Choosing an Inclusive Path

Monday is International Women’s Day, and we have a lot to celebrate at SAP—female leaders and colleagues around the world make a difference every day to lead us towards success. But this year has reminded us that progress towards gender equality has been tenuous at best. COVID-19 has put women’s place in the workforce more at risk than it’s been in decades.

More than 4.6 million jobs have been lost by women in the U.S. since the pandemic began. Nearly 3 million women have left the workforce in the U.S. – with Black mothers, Hispanic mothers, and single mothers hit the hardest. Women are disproportionately responsible for childcare, and working mothers are twice as likely than working fathers to worry that their job performance is being judged negatively because of childcare responsibilities.

At SAP we spend a lot of time talking about diversity and inclusion, and how we will address issues such as these. We know that a workforce that reflects the diversity of society will enable us to build better products and customer relationships. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment in which employees, particularly unrepresented minorities and women, have equal tools and chances for success.

But conversations and commitments are not enough. We don’t always do the hard things to make the situation better, because the hard things are uncomfortable. They require us to change our processes and habits, to invest significant time, and to choose—openly, consciously, and insistently—to practice diversity and inclusion daily.

This means we can’t settle for risk-mitigation efforts such as unconscious bias workshops, which don’t have long-term impacts on implicit bias—in fact, a recent analysis found that although there may be a reduction in bias immediately after a workshop, this disappears over time. Another study showed that inclusive workplace trainings may lead to measurable shifts in behaviors from women and ethnic minorities, but only marginal changes in the behaviors of white men. 

Instead, we must challenge ourselves to think about the systematic changes we can design into our everyday operations. 

There are some great initiatives at SAP where this mindset is already in motion. Take hiring for example. SAP Next Talent (SNT) is an 18-month rotational program for recent graduates that welcomes 90 talents in each program. In the highly competitive Silicon Valley talent market, recruiters faced the common challenge of unconscious bias while reviewing thousands of applications. Using blind screening for talent, SNT was able to almost immediately increase in the diversity of candidates hired, and cohort after cohort since has been 50% female.

Blind screening is just one way to ensure diverse candidates. We can also edit job descriptions to avoid gendered verbs, require at least two minority candidates in every final candidate pool, and ensure diversity in recommendations and referrals. Flexible workplace policies also can increase diversity as they open your workforce to people with disabilities, parents with childcare responsibilities, and employees who live in different cities.

It comes down to changing a process, rather than requiring an employee to change what makes them unique. For example, the Autism at Work program reduces the barriers of entry for neurodiverse candidates by adapting the hiring process for people on the autism spectrum. This includes shifting from narrow interview criteria, such as strong eye-contact and communication skills, to problem-based evaluations that require a candidate to perform a specific task. Beyond screening, we also tailored on-the-job resources to help our Autism at Work program thrive. The result of some thoughtful process changes resulted in an impressive 90 percent retention rate of hires.

Building these support frameworks is critical for a more inclusive culture. For instance, actively encouraging fathers to take parental leave can reduce the bias that women are responsible for childcare. Mothers are granted an average of 41 days for parental leave, while fathers only get an average of 22 days—a difference that sends a signal. Last year I took my own parental leave, and I am incredibly grateful that SAP has a culture that enabled me to spend this important time with my family and support my wife when she needed me most.

These are steps in the right direction for SAP, but we still have work to do. Luckily, we have the tools in place and the commitment from our leaders to have the tough conversations about changing how we do things in order to build a diverse and inclusive culture. We also have great minds who have considered these problems deeply.

There’s no shortage of actions we can take. My challenge today for SAP colleagues is to strengthen your relationships with team members around the world who have different backgrounds and ways of thinking. Set up a virtual coffee meeting to share perspectives or make a plan to attend cultural events such as upcoming International Women’s Day activities. When you approach your next project or challenge, consider a diverse perspective – this will help all of us develop better products, strengthen customer relationships, and build a more inclusive future.