Strategic HR D&I within HR
Is HR a
hypocrite?
In just a few weeks we’ll be
celebrating International Women’s
Day (IWD). Most organisations will
mark the annual event; there will be
talks by female leaders, lunches, and
power lists. We’ll wear our favourite
feminist slogan T-shirts to an
overpriced event that celebrates strong
women but ‘doesn’t have the budget’
to pay its female speakers. Some
employers will use the day to announce
another diversity and inclusion
initiative – the launch of which will
likely be followed by... another talk.
Whether it’s IWD, Black History
Month or Pride, such events have their
place. Well-intentioned, they create
positive internal and external
messaging around inclusion. But if
you’re looking for inspiration on how
to mark these events you would do well
to steer clear of ‘Sally in HR’.
Last year ‘Sally’ announced that
Jamie Oliver would be coming in to
cook jerk chicken for the staff of
32 HR February 2020
‘Plant8Con’ in celebration of Black
History Month.
Thankfully Sally is a work of fiction.
The avatar is a white female HR
practitioner created by actress Kelechi
Okafor based on cringe-worthy
workplace tales that have been shared
on her podcast. Sally makes for both
hilarious and uncomfortable viewing –
no-one in the profession would want
to see themselves in her. But HR is
predominantly made up of white females
just like her, and though she may be a
parody Sally is also a window into how
employees view HR’s own diversity.
“I created ‘Sally in HR’ because I
believe in using my anger effectively.
I was angry and I’m still angry about
the ways sexism, ableism and racism
go unchecked in the workplace,”
explains Okafor.
She points out that there’s a tendency
to think that D&I workshops and
relevant policies somehow absolve
people of their bias, but those
initiatives only touch the surface of
the issue.
“The maddening nature of HR is
that it is essentially unable to rectify
itself because the people who are trying
to do the fixing are also what is broken
about it,” she concludes.
And Okafor has a point. The most
recent CIPD membership survey
revealed that 74% of its members are
female and 88% are white. Such an
obvious lack of diversity in the
profession begs the question: is
HR hypocritical? And does the
profession’s own lack of diversity
undermine its attempts to create
inclusive workplaces? If Sally in
HR makes for uncomfortable
viewing then such questions call
for equally uncomfortable, albeit
necessary, reflection.
“If HR can’t walk the talk about
diversity and inclusion then it doesn’t
have the licence to lecture the rest of
the organisation,” says Frank Douglas,
CEO of Caerus Executive. Douglas
notes that there have only ever been
two black HR directors of FTSE 100
companies, of which he was one in his
role at Shell.
“Why haven’t there been more since
then?” he asks.
It’s an urgent question, particularly
in light of recent research by Green
Park that found the number of FTSE
100 leaders from BAME backgrounds
had dropped from 9% in 2018 to 7.4%
in 2019.
“It’s 2020 and we’re still talking
about diversity on boards and
management teams – and, of all places,
the HR profession, where it shouldn’t
be an issue,” adds Douglas.
But it is an issue, and not just across
race and gender. The CIPD’s figures
With CIPD data showing the HR profession is overwhelmingly
female, white and straight, SARAH RONAN asks whether HR
itself is walking the talk on diversity and inclusion