New HR Rep on site.
(Oh yeah it’s a female as well!)
I remember the day I accepted the job at what once considered a top five employer in our area. I was ecstatic that my credentials were just what they were looking for. I was surely going to make an impact as an HR Rep in a fast paced manufacturing environment. I had been very successful in my previous work and felt this was a parallel role to my previous ones. I was very excited to hear that the General Manager partnered well with HR and that they were a strategic player in the organization. HR had an important role at this site. This was music to my ears, as I was very use to be a strong HR partner no matter where I worked
My first day on the job was typical new hire paperwork and acclimating myself to my new environment. In my world, Human Resources is very similar, no matter where you work, you are taking are of the human capital of the company. From employee relations, to recruiting to benefits and compensation, so much is the same, it just has the company’s brand attached to it. So you spend some time understand the company’s brand and politics and read polices and procedures all while shadowing people in the organization.
I quickly begin to see another side of this organization I was not aware of. They did not think females understood their world nor should they and all that I was good for was administrative work for the site. I dismissed that as a group if individuals trying to see how they could ruffle the new HR Rep’s feathers.
When I attended the leadership meeting with my boss, who is a male. I quickly was taken back with what I saw. My boss saw my expression, and asked me what was wrong. I said to him, look around this room, there is no diversity. There was no female leaders, no one of color and there was only about 4 of the group of 21 that was over 45 years. This was an all-white male, good ole boys club. It was clear that my opinion and input had little value. I was shut down as soon as I tried to share ore recommend. At one point I was told that no one on the floor would tell leadership how to run his business, their ideas and suggestions were not valid. Joe Forehand Accenture’s CEO quoted “Empowerment without opportunity is useless” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014), wow, were my eyes opened to a new attitude. An attitude where empowering others to do their job was useless if values and opinions were merely scoffed upon. In every meeting, I was told I was the new girl and I would soon understand the ways. I soon spoke up and said I may be new to this company but I am certainly not new to Human Resources, I was excluded from the next meeting. An soon, I noticed the many of the leaders were going to my boss (male) for advice, I was good enough to provide reports and file out papers, but my expertise in labor relations was not utilized. Our lesson discusses exclusion as a form of discrimination for certain diverse populations, I may not have felt discriminated against, but I certainly was not included. Was this a form of sexism and I truly was being excluded merely because I was female?
An article on fortune.com spoke about leadership in manufacturing were women were under 20% in roles as leaders. This is very apparent in the current organization I work for. And it is sad as in this article also suggest that placing woman in leadership roles continues a pipeline for future female leaders. One needs to crack that glass ceiling in the industries such as manufacturing who do not feel females are competent leaders.
Moran et al, suggest that companies who do not value their female as well as minority employees, could suffer long term consequences with regards to recruitment, career development and promotions if diversity is excluded. Resulting in not being viewed as an employer of choice, not developing or utilizing their employees’ full potential and resulting in losing that competitive edge (2014). I have begun to see this results with this organization. Maybe they will soon realize the importance of inclusion and how diversity can be harnessed in a with positive attributes for the company. And when values and knowledge is shared, the results can be amazing. After all, the human capital of one’s organization is the most important asset of the company and is the only way of a sustainable competitive advantage for the future (Moran et al, 2014).
I am a survivor, I do have confidence in myself and feel I am knowledge and have value in what I can offer, and I try to proceed with a different approach in this organization. I have won a few individuals over, but still have a long way to go. I am still called the new girl in HR! However, in my current role, I am not sure how I can ever overcome that stigma!
Works Cited:
Commentary: Why Can’t Companies Break the Cycle of All-Male Leadership? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2018/06/26/female-leadership-ceos-linkedin/
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Pennsylvania State University. (2018). Leadership in Global Context—OLEAD 410. Lesson 3: Diversity. Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935371.
I also highlighted the sentences you referenced from our book that states “companies who do not value their [minority] employees, could suffer long term consequences” such as losing attractiveness to potential employees and wasting the talent of current employees. (Moran, 2014) In fact, I highlighted them, put stars around them, and even highlighted them again! I work in marketing and am currently having a hard time explaining to the management team that some of the reasons for our high employee turnover is our lack of diversity – both women and people of color – and our lack of documenting and auditing our attempts. It is easy to say “we are looking for more women and minority engineers” to come to our firm but we have no mechanism to examine our efforts.
A recent article at Forbes.com (I also like this site) discussed the challenges of marketing diversity to attract minorities. The very first recommendation the author made was “Make sure your marketing materials represent.” (Catero, 2018). This is an area I can affect and the first thing that comes to mind is our website; it is just pretty pictures of construction projects and text. Our Statement of Qualifications, a document that talks in more detail about the talent of our people, showcases the principals of our firm – almost all white men over the age of 55. It is not a stretch of the imagination to think that young, people of color or women may look at our website or materials and not feel welcomed at our company.
I enjoyed reading your post. You may work in Human Resources and I in Marketing but it appears we have a lot in common; including some of the bad stuff.
Signed,
“The girl in Marketing”
References
Catero, Lola. “Marketing Has A Role In Achieving Diversity And Inclusion In The Workplace.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 Aug. 2018, http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/08/31/marketing-has-a-role-in-achieving-diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/#2f3d8af324ab.
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. Being a father of two daughters, the more I sit and digest how stereotypes can hinder a woman’s career, the more I need to encourage my daughters to chase their dreams no matter what they are. Your post depicts that you have broken the glass ceiling in your organization. According to Moran, Abramson, & Moran (2014), “The glass ceiling refers to barriers to reaching the upper echelons of organizations” (p. 156). The details about your experience indicates that organizations are still to this day excluding women based on historical perception that a woman must take administrative roles rather than leadership roles. I hope that leaders and manager must include all genders and all races for a more diverse organization.
References
Moran, R., Abramson, N., & Moran, S. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (Ninth Edition). Oxford: Routledge.