COVID-19 Crisis And Remote Work
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical to keep organizations afloat and optimized for remote work
Posted on 04-17-2020, Read Time: Min
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Stay-at-home orders, recession, and workforce reductions are among the many factors that leaders must grapple with as COVID-19 spreads across the globe. Many organizations are making difficult decisions like pausing hiring and cutting costs. In the midst of these complex problems, many are operating with tunnel vision, communicating limited details to employees and failing to seek outside perspectives.
Organizational psychologists Barry Staw, Lance Sandelands, and Jane Dutton classify this narrowed, adverse response to crisis as ‘threat rigidity’ - restricting information sharing, limiting innovation, and relying on hierarchical decision-making. Increased stress levels also make people more likely to use cognitive biases. If unchecked, these responses become part of a maladaptive cycle that marginalizes people and inhibits progress at the precise moment when organizations need to collaborate to survive.
As an alternative, research shows that leveraging the perspectives of a diverse workforce and enabling teamwork and innovation through inclusion and equity can help your organization withstand (and even transcend) economic uncertainty.
In their “2020 Hidden Pieces of the D&I Puzzle Study,” Great Place to Work made a surprising recommendation for organizations confronting an economic downturn: “double down on equity to prepare for great performance in a recession.” Findings from the study indicate that during the recession in 2007 - 2009:
- The S&P 500 suffered a 35.5% decline in stock performance; however, companies with inclusive workplace cultures experienced a 14.4% gain.
- In the years that followed the recession, those same inclusive companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 4 times, posting a 35% increase in their stock performance compared to the S&P 500’s nine percent.
Among the top reasons why these companies performed so well: women, people of color, frontline workers, male hourly workers, and long-tenured employees reported high levels of inclusivity, fairness, and integrity in the workplace. And while correlation is not causation, there are many reasons to associate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace with higher performance during a crisis and economic uncertainty:
Diverse teams often make better decisions. A study by Katherine Phillips, Katie Liljenquist, and Margaret Neale found that that teams with visibly different members (e.g., people of color, women, immigrants) are more likely to reexamine facts, remain objective, and steer clear of conformity, sharpening the cognitive resources of the group.
Diversity can drive innovation and increase market growth. Researchers in a 2013 national study found that employees at companies with increased diversity were 45% more likely to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70% more likely to report that the firm captured a new market. One of the key factors: diverse contributors helped surface unmet needs in under-leveraged markets.
Diverse and inclusive cultures can yield greater revenue and cost-savings. Historically marginalized employees are a source of good ideas that many companies overlook. For example, the sales boom experienced by many hand-sanitizer companies at the moment can be attributed to the ingenuity of Lupe Hernandez, a Latina nurse. In the 1960s, as a nursing student, she invented hand sanitizer when she realized that alcohol delivered through a gel could cleanse hands when soap and water weren’t available.
Diversity can drive innovation and increase market growth. Researchers in a 2013 national study found that employees at companies with increased diversity were 45% more likely to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70% more likely to report that the firm captured a new market. One of the key factors: diverse contributors helped surface unmet needs in under-leveraged markets.
Diverse and inclusive cultures can yield greater revenue and cost-savings. Historically marginalized employees are a source of good ideas that many companies overlook. For example, the sales boom experienced by many hand-sanitizer companies at the moment can be attributed to the ingenuity of Lupe Hernandez, a Latina nurse. In the 1960s, as a nursing student, she invented hand sanitizer when she realized that alcohol delivered through a gel could cleanse hands when soap and water weren’t available.
Whether your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are firmly established or emerging, here are 4 essentials to help you come out of this crisis even stronger:
1. Strengthen your feedback culture.
Insecurity and anxiety levels are higher than normal and people are fearful of making mistakes. Further, a real danger when working remotely is that team members:
Insecurity and anxiety levels are higher than normal and people are fearful of making mistakes. Further, a real danger when working remotely is that team members:
- Skip giving feedback since it feels like too big of a deal, or
- They read too much into the feedback they get.
Why? Trust is harder to build remotely when there is limited face time. Giving feedback across cultures can be even tougher because of ‘protective hesitation’: in an attempt to protect themselves from claims of bias, feedback givers will deliver vague feedback or not give feedback at all, limiting opportunities for growth, performance improvement, and company success. Researchers at LifeLabs Learning, a management training company focused on rapid skill acquisition suggest that organizations normalize giving and asking for feedback. Here’s how:
- Ask team members how, when, and where to share feedback.
- Describe specific behaviors and connect them to business impact.
- Ask for feedback every project kickoff, retro, and 1-1.
- Balance your ratio of positive to negative feedback. Engagement and self-efficacy levels increase when people know what’s working well.
2. Optimize your meetings.
In most companies, meetings are where ideas are born and decisions are made. They are also a spot where many groups report unequal access. For example, research shows that women, introverts, and nonnative speakers of the local language tend to speak up less and get interrupted more. The most important thing you can do to make sure every voice is heard in your virtual meetings is monitor what psychologists call ‘conversational turn-taking.’ In a large study of teams, researchers found that equal turn-taking is the best predictor of team performance – even more predictive than intelligence. The important steps to make your meetings more inclusive are:
- Make thinking time in meetings to allow people to reflect first before sharing.
- Institute timed round robins with an audible timer to ensure everyone has an equal chance to speak.
- Ask ritual questions like, “Who haven’t we heard from yet?” or “What counter perspectives should we consider?”
- Encourage (but don’t mandate) people to turn cameras on for virtual meetings to help strengthen relationships via the mere-exposure effect.
- Put emphasis on giving participants a chance to “finish their thought” to manage interruptions and help with advocacy for others.
3. Ensure equity in your workplace practices.
The sudden shift to remote work surprised everyone, which means employees were ill-equipped to convert their living space into their office space. Kitchen tables, laundry rooms, and even bedrooms are now the modus operandi for the COVID-19 professional.
To support employees during the transition, many companies are allowing employees to take home tech supplies from the office, providing stipends for wi-fi, adapting schedules for working parents, and offering weekend social events for people living alone. The tailored approach reflected in addressing the employee needs in response to the COVID-19 crisis is a helpful reference for understanding what equity looks like in the workplace. In an equitable workplace, companies provide their people with necessary resources to have access to opportunities (e.g., think braille keyboard for a blind employee, not everyone). Now is a good time to address unique, individual needs in your workplace, ensuring people are resourced in ways that allow them to fully support your company goals. You can apply an equity lens to:
The sudden shift to remote work surprised everyone, which means employees were ill-equipped to convert their living space into their office space. Kitchen tables, laundry rooms, and even bedrooms are now the modus operandi for the COVID-19 professional.
To support employees during the transition, many companies are allowing employees to take home tech supplies from the office, providing stipends for wi-fi, adapting schedules for working parents, and offering weekend social events for people living alone. The tailored approach reflected in addressing the employee needs in response to the COVID-19 crisis is a helpful reference for understanding what equity looks like in the workplace. In an equitable workplace, companies provide their people with necessary resources to have access to opportunities (e.g., think braille keyboard for a blind employee, not everyone). Now is a good time to address unique, individual needs in your workplace, ensuring people are resourced in ways that allow them to fully support your company goals. You can apply an equity lens to:
- Ensure projects are assigned and communicated across the company in a way that is transparent and accessible to all employees.
- Provide a variety of options for learning and development when employees need to skill up in their roles (e.g. workshops, meetups, written materials, mentorship, etc.).
- Evaluate compensation structures and benefits within your company to ensure they are fair and objective.
4. Enhance the empathy on your team.
Stay-at-home orders dramatically shifted how we operate in our daily lives. Some people are working from home for the first-time. Parents are home-schooling their children while working, others are forced to co-work with partners and roommates or spend countless hours with no human contact. Colleagues may be caring for sick relatives or grieving a loss. Transgender employees may be forced to forgo medical procedures, creating anxiety about showing up on a camera for meetings. Additionally, the targeted violence directed at the Asian community during this time increases the xenophobia and discrimination many people experience. People are stretched and stressed, which means they’re more likely to act selfishly, think less clearly, and rely on biases for decisions. Consider the following to enhance empathy on your team and maintain team cohesion:
Stay-at-home orders dramatically shifted how we operate in our daily lives. Some people are working from home for the first-time. Parents are home-schooling their children while working, others are forced to co-work with partners and roommates or spend countless hours with no human contact. Colleagues may be caring for sick relatives or grieving a loss. Transgender employees may be forced to forgo medical procedures, creating anxiety about showing up on a camera for meetings. Additionally, the targeted violence directed at the Asian community during this time increases the xenophobia and discrimination many people experience. People are stretched and stressed, which means they’re more likely to act selfishly, think less clearly, and rely on biases for decisions. Consider the following to enhance empathy on your team and maintain team cohesion:
- Invest in behaviors of inclusion training to educate people about bias, identity, and the deliberately inclusive actions they can take.
- Increase small talk and check-ins to keep everyone connected and equally informed of new developments and expectations.
- Involve others to co-create connection opportunities (so not everything is an extrovert-friendly, alcohol-friendly happy hour - even virtually).
- Train managers to assess and address employee needs and engagement.
- Pull for feedback often to better tailor your approach.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are among the most important tools to help you weather the current economic reality, while avoiding the pitfalls of threat rigidity and bias. Your efforts will help set your organization to be resilient for the long haul.
Author Bio
| Matt Williams is a Leadership Trainer at LifeLabs Learning. He holds a Master’s degree in communication from Wake Forest University and specializes in leadership development, diversity & inclusion, and collaboration. He has spent the past 10 years working as a manager, researcher, and leadership consultant. Matt has spoken at TEDx and SXSW, and his work has been featured in a wide range of media outlets, including Fast Company, Fortune, and NPR. Visit www.lifelabslearning.com Connect Matt Williams |
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