Our global managing partner Kevin Sneader joined Bloomberg’s Alix Steel for a Bloomberg Markets interview on Monday, August 31, to talk about business efforts to build a more inclusive economic recovery in the wake of the global pandemic.
Highlights of their conversation are condensed and edited below, and the full interview is available now at Bloomberg.com. For tools and insights on leading organizations out of the crisis, please visit our COVID Response Center.
On what good companies do to promote workplace equality
Many companies have talked about equality and the need for it. What we’re now seeing though, I think, is a real re-engagement on many of the fundamentals. One of the things we’re seeing a lot is: how do you actually invest in coaching, developing, and creating opportunities for, let’s say, Black American colleagues in companies where for years they have not enjoyed the same rates of progression? It’s one of the reasons we and others have sought to make that a cornerstone of what is done.
The second part is to make sure that you’re always paying attention to the small things that get in the way. One of the realities is that it’s the first promotion that makes all the difference. Early on, if people don't get promoted then chances are they’ll fall behind—and we’ve seen that’s particularly true with minority groups. So, what do you do? You put an extra line of resources and pay attention to those initial promotions. A lot of companies are doing that.
The third thing—which I think many have realized is a big part of the challenge—is that often those in the minority, and other people who don’t look like the majority, are the “only” people in the room. For a while, it was the “only” woman in the room, now it could be the “only” Asian American in the room. So, how do you actually bring people together and give them support in that context, and pay extra attention as a business leader? I think good companies are doing that now.
On asking tough questions around inclusive hiring
Recruiting is a big part of the answer, but it’s also one that only takes you so far. I’m involved with the New York Jobs CEO Council, and one of the things we’ve been looking at is, how do we stop hiring purely on the basis of formal educational attainment?
That is one of the barriers which actually stands most in the way of progress for giving opportunities to young people who are coming often from underprivileged backgrounds, who don’t have the educational attainment that a paper qualification suggests. But they’ve been through the school of life; they have a lot of education of a different kind. How do we give them a chance?
We’re also asking, how do we make sure we don’t have a digital divide? That is a fundamental part of how remote schooling and learning is happening. Because if you’ve only got one computer in the house—or none—it’s going to be very hard to learn remotely in that context. And we know that, sadly, it’s low income households who don’t have access to digital means of learning; how do we address that? Businesses and others are trying to play a part there, government has an important role, too.
On the threat COVID-19 poses to diversity and inclusion efforts
The reality of this pandemic is that it has hit hardest those who are in jobs with the lowest income level and who have education requirements that are also at the low end. And if you are leading those types of businesses—which are in accommodations, food services, retail; that part of the market—CEOs are faced with a double challenge: they are responsible for jobs that are most likely to be taken by those who are minorities or female, and at the same time they are in sectors of the economy that are hardest hit. So, they have a lot on their plate and what that means is they’re really having to get bold and creative in what it takes to steward a company in that moment.
On the C-suite’s view of the uncertainty facing the economy and business
For many of them, I think they are putting aside the old conventional planning, which would say, how do we build a forecast for three to five years from now? And the phrase that most sticks in my mind is that “plans are out, dashboards are in.”