The Key Learning Points:

1. The existence of cognitive dissonance around diversity and inclusion in the workplace
2. Quantifying the discrimination faced in America and Canada around gender and race
3. A young person's perspective on what companies can be doing better around D&I

Today we’re joined by a lady from across the pond, dialing in from Vancouver! Amy Tom is a tech marketing expert, offering freelance content and marketing strategy support to a number of tech clients based in the US. Amy recently wrote a fantastic article about addressing the dissonance around workplace D&I, and we were keen to get her on the Risky Mix to share her findings, hear about her experiences in the tech industry in North America and explore transferrable learnings that can be applied to the financial services industry.

Amy has been working in the tech industry for the last five years and is currently working as a freelance writer offering marketing strategy and copywriting services to tech companies. 

We asked Amy what motivated her to write her article and she explains that D&I has always been important to her, but she only started to place emphasis on it after her time backpacking Southeast Asia where she experienced more racism than she’d ever faced before. As a Chinese-Canadian, Amy grew up in Canada and adds: “I had been looking at leadership positions or people in the tech industry that I admired and I just was feeling very frustrated with the fact that no one in leadership positions looked like me or that I could truly relate to.” Amy explains that she communicated her feelings to a white male colleague who responded with “when will it stop being about gender and race”. Amy was frustrated that she couldn’t articulate why it was such a problem so decided to write an article about it: “For me, words are my power. I’m a writer, I’m a copywriter, I’m an editor. I communicate through written word a lot”. 

We ask Amy about some of the stats she found when researching for the article and for her, one of the biggest findings was the way that different generations define diversity and inclusion. She explains that millennials see D&I as a culture of connectedness and something that positively impacts business outcomes. Baby boomers and GenX, on the other hand, see workplace inclusion as ensuring everyone is protected and fairly treated. They believe it’s a moral and legal issue that doesn’t necessarily impact business outcomes. Amy believes that this difference in perspective is driving the makeup of businesses today.

Amy relays some of her research findings: “In American fortune 500 companies there are almost as many male CEOs named John as there are women CEOs all together!” Adding that the entire American population is 51% female but males named John make up just 3%! She adds a shocking example of a case of two identical job applications, one under the name of John and the other under the name of Jenny. The hiring professionals gave John an employability rating of 3.75/5 and Jenny 2.85/5. One of the stats that surprised Amy the most was that in Canada, you’re 40% more likely to get a job interview if you have an English-sounding name compared to a foreign-sounding name. 

We ask Amy what tips she has for companies in their journey to becoming more inclusive. Amy says that she looks for companies who “put their money where their mouth is.” - investing money into their D&I programs. For her, it’s also essential to address workplace biases, namely affinity and confirmation bias. Amy also recommends organisations do a survey to access levels of sexism and racism within their workplace and track employee demographics at all levels.