HR Happy Hour 315 - Breaking Through with Diversity & Inclusion

Sponsored by Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com.

Host: Steve Boese

Guests: Cecile Alper-Leroux, Dr. Jarik Conrad - Ultimate Software

Recorded Live at Ultimate Connections 2018

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve is joined by Cecile Alper-Leroux and Dr. Jarik Conrad from Ultimate Software to talk about the challenges organizations are facing with Diversity & Inclusion initiatives and the keys for organizations who want to improve and make progress in these areas. Cecile and Jarik talked about the definitions of diversity and inclusion, the importance of appreciation and acceptance at work of all people from all backgrounds, and what people want from work in the modern era.

One of the interesting points discusses in the show was the idea that organizations can't jump right from awareness of these issues into solutions - there is an important stage of preparation or 'readiness' that has to be addressed in organizations and especially with leaders and managers before solutions can be developed and implemented. So 'readiness' is the pre-condition before action.

We also discussed some of the research around the business benefits of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, and why these benefits do not necessarily resonate equally in all contexts. Finally, we talked about how, where, and when in the HR/Talent lifecycle in organizations that bias, sometimes unconscious bias, can be introduced and how some of the modern HCM technology solutions are helping organizations detect and try to minimize and eliminate these biases.

Finally, Cecile shared her recent mountaineering adventure and Steve and Jarik bonded over baldness.

Thanks to Cecile, Jarik and the team at Ultimate for having us at the event.