11 minute read
Solving the homogeneity of HR: The lessons we must take from conservation
Danni Ermilova Williams, Impact Coach and Business Change Consultant, questions the true role of HR and what we can each do about it to improve all of our organisations and the broader ecosystem.
Annually, the Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai (DOC) invests $3.5 million to protect five of the most endangered species native to Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite their seemingly insignificant size, these creatures – ranging from a takahe to a weevil – play vital roles within the ecosystem. The reason? Each species we lose weakens the resilience of the wider ecosystem, affecting countless other species dependent on this system’s health.
With around 7,500 endangered species under its care, DOC invests significantly more than $3.5 million on conservation each year. This investment is crucial for maintaining the delicate balance of the ecosystem and securing the sustainability of all life forms, including humans.
The role of conservation does not just sit with DOC alone. It is a shared responsibility that sits with all of us, to work alongside each other as tāngata whenua and tāngata Tiriti as kaitiaki.
But what does this have to do with Human Resources?
In short, a lot.
HR suffers from homogeneity. I am a classic example of this as a Pākehā female, tāngata Tiriti, aged 40 (or thereabouts). As I move from a participatory role within my profession to one of leadership and shaping, I am all too aware of my majorityness and my growing discomfort with how this shapes my profession and, ultimately, the legacy I leave behind.
I look around and see that many of the people leading and shaping my profession in Aotearoa are like me. And I worry that despite our – my –best intentions, when diversity, equity and inclusion sits with me and my profession to shape and advocate, there is a risk we simply cannot do it justice without taking a really hard look at ourselves.
In many ways, our mission as HR professionals mirrors that of conservationists, to nurture a workplace environment where all individuals thrive. However, this mission must start from within our own HR ecosystem to be most impactful. We cannot promote the preservation of wider, thriving organisational ecosystems if we have not got our own in check.
Complacency Is Our Hamstring
We must ultimately build a more diverse and inclusive profession. However, this pragmatically will not change our reality today, and our mission cannot wait. We need to get real about tackling the things that hold us back, today. And if we are doing it right – or at all – it will feel uncomfortable. No success story ever skips the middle bit, leaping from problem to solution. There is always a crunchy, difficult piece in the middle where we struggle with our identity and change.
This discomfort is necessary. It drives action.
The greatest danger to diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces lies not in intention but in complacency – the devil we don’t see – where the status quo becomes the norm, hindering progress toward true equity.
Do not take offence at a suggestion of complacency. Consider it an uncomfortable statement that invites you to be curious.
It is evident, experienced and widely reported that our workplaces have not yet achieved true equity. In Aotearoa today, the gender pay gap sits at 8.9 per cent, and this increases as you break down by ethnicity (Ministry for Women, 2023). This is some 52 years after legislation was enacted prohibiting pay discrimination based on sex.
A mere 36.5 per cent of NZX 50 boards have female representation (NZX Gender Diversity Statistics 2022) and, again, this becomes less flash as we start to look into ethnicity. And when we consider disability, we see that the labour force participation rates sit at close to half that of the non-disabled population (Statistics NZ, 2023).
These are blatant signs that our ecosystem is out of balance and unwell. And while you query whether these are broader societal issues, I would argue that the world of work is where we have the greatest opportunity to actively confront them.
It is fair to say that our work is ongoing. And while we have made some great progress, progress itself is not the end game. We are not yet living in a healthy ecosystem where we all thrive.
This conservation effort – like most – is a long-term effort. As HR professionals, we are great people, working incredibly hard to do selfless work for the people in our organisations. But we cannot do it alone. Our role is to advocate and facilitate agency-enhancing solutions by those who share our ecosystem and, like us, have so much, if not much more, to gain.
The complacency we now face is that diversity, equity and inclusion has become ‘DEI’, a commonplace acronym, integrated into our HR strategies, projects and reporting. But while this signifies progress, when something becomes an acronym, it becomes cliché. We say and write the acronym and stop truly engaging with the words and their meaning. When we use these three simple letters, ‘DEI’, instead of the words that capture human experience, we let that meaning do just that: DIE.
We know that when things become commonplace, we stop noticing and thinking about them. Neuroscientists confirm that the more we are exposed to an idea, concept or stimuli, the more efficient our brains become at processing it, until we get to the point at which the familiar is no longer really noticed. When we stop noticing, we stop thinking and we go into autopilot. And therein lies complacency. We rely on an autopilot that is full of bad habits and bias.
This is therefore true for our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in our organisations, but importantly also within our own HR profession, which is already at risk, given our current make-up.
SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
From my perspective, I cannot change who I am and what I represent. I can, however, acknowledge and notice it, ask questions and learn, and invite ‘different’ into my thinking, practice and network.
For me, this is about actively seeking out challenges and opinions that I know will make me feel uncomfortable and inviting ideas that I would never be able to muster myself.
The more I practise HR, the more I realise that I don’t know it all, not even close. And this makes me all the more curious about how I can create space for new and different voices to shape great HR. My majorityness is not the sole kaitiaki of my profession, nor is it the home of the solution for truly diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces and organisations.
Diversity, equity and inclusion in HR is more critical now than ever. Our world is moving fast and our organisations are adapting at speed. So too are the people-focused decisions and practices we inform that not only shape people’s experiences today but also intergenerational impacts experienced tomorrow.
This pace creates a heightened risk of missing, overlooking or under-examining the impact of what we do, on what we are trying to achieve: a workplace environment where all people thrive. Therefore, our call to action is to look deeply at ourselves and to seek understanding in order to build greater diversity within our own HR thinking and teams in order to drive the same within our organisations.
Our survival depends on it. So too does the survival of the organisations we work for.
SO, WHERE ARE OUR OPPORTUNITIES?
Diversity, equity and inclusion – like conservation – often falls by the wayside when in the blind pursuit of performance and productivity. Productivity in its raw form is about finding more. Sustainability is about finding enough.
This, however, can be different. We can and ought to pursue both with equal rigour. Research shows us that organisations that pursue high levels of diversity, equity and inclusion are better at adapting to change (Michels, Murphy and Venkataraman, 2023). Similarly, diversity, equity and inclusion has been repeatedly proven to drive substantively better overall business performance (Dixon-Fyle, Dolan, Hunt and Prince, 2020).
Let’s accept that diversity, equity and inclusion not only leads to a healthy ecosystem, it also leads to a high-performing one.
With this in mind, our call to action in HR is to start within our own whare. To shine a light brightly back on diversity, equity and inclusion, and employ a conservation approach to revitalise the health and performance of our own HR ecosystem.
As a member of the majority in my profession, I am acutely aware of my privileged position and the responsibility that comes with this. My purpose as an HR professional is not to hold a firm position, but rather to ask questions and to create space for broader voices to influence outcomes that will benefit beyond me.
Our opportunity is to draw on the tāngata whenua concept of kaitiaki in HR and to work together in a much broader way to protect the mauri life force of our ecosystem so those who are fighting to survive today, begin to thrive, so that we all can thrive.
When our HR ecosystem thrives, so too do our organisations. Diversity, equity and inclusion is not just about doing the right thing. It’s about doing the most important thing: surviving and thriving in a diverse and healthy ecosystem.
Thank you for the challenges, guidance and insights I have gained and continue to invite from my diverse network of colleagues.
The Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai focuses efforts across four critical areas to create impactful conservation outcomes.
Predator Control: Targeting and removing the threats and challenges.
Habitat Restoration: Creating safe and nurturing environments.
Conservation Initiatives: Directing interventions to support species to thrive naturally.
Research and Monitoring: Gathering knowledge for informed action.
To this end, we must do the following.
1 Hunt out the harmful introduced ‘predators’ holding us back.
Consider predators as a metaphor for our own cultural bias. Our opportunity here is to:
commit to building our cultural intelligence by deeply exploring our own cultural backgrounds, including our values, norms and biases, and how these shape our practice
actively invite knowledge that challenges our worldview – at every step – and sit with the discomfort
do what we ask our organisations to do, and role model what true diversity, equity and inclusion looks like in practice.
2 Restore a habitat that allows us to all thrive.
A habitat needs to work well for everyone. Do not stop at the majority. Our opportunity here is to:
spend a greater amount of time exploring and engaging than we do doing
ask more questions than we do posing statements
seek diverse thoughts at early stages before fait accompli solutions and decisions are engaged on
take challenge as an opportunity to learn rather than a threat to progress.
3 Identify and conserve practices that enhance diversity, equity and inclusion.
Our opportunity here is to review the how, not just the what. We must understand how diversity, equity and inclusion is actioned in our own teams, specifically:
whether our approach creates access and invites inclusive engagement
what voices typically shape and make decisions
who typically designs and decides what we measure and report on.
4 Research and monitoring.
Ecosystems are nonlinear. The same is true of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our opportunity is to deepen our understanding and explore beyond traditional quantitative results. This includes examination of:
accessibility: what enhances or inhibits inclusion
engagement: what enables or disables contribution
longer-term outcomes and impacts: identify the true benefits created by the interventions we deliver today.
All of this sounds nice but is it really practical? The short answer is yes, if we want it to be. Change isn’t the easy path. It requires effort and dedication. But it’s the only path to take if we are serious about delivering on our mission.
Danni Ermilova Williams is a disruptor of the status quo. As Director of Danni Ermilova Williams – Change Coaching and Consultancy, she’s on a mission to empower individuals, leaders and business owners to shape, navigate and transition through change with power, clarity and success. Danni has a 17-year career spanning leadership, human resources, and management consulting behind her and is also deeply committed to shaping the future of the HR profession in Aotearoa. From mentoring new professionals, being named New Zealand HR Professional of the Year in 2022, and serving as a Director on the Board for HRNZ, Danni is dedicated to making a lasting impact.
www.danniermilovawilliams.com
