What Deloitte Transparency Study Says About DEI Today – Amanda Hammett

Jeffery Tobias Halter: So today I'm enjoying a nice French dry rosé.help you relax, reflect, and deal with some of the challenges we know you're facing. Our show will focus on diversity, inclusion, intersectionality, and equality through the lens of a boomer and a millennial. Amanda, what's your beverage of choice today, and tell our listeners a little bit about who you are and why you're known as the “millennial translator”.

Amanda Hammett: Well, thank you, Jeffery. So today, being the good millennial that I am. I am drinking kombucha. My favorite flavor happens to be a raspberry hibiscus, which I drink regularly. It's stocked in my fridge all the time. Professionally I’m known as the millennial translator. What I really am as a generational strategist, I help companies figure out how to recruit, retain, and develop that next generation of leadership. So we're focusing on millennials and Gen Z. And how do we communicate? How do we bridge those gaps between communication and leadership skills? So that is what I do. And that is all about me, but different. What are we talking about today?

Jeffery Tobias Halter: Yeah. Um, well, we want to get into is kind of my lens and my role in this and how we're gonna interact today. Um, so my day job, I'm a gender strategist. And so I work with Fortune 500 companies and I actually use gender as a gateway to start to have deeper conversations because I've been a diversity professional for 20 years. And when I find it. It's very hard to jump in with elements like race or multiculturalism. So my company is focused on using gender as a gateway, but I'd call it gender plus. And what do we mean by that? That said, we're going to talk about gender, but then we're going to talk about millennials and this intersection because my belief is you need to go out and talk to other people about this. Particularly, people like me -- old white guys. And so we want to start conversations with all of you and give you tips and tools to go forward. And so our focus today is going to be me talking to Amanda about some recent research that's come to light.. but it jumped into this. Deloitte recently published its transparency report. it's a big consulting house. They've been a leader in diversity for over twenty-five years. And this is the first time a company of their size has actually published what their company looks like. And the demographics are fascinating. And this really started the purpose of our conversation and why I started talking to Amanda. Amanda. tell us about our first conversation. Recap that for the listeners.

Amanda Hammett: Well, our first conversation was just a recap of 2020 and project updates and really everything that happened in 2020. It was a year of a lot of change in the workplace, obviously. COVID-19 was a massive disruptor to the way that we've always worked. But then as we moved into the spring and summer, we started seeing a lot of issues with racial and social injustice coming to light, and the world seemed to be on fire. And it was really interesting how those fires, globally, were playing out in the workplace And so you and I were just there to talk about it and we're really like, we have a lot to say, maybe we should share this with an audience.

Jeffery Tobias Halter: And so, examining the Deloitte report, you've got this slide and, we can share this information with you. One of the things Amanda and I want to do every week is give you tools to take back to your company, in order to start conversations. And today we're going to focus on millennials at Deloitte. And this is so rare that you get a company this size, that number one says, we want to do the right thing. We want to demonstrate transparency, which is at the core of advancing all types of people, all groups, all underrepresented groups, but Deloitte has some really unique policies. If you, if you're a senior partner mandate, if you're not a senior partner, mandatory retirement is 60. So they have one of the youngest, most dynamic workforces out there. And so this is where we're going to go. And we're going to explore this with Amanda. Because a significant portion of their workforce, upwards of 70% are millennial and Gen Z. This is our snapshot. So Amanda, let's get into this. As we begin to think about going back into the office, will we be going back in the office? what are the major concerns that you see for employees as they return?

Amanda Hammett: You know, Jeffery, I think that this is something, every company is wrestling with. Every company is releasing statements and talking about, you know, this move to a hybrid work environment or a move to completely move everybody back in. And there's, there's some frustration and there's some tension between employees and leadership. And, and how are we going to work this out? But for employees, they're really concerned about childcare, particularly in that, um, millennial gen X. age range. We're also talking about mental health. How are we going to address what happened in 2020 and moving forward? And we're also talking about safety, general safety How are we going to keep our employees safe? Are we going to require vaccinations to come back in? Are we going to require masks to come back in? What is this going to look like? All in the scope and lens of a hybrid world, what will it look like?

Jeffery Tobias Halter: And so. Dig into that just a little bit more. What does, what does the new normal look like?

Amanda Hammett: The new normal? That's a great question. You know, I keep I'm asked this a lot. But the answer's going to vary from company to company, even team to team, I'm working with some large Fortune 50 companies, and they're really making each team, each organization, each business unit make the call. They're not putting out a widespread, you know, blanket statement that everybody's back in or everybody's at home. They're making each team make that decision. And I think that that is going to be the best-case scenario. I think that's going to be the wisest course of action here because if you put out a blanket statement, there's, that’s going to cause some issues one way or the other, either the people that are pro-go-back-into-the-office or pro-stay-home, there's going to be some tension.

Jeffery Tobias Halter: You made a comment earlier that I want to build on. 2020 is a really tough year. And really for the first time, social justice issues are showing up in the workplace. Companies have to have a statement on Black Lives Matter, Asian hate crimes, a whole, a whole host of social issues hitting the business world. I want you to talk for a minute about the fact that having an answer for this is so critical to millennials that this isn't just some kind of check the box, but it's their heart and mind.

Amanda Hammett: I will tell you that as soon as companies started putting out statements after the death of George Floyd about supporting black lives matter, it was really interesting to watch the teams that I support, the young employees that I support, across the, across the spectrum. And it was very clear that they were watching, they saw the statements coming out by their companies, but the question was Great.
What are you going to do now?
How are you going to put this into practice?
And if you, as a leader, don't think that they're watching or that they have forgotten. I can guarantee you that they have not. Furthermore, beyond the current employees, you have the employees, the future employees, the ones who are going into the workplace in the next 6 or less months, even a year, they're watching as well. They're looking at the companies that they have been applying to, that they're being recruited into and they're asking, okay.
I saw your statement on social justice. How is this playing out? How are you actually putting this into practice?
Are you just putting words out?
Is this performative activism or is there actually some substance there?
I will put money on the table right now that there will be people in the next 12 to 18 months that say, okay, I gave you plenty of time. You've done nothing with your statement other than just make it I'm gone. I guarantee you that's gonna happen.

Jeffery Tobias Halter: Yeah. And it's really fascinating when you think about this, you know, today, even, even in a post COVID world, there's 11 million job openings today. During COVID millennials became the largest portion of the workforce over 50%. And so if companies aren't doing genuinely what they need to do. Um, people, millennials, Boomers are going to vote with their feet and say I'm going elsewhere.

Amanda Hammett: Absolutely. When you look specifically at the Deloitte information, you know, millennials are pushing for greater transparencies around how business is put into action. You mentioned that, do you think publishing data is the first step or what more can companies do? And another question is how do we get more companies to publish this data?

Amanda Hammett: Well, first of all, I applaud Deloitte.. You know, tremendously. Sometimes it is really difficult to look inward and see some of the numbers that are not where you want them to be. And then to put a spotlight on them. That is courage, that is leadership in the broader business community. So I applaud them for doing that, obviously. I mean, they're aware their numbers are not exactly where they'd like them to be. And, but the fact that. One they're measuring it. That to me is huge. What, what you want to change, you got to measure. So they're measuring it, they're watching it and they're doing it year over year. That's tremendous work. That is something that I would love to see them call some of their competitors, some other colleague companies to the carpet and say issue a challenge. I would love to see that I would love to see that, But, that being said Publishing data's not enough. There has to be hard work behind it. They've got to engage at all levels from the top down and the bottom up the bottom up is where I think a lot of companies miss out, they hear, oh, you know, in surveys, that's just those millennials complaining again. Or those Gen Z's are complaining again. You need to listen. They're talking to you and they're doing it openly. You need to listen to what they have to say and say, okay, this is our future. This is the profitability of our company on the line. We need to take this into account and start moving forward because the numbers in Deloitte, 70% millennials and Gen Zs, that's not something you can ignore. And I will tell you, it's not just Deloitte. I mean, they're millennials, we're already predicted millennials, and gen Z's were already predicted in 2020 to hit 50% over 50% of the workforce. But the way that the economy shook out it's even higher. I don't think the US labor US department of labor has put out like specific numbers yet, but from what I'm seeing, anecdotally. They're much higher than what they were expected to be. So companies have to start paying attention. They have to start making moves and they have to start saying, oh, they're whining. We can't, you know, we just need to get the work done, put our head down and get the work done now is the time to make some change.

Jeffery Tobias Halter: So thanks so much for sharing. Great thoughts. Great comments. As you kind of wrap up this, this millennial point of view on what's going on to. Uh, are there one or two more key actions that you think either companies need to take or, or quite frankly, employees need.

Amanda Hammett: Yeah, absolutely. As far as a company needs to take right now is the time to be really diving in and developing your frontline of leaders. I know that right now, it does not seem like it would be an obvious choice of times, but your frontline is where you make or break your young employee, your early in career. Experience those very frontlines. That's the person that they're interacting with. That's the person that is, you know, giving them the advice on the day-to-day that is the person that's helping them have either a phenomenal experience at an organization or one that they can't wait to leave. So really taking the time and making the investment in that frontline is critical to what you're doing moving forward. For employees Well, I applaud everyone, all the young millennials and who have been making their voices heard, keep doing that. You have power and the power is in your voice. So keep using it. That is going to change the world, the, both the business world and the greater good for all of us.

Jeffery Tobias Halter: That's amazing. Thank you so much for your comments. And now we're going to start to wrap up and figure out what next steps are for Win(e)d Down Wednesday.

Amanda Hammett: Absolutely