Loving Your Company When It Doesn’t Love You Back

The Emotional Struggle of Women of Color at Work

Throughout my career I’ve often been the only woman and the only minority in the room, especially as my responsibilities grew and I progressed through a number of organizations to a senior leader level role. 

The experience has shaped who I am, how I think, and was top of mind as Avion Consulting embarked on our Workplace Today survey in August, which had over 400 responses from all industries, professions, and leadership levels across a wide range of organization types. While I have been fortunate to spend the majority of my career working for organizations and leaders that made me feel valued, there have also been times when I was acutely aware of my differences and questioned my value to an organization. The variety of my professional experiences over the last 30 years, made me intensely curious about the perceptions of other women of color at work. 

The good news from Avion’s Workplace Today survey was that 72% of participants feel valued by their organization. We thought this was quite an accomplishment given the challenges the workplace faced in 2020 with health and safety concerns and the remote working environment. 

However, when we looked further into the results, we found quite a different experience for women of color in the workplace when it comes to feelings of belonging and value. 

• Only 43% of women of color feel valued while 76% of Caucasian women feel valued and 75% of all men feel valued by the organization. 
• An astonishingly low of 50% of women of color feel like they belong in their organization compared to 77% of Caucasian women and 76% of all men. 

Despite the feelings surrounding value and belonging, nearly 7 out of 10 of women of color say they are proud to work for their organization, which surfaces the emotional struggle of minority women of loving their companies even if they don’t feel “loved” back.

Further, when it comes to surfacing issues or making recommendations, women of color feel less safe and less empowered to surface issues within an organization.

• Only 46% of women of color feel safe to say what’s on their minds compared to 70% of Caucasian women and 69% of all men.
• Only 56% of women of color feel empowered to take action when they see or experience unfairness compared to 79% of Caucasian women and 76% of all men. 

Many women of color will tell you they are cautious about speaking candidly about problems, or taking actions when experiencing unfairness, because they risk being labeled (due to gender or race or both) as being problematic or a threat to the organization. 

So, what can be done to create a culture of inclusion?

When using the data to look at the relationship between responses to the item “I feel valued by my organization” and all the other items in the survey, the behaviors identified as the strongest predictors of feeling valued include:

• My opinion is valued in my organization.
• I am given a fair opportunity to succeed in my organization.
• I am rewarded for doing great work.
• We respect cultural differences in our organization.
• Different opinions are valued and encouraged in my organization.
• Promotions in my organization are based on how you perform.

In addition, when using the same data to identify predictors of the item “I feel like I belong in my organization,” similar items surface as drivers of belonging:

• Leaders (managers and direct supervisors) make sure that everyone feels welcome in our organization.
• Different opinions are valued and encouraged in my organization.
• My opinion is valued in my organization.
• Leaders in my organization build high performance teams that leverage diversity of thought.
• I am given a fair opportunity to succeed in my organization.
• My organization effectively retains highly qualified people with diverse backgrounds (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability).
• In my organization it is safe to express what's really on our minds.

These findings would suggest that making it a practice or habit to ask all employees for their point of view and listening to their input would go a long way when building an inclusive culture. As a practice, to create a culture of inclusion, leaders of people should regularly:

• Asking employees for their point of view or input on topics.
• Listening, thanking, and taking action when appropriate when issues are surfaced.
• Making it a practice to recognize and thank employees for doing great work.
• Implementing practices that “welcome” employees into the organization.
• Discussing career aspirations and providing feedback on how to achieve their goals.
• Asking employees about, and expressing interest in, their perceptions of their experience in the organization.

These behaviors that we recommend would be welcome by all employees and would create a culture where everyone feels included. However, given our research, special attention should be paid to actions that would create a feeling of belonging and value for women of color. For example, even in companies that espouse inclusion and by all accounts take diversity initiatives seriously, stories of women of color being left in the office while the “group” go out to a social lunch or for drinks are all too common. It could be because, out of all diverse populations, women of color make up the smallest group when it comes to leadership roles with Latinas comprising 4.3 %; Black women 4% and Asian women just 2.5% of all management roles in the United States, while Caucasian women make up slightly over 30% (Catalyst, 2020). When you are one of few people like you in an office environment, feelings of exclusion and marginalization are hard to overlook. While we can celebrate being “the first” or “the only” or “one of a few’ minority women in a role, it can also lead to feelings of isolation.

How can organizations ensure women of color feel valued and included?

We all know that there is much to be done around career pathing and the talent pipeline for women of color in organizations so that everyone can see someone who looks like them in leadership roles.  As organizations continue to focus on how to have more diversity and equal representation in senior leadership roles, we have a few recommendations of immediate actions to take in order to create a more inclusive culture. 

These relatively easily implemented actions align with our research to create a culture of inclusion for all, but are especially important for women of color who feel less safe and less empowered to surface issues of unfairness:

• Ensuring each employee is welcomed into the organization with a formalized plan that introduces them to their colleagues and assigns an engaged “onboarding mentor” who will take responsibility to introduce them to others in the organization and onboard them to cultural norms. 
• Ending meetings by asking each member of the team to comment on the main topic in a round-robin format to ensure all employees get a voice. Those who feel safer in an organization tend to be the most vocal with their ideas and input. Our research shows that women of color feel lower levels of psychological safety, which may lead to hesitation when offering their point of view. 
• Soliciting points of view and ideas from everyone on your team prior to making a decision creates a feeling of importance or value. For the same reason listed above, being intentional about ensuring you are soliciting and hearing from everyone on your team by reaching out and asking each person their point of view and how they perceive the decision will impact them drives feelings of belonging, value, and inclusion. 
• Investing time in getting to understand the perspective and perceptions of diverse employees on your team, especially women of color, by having virtual one-on-ones, or eventually in-person lunches or chats specifically focused on getting to know them better and understanding their point of view, perspective, experiences, and aspirations.
• Understanding career objectives of those on your team, especially women of color, and actively working to support their development and growth by giving appropriate assignments to stretch them and publicly acknowledging their work. Thankfully, much of the work focused on the growth and development of women at work has some positive results. 75% of the Caucasian women in our survey agree that they have someone at work who advocates for them. Unfortunately, only 65% of women of color feel the same. Leaders should be much more intentional about mentoring and advocating for women of color. 

By starting to make these behaviors and actions regular habits and routines, leaders in organizations can make a difference in ensuring that women of color feel like they belong and are valued by the organizations they love. 

You can download the full Workplace Today Survey whitepaper “Checking the Box or Checking the Behaviors” from Avion’s website by clicking here.

#Diversity #Equity #DEI #Inclusion #WomenofColor #Culture #Leadership