Telco leaders say they want a diverse workforce; but getting there is much easier said than done
Executives and managers across the telecommunications and technology industries say they are interested in making sincere and impactful efforts to improve the diversity within their companies. But, according to panelists at the recent Women in Telco Forum, doing so is easier said than done and that there are a few key things to keep in mind about how to truly attract and support a diverse workforce.
Expand your idea of diversity
As Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at Creative Strategies and founder of The Heart of Tech, put it, focusing on just gender and race when diversity is discussed is a common fallback among companies as they look to tick the boxes. “But if you’re thinking about gender, you’re thinking about race, you’re thinking about age, you’re thinking about religious or sexual orientation or all the other things that make us individual, unique,” she added.
Cleone Nuttgens-Wright, director of IT delivery at Three UK, thinks that while this certainly leaves many groups unaccounted for, the recent focus on race and gender inclusion has “brought diversity into a sphere where it’s not just lip service anymore,” and a result, may help the entire industry “surf the back of that and… broaden our view of diversity.”
The idea that diversity means more than just bringing more women to the table was addressed in another Women in Telco Forum session in which STL Partners’ Research Director Amy Cameron told attendees that when assessing a company’s DE&I efforts, gender is only one aspect the consultancy considers. “The other things that we look for… are things like… ethnic minority representation across their workforce or… the representation of people with disabilities,” she shared, adding that sometimes other criteria like age or representation of LGBTQ+, are also considered.
Focus on EQ over IQ
The panelists also agreed that one sure way to discover more diverse talent is to prioritize emotional quotient, or EQ, over intellectual quotient, or IQ, especially when selecting individuals for leadership roles. “EQ, EQ, EQ,” said Stephen Rose, general manager of IBM’s Global Telco, Media, Entertainment & Distribution Vertical, adding that if someone is self-aware, they are much better team members and leaders.
Milanesi further argued that the way technology is developing is requiring that we rethink the value of certain skill sets. “[S]oft skills… in my opinion are critical skills,” she continued. “We need to understand people, we need to be able to connect with people, to get more from people.”
Moreso, such abilities are uniquely human and that in the future, when no small percentage of the workforce is made up of AI capable of performing job functions previously handled by people, these “human” skills — true empathy, conflict resolution, compassion, even humor — will become even more valuable in the workplace.
Understand the barriers
One of the biggest — and likely the most obvious — barriers of all, pointed out Rose, is the fact that those responsible for hiring have a pesky habit for looking for something familiar, or as he put it, “something in our own image.”
“We[‘ve] got to make sure that we are not looking for that,” he added, emphasizing how important it is to acknowledge and fight against your own biases.
For Milanesi, the biggest barrier is that despite all the talk, she finds that diversity and inclusion is not prioritized enough, especially compared to other corporate social initiatives. “If you take sustainability right now, the dollar sign associated with sustainability is very clear. There’s either a growth opportunity or there’s a risk mitigation. Either way, you want to invest,” she provided. “For diversity and inclusion and equity, I don’t think that we get it. I don’t think that the majority of companies are there and understand… the impact.”
She posited that perhaps this is because diversity is not considered an “international issue,” but instead a regional one due to its association with gender and race, dynamics that in many ways are country dependent.
“It’s kind of odd that we don’t understand the power of diversity,” Rose mused. “But it seems that it’s something that still needs to be continuously educated.” He added that leaders must “appreciate” the ways in which bias that “sits in [an] organization is self-defeating” and lead to damaging echo chambers.
“And echo chambers are the worst places for innovation and complex problem solving,” he cautioned. “We need to make sure that leaders understand that there is an extrinsic motivation for them as individuals, to actually find mechanisms through diversity, to actually come up with solutions, growth, profit, et cetera, and added value inside of organizations.”
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