OFCCP

Implicit Bias is Real! Now do something about it, please…

This is the first thing we should all understand – we ALL have our preconceived notions and regularly apply them to what we know. Humans are made to compartmentalize things. It is how we organize, think and learn.

These preconceived beliefs can get in the way of what we say and do everyday. This has been bothering me for a while – partly due to the “me too” movement, but also out of the “Black lives matter” and other recent groundswelling movements.

This kind of thinking can keep us from imagining women as surgeons, minorities as leaders, or even keep us from hiring the best person for the job. Maybe you don’t realize you do this, so how can you (1) recognize this type of behavior and (2) change your ways?

If you are looking for the magic switch, I have none for you. However, science can certainly help us. This Scientific American article helps put some framework around what I have been mulling over for a while.

In the article, it notes that “A majority of people taking [the Implicit Association Test (IAT)] show evidence of implicit bias, suggesting that most people are implicitly biased even if they do not think of themselves as prejudiced.” So, we are mostly biased and don’t know that we have a problem. We are mostly living with our heads in the sand on this issue.

What scares me most is reading sentences like:

Race can bias people to see harmless objects as weapons when they are in the hands of black men, and to dislike abstract images that are paired with black faces.

-and-

White applicants get about 50 percent more call-backs than black applicants with the same resumes; college professors are 26 percent more likely to respond to a student’s email when it is signed by Brad rather than Lamar; and physicians recommend less pain medication for black patients than white patients with the same injury.

Yikes!

So what can we do about this? I think first and foremost, admit you have a problem! This is something we ALL deal with – it does not mean you are a bad human being or even racist, sexist or ageist. It does mean that we need to fight the urge to make decisions based on our “gut” feelings. Those data are clearly flawed!

Consciously associate differing opinions with your own. Get outside of your “bubble” and hear different points-of-view. Don’t let these other opinions rile you, but truly listen. You can certainly disagree, but it is okay for others to have different opinions from your own. No one needs to “win” in the point-of-view game.

Instead, I would urge you to have more conversations with diverse people. Get different points-of-view – especially when hiring! Try to get a lot of opinions on a candidate, and make sure your interviewers are from different genders, races, age groups and religious leanings.

Lastly, remember that you have a problem and you are really fighting against human nature to tackle it. Recognize when making decisions that it might be playing into the process. Really push yourself to understand why you make certain decisions. Even consider removing names from resumes when reviewing your candidate pool.

Whatever works to keep your options and minds open – the world will be a better place and you will have a better team as a result, for sure!

Is Google still searching for gender pay equity?

You may have seen that the Department of Labor is going after Google for “extreme” gender pay discrimination. You can read the latest Google response via a blog post here.

So what’s happening and why does this matter?

Keep in mind that tech companies are especially notorious for gender hiring and pay issues. Many articles have addressed the ongoing struggle to keep women in technology-related jobs, and there is even a website/network dedicated to women empowering others in these roles: www.womenintechnology.org

Since the technology field is already dominated by men, it is only natural that there exists a potential for bias, either deliberate or unconscious, against others “not like me,” including gender and race/culture. Google’s own published workforce statistics for their technology jobs support some of this behavior:

Google

Yes, Google’s tech workforce is 81% male and 57% white. That compares to the US averages of 49.2% male and 61.6% non-Hispanic, white in the 2015 data.  Note that the Google ethnicity above shows their tech workforce is 37% Asian, whereas the US average in 2015 is 5.6% Asian, so that is skewing the white percentages down quite a bit.

So why does this matter? Can’t Google hire who they want and pay their employees what they want?

Well, no, they cannot. Google is a Federal contractor, so they are subject to the pay practice rules of the OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs), which requires Federal contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are hired and employees are treated during employment without regard to race, creed, color or national origin.” Gender was added in 1967, but apparently it takes more than 50 years to get the task accomplished!

It also matters because Google is a household name – it is even the verb we use for searching for something online! So, Google should know that they are a huge target for any compliance concern. They should be preemptively monitoring their HR practices and procedures for any potential issue, but apparently they were behind on that front.

The initial charge from the OFCCP/Department of Labor was for gender pay discrimination from 2014 to 2015, and the suit was filed in court in 2016. Note that in the Google blog post cited above they note “In late 2016, we performed our most recent analysis across 52 different, major job categories, and found no gender pay gap.” Is that too late? What about 2015 data? Looks like they still have a legal issue from that time frame.

I do appreciate that Google has published their compensation process online here: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/pay-equity/steps/introduction/. This is a valuable resource for other employers to use in their own compensation strategies. The blog post also notes that Google “recently expanded the analysis to cover race in the US.” That makes me cringe, because they actually should have been considering race before they were required to consider gender in pay equity issues, according to the OFCCP rules.

Lessons Learned

There are some lessons for all HR/Compensation managers from all of this:

  • Have a compensation philosophy and use it as your mantra
  • Define your jobs/requirements and classify them accordingly
  • Stick to your structure and try to prevent outliers
  • Assess your overall data at least annually and make adjustments where needed
  • Push back on hiring managers when you see bias in hiring/compensation decisions, where appropriate

These are not easy steps for HR – we are often already considered the bureaucracy/red tape. However, this is one front that is worth pushing back on and your legal team will thank you when you can defend your decisions in court (and can back them up with the statistical data as evidence).