Will remote working affect corporate diversity and inclusion efforts?

More companies than ever before are vowing to drive diversity while also managing vast groups of remote workers.

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During a change management webinar for in-house counsel in August, Accuweather Inc. chief legal officer Jennifer Chung was asked how she thought widespread teleworking amid the novel coronavirus pandemic would affect corporate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.  

“I’m actually a little bit concerned that diversity and inclusion will be impacted in this new world,” she said. “I think as work-from-home becomes sort of the norm … you’re actually going to have companies that are going to be really good at it and that’s where the talent is going to go. And then we’ll start to see almost a polarizing effect.” 

She added, “I’m a little nervous about that.” 

Zoom meetings, social distancing, masks, hand sanitizer everywhere—it’s all part of the “new world” or “new reality” ubiquitous phrases these days. And so too are protests over police brutality, systemic racism and social inequality, along with statements on those same issues from major companies, including Amazon.com Inc., Nike Inc. and The Walt Disney Co.

Related: How to beat Zoom burnout, compassion fatigue

More companies than ever before are vowing to drive diversity while also managing vast groups of remote workers. They have a commonality in that regard. But the situation is having markedly different effects on different in-house leaders in different sectors. Take, for instance, Tyson Foods Inc. in Springdale, Arkansas, and Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate company headquartered in Chicago. 

Tyson general counsel Amy Tu recently hired four diverse employees and sees opportunities amid the COVID-19 disruption.  

“I think it’s a really good time, perhaps because of where we’re located where there is space and cost of living is a bit lower than the urban areas,” she said. “It’s actually become quite optimal for us.” 

Initially, Jones Lang LaSalle general counsel Alan Tse said the pandemic hadn’t changed his company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. Later, though, after mulling over the question, he noted that the corporate real estate sector had taken a pretty hard hit and, as a result, his company had pulled back on hiring. 

“From that perspective, it impacts D&I. You can’t hire more diverse people if you don’t hire. Period,” he said. “I hired one person [a Black woman as the new head of internal audit] in the last six months. I’m still trying. But in a normal environment I’d have hired more than one person.” 

Monique Burt Williams, CEO of Cadence Counsel, expects that the companies that were attracting diverse talent before the pandemic will continue to do so. The bigger question: What becomes of the companies that were lagging behind or just starting to make diversity and inclusion efforts when COVID-19 hit?

“The companies I’ll be watching are those that are just now starting to hire a diversity and inclusion officer,” Williams said. “I’ll be watching them because It will be interesting to see how quickly they can react to the momentum of the movement.” 

‘More candid conversations’ … on Zoom

Meanwhile, some in-house leaders already are finding benefits in the shift to remote working. 

Deborah Marson, general counsel for Boston-based global information management services company Iron Mountain Inc., said having a larger remote workforce has expanded her pool of job candidates. 

“This allows you to reach out to people all across the globe and country that you otherwise may have overlooked,” she said. “That allows you to reach out to many different populations and communities where you will end up with a much more diverse workforce than if you were focused on the populations surrounding your main office.” 

Other GCs, including Tu at Tyson and Caroline Tsai, chief legal officer and corporate secretary for the Western Union Co., are noticing that video meetings seem to be breaking down walls and improving communication within their companies. 

“There’s less of a hierarchy,” Tsai said. “I’ve seen some introverts and diverse talent and women and it’s been an amazing opportunity to showcase them. It’s been very interesting to me. I think there will be new leadership competencies that will develop.” 

Tu suggested that Zoom meetings and conference calls have “democratized communications.” 

“From the standpoint of inclusion, especially given the issues we are battling on a day-to-day basis around COVID, I think it has given us an opportunity to work much more deeply into the organization and have much more candid conversations,” she added.

Long-term issues

Of course, remote working also presents a long list of challenges that extend beyond diverse hiring. That’s merely a beginning. In-house leaders need to ensure that their company has an inclusive environment where employees feel comfortable and have opportunities to develop and succeed. 

“We just have to remember how stretched people are,” Williams said. “If it was difficult before when people were in the office, it’s much more difficult now for us to get people to meet.” 

Marson, the top lawyer at Iron Mountain, has been having more one-on-one virtual coffee chats with employees. She wants to know how they’re holding up. She’s asking about their children and how they’re dealing with remote learning. 

“You, as a leader, have to reach out a lot more to get those candid conversations going that might have previously happened around the water cooler,” she said. 

Tsai said a top challenge that she sees with remote working is managing “cultural issues long term” and figuring out how to ”effectively continue to get the engagement and culture across your team.” She also was concerned about how the pandemic might have stronger negative effects on working mothers and hurt progress that has been made with gender equality.

Western Union has created a group that’s looking at the “future of work” and how telework will impact diversity and inclusion. The group, which has been working for about a month, also is thinking about job structures, work flexibility and ways to enable employees to “thrive and grow.”

“If you look at history and what’s happening now, if we don’t do something intentionally and come up with an effective solution, I worry that there will be a disproportionate impact on women and diverse employees across industries,” Tsai said. “This is not just a law department issue. It’s a global issue.”

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