Workforce Planning

If Jane Austen were writing Pride and Prejudice in 2021, she might have written something like, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person working during a pandemic, must be in want of a simpler life.” While this is true for some and can be easy to forget when you’re trapped in back-to-back video calls, replying to endless notifications and trying to achieve inbox zero (spoiler alert: it’s a myth), there’s a group of people who’ve fallen through the cracks. This group is the millions of women+ who have lost their jobs over the last year and have yet to gain them back, creating not just a recession but a she-cession. By using workforce planning, however, and other tactics to support women+ in the workforce, we can challenge this issue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 140,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. during December 2020—all lost by women of color. Specifically, women lost 156,000 jobs and men gained 16,000. A separate survey revealed that while women of color lost jobs that month, white women had gained jobs. We must keep in mind that the survey included self-employed workers and that both sets of data reflect net numbers which hide the fact that white women and men also lost jobs. In Canada, the reality was similar. 1.5 million women lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic and by November, “men gained jobs back at three times the rate as women.” That month, the unemployment rate was 10.5% for women of color, 6.2% for white women and 10% for men. These numbers only escalated for specific minority groups—for example, the unemployment rate in the summer was 20.4% for South Asian women, 18.6% for Black women and 16.8% for Indigenous women. But these numbers spotlight another truth universally acknowledged: women of color have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic. In our reality, this truth is not a surprise since women of color were already struggling to overcome inequities in the workplace and advance their careers. The truth does, however, raise a question: Why are women, especially women of color, more affected by the pandemic than men? (Beyond the usual suspects, of course—we’re looking at you, sexism and systemic racism.) The short answer is, women aren’t just losing their jobs. They’re also choosing to leave them for several reasons. Until we figure out how to overcome these additional challenges facing working and unemployed women, the she-cession will continue to go on and all the progress made toward closing the gender pay gap and the gender wealth gap will continue to be undone. 1 Why Are Women Leaving Their Jobs? 2 How Can Workforce Planning Help? 3 Supporting Women in the Workforce Why Are Women Leaving Their Jobs? If you thought one of the answers was “to go home and take care of the kids,” you might have time-traveled from the early 20th century … but you’d also be kind of right. During World War I, women had to join the workforce to compensate for enlisted men and after the war, although some women stayed in their positions (for lower wages), others were forced to return home to domestic duties. Times have changed, but the expectations and sense of duty mothers have for themselves have not, especially during a pandemic. In the U.S., one in four women (vs. one in eight men) reported they left their job because of a lack of childcare. In a November 2020 report, RBC noted that mothers with children under six were about 41% of the workforce but accounted for about 66% of women who lost their job. Women of color also disproportionately work in areas more adversely affected by the pandemic, usually in roles that offer little flexibility with paid sick leave and working from home. This forces women to choose between working and parenting while their children are unable to attend school or daycare. Besides women being more likely to have been laid off, the pandemic has also exacerbated the challenges they face in the workplace. Senior-level women tend to feel pressured to work more and need to prove their competency more often than men, leading to higher rates of burnout. And McKinsey notes, Black women have had to deal with “the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Black community” as well as “the emotional toll of repeated instances of racial violence.” Before 2020, men and women left their jobs at comparable rates, but the challenges above have led to a shift in priorities for women: one in four women and one in three mothers considered “downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely.” Worse yet, women leaving the workforce has a domino effect on those who stay because women tend to support each other and diversity more than men do. Women in senior positions are more likely to advocate for other women, promote DEI initiatives and credit other women for their work. Suffice to say, we cannot afford to lose women in the workforce. So what can businesses and organizations do to support women and other marginalized groups in the workforce? How Can Workforce Planning Help? Workforce planning is a business process in which an organization finds a balance between its changing needs and its workforce. It helps you to accommodate demographic changes, reduce labor costs, manage existing talent and adapt to your business’ future staffing needs. In terms of the she-cession, workforce planning can help you identify strategies geared toward your diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals. For example, you can periodically ask your employees optional questions about areas such as disability, faith, family status, gender identity, LGBTQIA+, mental health, native language and race/ethnicity. Then, you can use that anonymous data in your workforce planning solution to create a dashboard that shows you how the metrics change over time and how they break down by department and location. You can also tie it back to other employee data, such as salary, and see how that changes on average as your anonymous metrics do. People tend to be more cautious of organizations that appear only superficially diverse, so effectively using workforce planning for DEI can also show your potential customers and partners that you sincerely value representation. To this end, workforce planning can help you prepare for when women leave and re-enter the workforce. When women leave, it can be difficult for them to re-enter and for those who do re-enter, they may get demoted or find it difficult to get promoted. To prevent this hurdle, especially during the pandemic when more women than usual have left the workforce, offer “on-ramps.” These are opportunities for women to smoothly rejoin the workforce with a path for career advancement. Workforce planning can also point out a lack of diversity within your current workforce and highlight the specific areas needing improvement. You can use this insight to make your recruitment strategies more inclusive and work on ways to retain existing staff to strengthen your workforce from both ends. For example, now that you know who is affected by the she-cession and how much different groups are affected, you can use workforce planning to see how those demographics are reflected in your own workforce and challenge the she-cession from within your organization. FREE Workforce Planning Template for Excel View all your labor expenses in one place, leverage our interactive dashboard and get a detailed breakdown of expenses by type and by month with this free best-practice Excel template. Supporting Women in the Workforce There are also other practical ways to help women and other minority groups in your organization using workplace policies, support programs, compensation packages and surveys. Workplace Policies Set policies around working overtime, responding to emails and messages outside business hours and working on weekends and holidays. Have mental and physical wellness policies and be transparent about them to build trust and tackle burnout. Encourage employees to prioritize self-care and set boundaries. Fostering a culture where colleagues respect each other’s boundaries is key to this tactic succeeding. Periodically review and update your DEI policies to break down barriers women+ and women+ of color face in the workplace. Support Programs and Compensation Packages Offer support programs that provide training for women+ who rejoin the workforce to help them maintain their skills and learn new ones efficiently. These support programs can also offer more flexible arrangements for people balancing their work and home lives. Offer diverse compensation packages that take into account the different needs of workers; for example, you can offer childcare benefits. Collecting Feedback Use a 360-degree feedback tool to encourage honest feedback between employees of all levels. Conduct periodic employee pulse surveys to encourage employees to be honest about the organization and its policies. Use the insights from the 360 feedback and pulse surveys to set goals on what to improve and strategize how to maintain what’s working. What are we doing at Vena? We sourced candidates for open roles using a self-reported list of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) professionals who lost their job during the pandemic. We also partner with groups, such as Black Professionals in Tech, Women in Tech Sales and Women Hack, that provide more opportunities to women and people of color. Between workforce planning and these other tactics, your business can learn a lot about your employees, how they feel about the organization and how it can be improved. Armed with this knowledge, you can create meaningful change in your organization to make it a more welcoming place for women+ and other minorities. And when more employees are happy, you’ll see this reflected in your culture and retention rates, which will ultimately help keep women+ in the workforce and challenge the she-cession.

In Canada and the U.S, February is Black History Month. While it’s a time for celebrations, it’s also an opportunity for many of us to ask challenging questions and to keep asking them throughout the other 11 months of the year. We know that the past opens doors to the future and yes, we have traveled far, but there is still a long way to go to build the kind of society where no one is left behind. And that’s also true for workplaces too. In the spirit of Black History Month, we wanted to revisit a panel discussion we held on diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, “How Diversity Creates High-Performance Teams,” to remind us that building stronger workplace communities that work for everyone is a discussion we need to keep having in the office, in the boardroom, on virtual meetups and out in the open. As our panelists revealed, diversity is not just a box to check. It takes persistent and continuous feedback and dialogue to incorporate effective diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives into the workplace that also tackle the systemic racism and biases that exist at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels. In this blog, we will look at five key takeaways from the panel on how to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into the workplace and what finance and operations professionals, leaders and companies can do to weave them into the DNA of their organizations. The discussion was moderated by Shayenda Suyeshkumar, Vena’s Senior Operations Manager and Co-founder and Co-chair of Vena’s Network for Women. Shayenda spoke to Vena’s Chief Customer Officer, Debbie Lillitos, Camille Dundas, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Canada’s largest Black online magazine ByBlacks.com and Chúk Odenigbo, an intersectional environmentalist and one of the founding directors of Future Ancestors Services Inc. 1 Realize That Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are More Than Just Office Buzzwords 2 Identify That Intersectionality Is Important To Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 3 Put Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Forefront of Planning and Operations 4 Be Aware That Workforce Data and Analytics Can Be a Catalyst and a Caveat for DEI 5 Hold Everyone Accountable To Company Values 6 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion For Business Growth and Success 1. Realize That Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Are More Than Just Office Buzzwords In many industries, workplaces are more diverse than ever, but that doesn’t mean everybody feels seen heard or that they belong. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goes much deeper than a company’s policy or headcount. As Camille said, “If you have the diversity part without inclusion and belonging, you’ll find yourself hiring people as fast as they’re leaving.” There is a purpose attached to building inclusive work environments. That purpose includes: Gaining trust and commitment from their employees. For Camille, trust is at the core of true inclusion. She shared this quote from British-American author and inspirational speaker Simon Sinek that echoes her statement, “A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.”   Making sure that everyone—no matter who they are or what they do within a company—feels safe to reveal who they are and to feel a sense of belonging in their work environment. For Debbie, this means giving employees equal opportunities to share their unique needs, perspectives and potentials and to ensure that they will be heard, honored and validated.   Not being reactive, as in identifying a gap in representation and simply filling it. For Chúk, there’s much more to DEI that involves taking steps in advance of an issue, such as racism, so that the issue never rises in the first place. The panelists went further to identify even deeper layers to diversity, equity and inclusion that involve our next key takeaway, intersectionality and why it matters to DEI. 2. Identify That Intersectionality Is Important To Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Shayenda said that there are parts of our identity that bind us together, but that there are also parts of our identity that separate us from others. That’s the core of intersectionality. As Chúk explained, “Intersectionality recognizes that identity is complex and that we rarely fit into one box.” He emphasized the importance of bringing an intersectional lens to DEI in order for organizations to understand and acknowledge that everyone has their unique experiences when it comes to discrimination and oppression. In order to do this, companies must consider: Everything and anything that can possibly make an individual feel excluded in order to avoid unconscious bias in the workplace.   Not looking at race or gender, for instance, as catchall categories. An inclusive work environment is one that would acknowledge all of the diversities that exist among a particular race or gender.   Looking at all the other dimensions of the way that somebody experiences life. Camille stopped attending events at work that promised to put women first because she felt completely erased. These events tended to focus on women who were in the majority. “It’s easy and acceptable for everyone to say that they support women and equal pay, but when I brought up that there were other ways that I was oppressed in the workplace, not because I’m a woman, but because I’m a Black woman, all I got was crickets,” she said. 3. Put Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Forefront of Planning and Operations Shayenda revealed that studies show companies with more diverse leadership teams have reported 45% higher innovation revenue. And with more innovation also comes a competitive advantage and the ability to easily attract top talent. But how do companies get there? Here’s what leaders can do to create a strong corporate culture that puts diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of planning and operations: Walk the talk. According to Debbie, it starts with leadership. Are they doing what they said they would do or are they just making empty promises?   Work it into workforce planning. Look closely at talent and acquisition. Building a diverse team means finding people who have diverse opinions and solutions. How are companies assessing gaps and finding people who can bring a fresh perspective?   Be conscious of the language they are using in job descriptions and within the organization.   Create a sense of safety and demonstrate vulnerability.   Measure vulnerability and give people multiple channels to provide feedback.   Question everything. For Camille, this comes down to having uncomfortable conversations and creating safe spaces in which discussions need to take place and encourage engagement.   Establish norms in a company for what’s accepted and not accepted. Once they have established this set of acceptable behaviors at the company and identified specific things that will not be tolerated, it will be easier for people to call out inappropriate behavior.   Set values and ensure collective enforcement by encouraging employees to be upstanders, not bystanders. For Debbie, this means interrupting inappropriate behavior at the time when it’s happening even if it makes others feel uncomfortable because other people will model that behavior.   Have a recourse for when inappropriate behavior keeps happening. And it doesn’t stop there. As Chúk brought up, it’s important for companies to look at the retention rate, to talk to people who are leaving and to make sure new measures are put in place to address issues that keep happening in the workplace. It’s all about making sure a company takes measures to consistently improve DEI. 4. Be Aware That Workforce Data and Analytics Can Be a Catalyst and a Caveat for DEI Companies collect, analyze and use data to make data-driven decisions, but how can they use workforce data and analytics to fuel a company’s DEI? And how is that measured, reported and used to create DEI strategies? Camille said, “Everyone thinks we need data and we do need data, but everyone thinks that they’re ready for data and not every company is ready for data. Do your employees trust that you are going to do something with this data? If filling out the form will make an impact and result in a change, they’ll be happy to share that data with you.” Here’s how companies can use workforce data and analytics as a catalyst for DEI: Debbie suggested that companies gather as much data as they can in a multiple of ways, different forms and channels.   Taking a look at what outcomes it’s driving and what is happening in the business and making informed decisions, but also iterating along the way.   Companies should also recognize that they may be making the wrong decisions based on data, so they have to be careful with it as well. But as Chúk pointed out, there is also a caveat for using data collection because it can be as he described it, a “double-edged sword.” Data can be dangerous without setting the right intentions for it. Companies have to be clear about why they are collecting that data and what they plan to do with it. If they look at numbers and determine that something is not worth continuing based on low numbers, it can be used to erase people’s existence or representation. Instead, they should be interpreting data and moving towards solutions based on that data. 5. Hold Everyone Accountable To Company Values Companies can be agents of societal change, but what happens when employees are faced with work cultures that are not living by the standards that they’ve set? To address this, Camille emphasized the importance and necessity for a symbiotic relationship to exist at work. “Employers are providing something to their employees, but employees are also providing something to the employer. Employers can hold their employees accountable even outside of the workplace if they say something inappropriate and even risk being fired.” But as she was quick to point, there’s no reverse. If an employer is doing something inappropriate, how can they be held accountable? Here’s some advice the panelists offered: Camille encourages everyone to speak up, even when they’re afraid or have something to lose. It’s the reason why a lot of people quit when really, employees should feel empowered to hold their companies accountable to the values they set up.   If a company hasn’t set up values, press them to create them and to live by them.   When they make decisions that don’t resonate with those values, raise a red flag.   Debbie suggested using your everyday privilege to help and protect others. When you witness discrimination, call it out.   When a company isn’t living by the standards they set, Chúk said to know your worth and speak up. If they don’t listen, he suggested it might be time to look elsewhere. “You don’t want them to think that what they are doing is acceptable,” he said. Oftentimes, when people speak up, they’re labeled as troublemakers. But Camille sees these people as the ones who actually care the most. They’re invested in the company, so employers should value their feedback. “It’s a trade-off. We’re telling you to bring your whole self to work and we want you to be involved, then this is what you get. You can’t have one without the other,” she said. (Check out The Ultimate Guide to Workforce Planning to help you plan your team now and for the future.) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion For Business Growth and Success The insights our panelists provided and the experiences they shared highlight the value of DEI to a company’s growth and success. Bringing diverse people together is all about innovating and collaborating effectively to bring the best products and services to market. For companies to truly succeed in today’s global market, it’s clear that weaving diversity, equity and inclusion into their workplace programs and perspectives is not only a step in the right direction, it’s a big step up in creating equal opportunities for everyone. Get the full insights on how to start incorporating DEI into your workplace. Click here to watch “How Diversity Creates High-Performance Teams” now.