He needs new ideas about improving manufacturing processes and increasing efficiencies for higher organizational performance. He called the meeting to decide how they could get people back into the office-particularly given the amount they were paying for office space. But it seems that enticing people back is not an isolated issue. The increase in safety and quality incidents and higher absenteeism are worrisome and present a potential drag on the organization's profits. Higher turnover and difficulty attracting new employees could be even more significant threats to the organization long term. And the possibility that the culture needs to shift significantly is making his head hurt.

Looking around at his team, he says, "Okay, we have significant issues to address. So, my questions to you are, What do you recommend we do? Where do we start? How do we move to a new future, and what does that new future look like? We are not communicating well with our employees about the actions that we are taking. Should we put a communication plan together? How do we entice people to come back to the office? How do we address Shanti's, David's, and Craig's concerns about our women, African American, and Latino/Latina employees? Should we hire a chief inclusion and diversity officer? Should we hire a consulting firm to help us?"

Team members jumped in with the following suggestions:

"Hire a chief inclusion and diversity officer who could create a plan and help them move forward."

"Hire a consultant to do a culture assessment."

"Deliver unconscious bias training for all management levels."

"Require people to come into the office twice weekly so that teams doing cross-organization work could collaborate more efficiently."

"Some organizations no longer require people to come to the office at all but hold quarterly in-person meetings to foster relationships and connections. Should we do that?"

"Let's just communicate to our team members better."

Finally, Dan thanked everyone for their thinking and asked a group to come up with a recommendation based on what they heard regarding options for moving forward. Shanti, David, and Craig volunteered.