This article is set before Oct. 2017, before the downfall of Harvey Weinstein.
Jul. 26, 2017 "How GoDaddy turned the corner on sexism": Today I found this article by Charles Duhigg in the Globe and Mail:
Once notorious for sexist TV commercials, the company now focuses on attacking subtle biases that influence employees’ thinking
A few years after Blake Irving became chief executive of the Internet company GoDaddy, he spoke at a conference where the jeers started almost immediately.
Attendees were particularly offended by GoDaddy’s history of sexist television commercials, which featured women in wet bikinis and innuendos so graphic some stations had refused the ads.
But when Irving tried to explain that those advertisements, created by his predecessor, had been discontinued, and that he had been hired, in part, to change the firm’s culture, he was mocked.
But when Irving tried to explain that those advertisements, created by his predecessor, had been discontinued, and that he had been hired, in part, to change the firm’s culture, he was mocked.
“Every time Blake quotes Sheryl Sandberg or calls himself a feminist, throw something at his head,” one person shouted.
So it was surprising when Mr. Irving appeared as a keynote speaker a year later, in 2015, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing – and received a standing ovation after detailing GoDaddy’s efforts to become one of the most inclusive companies in tech.
By then, GoDaddy had been recognized as being among the country’s top workplaces for women in tech. The company’s policies on equal pay, its methods for recruiting a diverse work force and its approach to promoting women and minorities had been lauded inside business schools and imitated at other firms.
Today, as Silicon Valley sexism again draws attention, it’s worth studying those shifts at GoDaddy. There’s a regular procession of headlines about sexual-harassment scandals at venture capital firms and large tech companies.
But learning to address this problem requires studying where things have gotten better, as well. And GoDaddy has become, surprisingly, a lodestar among gender-equity advocates – an example of how even regressive cultures can change.
But learning to address this problem requires studying where things have gotten better, as well. And GoDaddy has become, surprisingly, a lodestar among gender-equity advocates – an example of how even regressive cultures can change.
So what did GoDaddy do right? The answer is more complicated than just stamping out overt sexism. GoDaddy also focused on attacking the small, subtle biases that can influence everything from how executives evaluate employees to how they set salaries.
“The most important thing we did was normalize acknowledging that everyone has biases, whether they recognize them or not,” said Debra Weissman, a senior vice-president at the company. “We had to make it okay for people to say, ‘I think I’m being unintentionally unfair.’”
Although GoDaddy still has work to do, the company is “evidence that things can change,” said Lori Mackenzie, executive director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford, which has worked with the firm. “Oftentimes, what keeps companies from shifting is believing the existing system is already fair. Blake is really committed to undermining that.”
When Mr. Irving joined GoDaddy in 2013, the firm was succeeding by selling a commodity – website registration and hosting – through outrageous, scandalous ads, such as a 2005 Super Bowl commercial in which a woman’s top kept coming undone while observers discussed her plastic surgery. Those ads were deliberately designed to attract attention through controversy. Today, GoDaddy is worth more than $7-billion (U.S.).
The offensive advertising, however, was demoralizing to GoDaddy’s staff, employees from that period say, and the salaciousness at times spilled into the workplace. Staff members describe a hard-charging culture in which people drank in the office and participated in and gossiped about interoffice affairs. There was a sexual-harassment lawsuit in 2009, later dismissed, and websites such as NoDaddy.com, where employees described misbehaviour.
Upon becoming chief executive, Mr. Irving immediately decreed that GoDaddy would no longer run sexist ads, and reiterated the company’s commitment to combatting workplace discrimination.
In part, this was good business: Many of the country’s small-business owners – the customers GoDaddy hoped to attract – are female. Mr. Irving, who had previously been a high-ranking executive at Microsoft and Yahoo, also felt GoDaddy was failing to attract talented engineers and executives – including women and minorities – who were alienated by the firm’s image.
In part, this was good business: Many of the country’s small-business owners – the customers GoDaddy hoped to attract – are female. Mr. Irving, who had previously been a high-ranking executive at Microsoft and Yahoo, also felt GoDaddy was failing to attract talented engineers and executives – including women and minorities – who were alienated by the firm’s image.
But to genuinely transform GoDaddy, executives decided they needed to convince the company’s 3,500 employees, most of whom thought of themselves as fair and good people, that even a seemingly impartial workplace can be discriminatory.
“We needed to become the most inclusive company in tech,” Mr. Irving said. “We had to erase the idea that meritocracy is enough.”
Some of the problems applicants and workers faced were subtle. For years, for instance, GoDaddy’s job descriptions were needlessly aggressive, saying the company was looking for “rock stars,” “code ninjas,” engineers who could “knock it out of the park” or “wrestle problems to the ground.”
Moreover, when GoDaddy’s human-resources department began reviewing how the company analyzed leadership capacities, it found that women systematically scored lower because they were more likely to emphasize past team accomplishments and use sentences such as “we exceeded our goals.” Men, in contrast, were more likely to use the word “I” and stress individual performance.
“There’s a lot of little things people don’t usually notice,” said Katee Van Horn, GoDaddy’s vice president for engagement and inclusion. “But they add up. They reinforce these biases you might not even realize you have.”
GoDaddy began focusing on countering these biases, assessing the company’s hiring, employee evaluations and promotions. In particular, executives scrutinized employee reviews, which evaluated workers using questions similar to those found at many companies:
Does this person reply to e-mails promptly?
Have they sought leadership roles?
Have they shown initiative?
Does this person reply to e-mails promptly?
Have they sought leadership roles?
Have they shown initiative?
“We realized a lot of those are invitations for subjectivity,” Ms. Van Horn said.
“You can’t change a place just by hiring more women,” said Ms. Weissman, the senior vice-president, who oversees a technical staff. “You have to create a safe space to talk about the assumptions all of us have. You have to work against the biases.”
Today, almost a quarter of GoDaddy’s employees are women, including 21 per cent of its technical staff. Half the new engineers hired last year were women, and women make up 26 per cent of senior leadership. Female technologists, on average, earn slightly more than their male counterparts.
There are critics, though. One former high-ranking woman, who requested anonymity because she worried that speaking critically would harm her reputation, said she found GoDaddy’s commitment to change uneven.
Departments tended to take inequality seriously when top executives were paying attention, she said. But that focus lessened when scrutiny declined.
Departments tended to take inequality seriously when top executives were paying attention, she said. But that focus lessened when scrutiny declined.
“We know this is a process,” Mr. Irving said. “We know we’re not going to fix it in a day, or a year, or five years.”
Jul. 28, 2017 "Men need to step up in influencing organizations to close the gender gap": Today I found this article by Luc Villeneuve in the Globe and Mail:
I was recently at a diversity round table hosted by Ryerson University’s Faculty of Science where they shared the interesting work of the Australian Human Rights Commission initiative, Male Champions of Change.
The coalition of male business leaders works to leverage their influence to increase the number of female business leaders in Australia.
This innovative idea struck a chord with me. Closing the gender gap is a critical business issue that affects everyone and requires the talent and power of us all.
Women represent 25 per cent of the work force in the Canadian tech sector, according to the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC). Unfortunately, that statistic has barely budged in 10 years, despite the continual rally cry from ITAC warning of looming talent shortages in the tech sector. According to the Waterloo, Ont.based Centre for International Governance Innovation, diversity is good for business.
Its study, Diversity Dividend: Canada’s Global Advantage, revealed a 1-per-cent increase in diversity can deliver a 2.4-percent rise in revenue.
Red Hat Canada has doubled in size over the past three years and I am on a mission, with the help of my team, to ensure women are a part of that growth. Three years ago, female salespeople represented 5 per cent of our sales team, and now they represent 30 per cent.
Our efforts are making a difference, but true change requires commitment and an honest assessment of our processes.
Here’s how we’re making changes one hire at a time. Leading by example: Major transformations require a fully committed leader who models the desired behaviour, according to McKinsey’s CEO Guide to Gender Diversity. You can’t delegate gender diversity to human resources or to just your female leaders.
As a leader, you need to be the champion and rally your team with action and results.
You need to embed gender diversity in your goals,
support employees in driving change,
establish a process to share great ideas
and celebrate stories of success with your team.
Change starts at home: We all need to be advocates for our industry, explain the fascinating work being done and the diversity of jobs available. Early on, I encouraged my daughter, Stefania, to consider a career in IT, helped to guide her education and open doors where I could.
At 23, she is thriving in a role in technology sales and I’m continually connecting her with other young women so she can serve as an inspiration to them. At Red Hat, we’ve seen a spike in the number of dads who are guiding their daughters and recommending them for technical jobs.
We call it the “caring dad factor” and we hope it continues to drive diversity in our field.
Invest time in building a diverse network: Social media has allowed us to cast a wide net when hiring, but you still must carefully curate your network. I have 4,300 contacts on LinkedIn and, after auditing my connections, I realized the women I was targeting for employment were in my secondary connections. I couldn’t contact them directly.
I made the mistake of passively building my network, letting people come to me instead of reaching out and taking advantage of the benefits of LinkedIn. I now spend a few hours a week reviewing connections LinkedIn recommends.
I reach out to female IT leaders to connect or request an introduction to their networks, which could lead to good job candidates in the future.
Wield your influence and take action: Research by Catalyst has shown women need sponsors, not mentors. Take the extra step to go beyond sharing your experience with female co-workers – put them forth for opportunities.
I have sponsored three women over the past 15 years to replace me in my role. My most recent recommendation became NCR Canada’s first female president.
You need to embed gender diversity in your goals,
support employees in driving change,
establish a process to share great ideas
and celebrate stories of success with your team.
Change starts at home: We all need to be advocates for our industry, explain the fascinating work being done and the diversity of jobs available. Early on, I encouraged my daughter, Stefania, to consider a career in IT, helped to guide her education and open doors where I could.
At 23, she is thriving in a role in technology sales and I’m continually connecting her with other young women so she can serve as an inspiration to them. At Red Hat, we’ve seen a spike in the number of dads who are guiding their daughters and recommending them for technical jobs.
We call it the “caring dad factor” and we hope it continues to drive diversity in our field.
Invest time in building a diverse network: Social media has allowed us to cast a wide net when hiring, but you still must carefully curate your network. I have 4,300 contacts on LinkedIn and, after auditing my connections, I realized the women I was targeting for employment were in my secondary connections. I couldn’t contact them directly.
I made the mistake of passively building my network, letting people come to me instead of reaching out and taking advantage of the benefits of LinkedIn. I now spend a few hours a week reviewing connections LinkedIn recommends.
I reach out to female IT leaders to connect or request an introduction to their networks, which could lead to good job candidates in the future.
Wield your influence and take action: Research by Catalyst has shown women need sponsors, not mentors. Take the extra step to go beyond sharing your experience with female co-workers – put them forth for opportunities.
I have sponsored three women over the past 15 years to replace me in my role. My most recent recommendation became NCR Canada’s first female president.
Last year, I launched an event for executive female leaders to provide a forum to network and share professional development advice. Many of the attendees have worked with me in the past and I took the opportunity to publicly honour their success.
The event exceeded our expectations. It’s going to become an annual event and a networking opportunity for women to build deeper connections and support one another.
Hiring: We all have our successful methods that produce candidates. I discovered my process wasn’t attracting a qualified pool of women. I sought feedback from female candidates and discovered some similar themes.
They told me it was a challenge to meet my hiring deadline because of their commitments to their employer and family. They required a longer lead time to assess the benefits and risks of making a move.
Because of this open dialogue, I’ve changed my hiring approach and I’m keeping in touch with female candidates to plant a seed before a job is available. It takes a commitment in time, but it’s worth it.
The event exceeded our expectations. It’s going to become an annual event and a networking opportunity for women to build deeper connections and support one another.
Hiring: We all have our successful methods that produce candidates. I discovered my process wasn’t attracting a qualified pool of women. I sought feedback from female candidates and discovered some similar themes.
They told me it was a challenge to meet my hiring deadline because of their commitments to their employer and family. They required a longer lead time to assess the benefits and risks of making a move.
Because of this open dialogue, I’ve changed my hiring approach and I’m keeping in touch with female candidates to plant a seed before a job is available. It takes a commitment in time, but it’s worth it.
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