(soft music)
-: Hi, my name is Pamela Hutchinson
and I'm the Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
here at Bloomberg.
And I'm pleased to be moderating
Boston Consulting Group Sponsor Spotlight session
on reinventing gender diversity programs
for a post-pandemic world.
Joining me today in conversation is Gabi Novacek,
managing director and partner
at the Boston Consulting Group.
Gabi and her team are researching
an entirely new approach to workplace DE&I programs.
Gabi, a very warm welcome to you today.
-: It's great to be with you, Pamela.
-: So, let's just dive straight into it.
Look, I've been reading with immense interest
the research that you've undertaken,
which has led to you reimagining
gender diversity programming.
So please, share with us
why you believe we need a different approach now.
-: Yeah, for years, we've done exceptional work
driving DEI in the workplace,
and we've done it by really focusing on mitigating bias
on striving for equity of opportunity
on increasing representation.
But what we've missed is the other half of the equation,
which is that we have agency,
we make choices to come to work,
to stay with our employers, we're motivated or we're not,
and we've never really solved for that half of the problem.
And the pandemic just shone a bright light on that gap.
And especially as we're now coming back
to the workplace and we're seeing the great resignation
or I've heard it referred to as a post-traumatic
kind of growth experience
that we're collectively going through.
We're acting on that agency.
And if there was ever a time to say,
"I need to influence
how my employees experience the workplace
and the decisions that they make about their career,"
this is it.
And that has to come in the context of a reframing
of how we approach diversity, equity, and inclusion.
-: Thank you.
So, let's explore that just a little bit further,
because I know that our audiences will be keen to understand
the how,
how can organizations practically address the needs
and motivations of women in the workforce?
-: So the way I would think of it
is just like you might pick a particular brand of cereal.
You come to work every day
and say there are a set of needs
I'm looking to resolve.
Some of them are very functional.
I need a paycheck, I need benefits.
And some of them are more emotional in nature.
I need to feel respected.
I need to feel valued.
I need to feel more secure.
And the unlock is for companies to really understand
what that set of needs are
that their employees are solving for.
And to rethink the way that they develop solutions
such that they're really targeting those needs.
Many companies solve for the functional side.
They get at the better pay, they get at the maternity leave.
They often neglect the more emotional,
and that's where we really need to think about things
like what we celebrate, leadership behaviors.
How do I actually experience
when I take advantage of some of those programs
that may have been made available to me, etc., etc?
And that's where the hard work really starts to kick in.
-: So, what's next for the research?
I can definitely see parallels
with other dimensions of diversity
or indeed informing DE&I programs more broadly.
What's next?
-: It's an exciting time.
We started with a focus on women
and we're in the process of expanding that research
across multiple countries around the world,
recognizing that kind of the inherent cultural context
is really different from geography to geography.
We're also expanding as you know, across diverse cohorts,
whether it be LGBTQ or people of color
or individuals with physical disabilities,
the patterns remain consistent.
There's a real need to solve for for those underlying needs
that are shaping decisions.
And then of course, as we think even more expansively,
we start to find these connections
that exist across different demographic cohorts
inside any individual company
and starting to build those bridges.
Whether you say there's a caretaker need
that sits across men, across women, parents,
those taking care of spouses or elderly parents,
they share a lot in common,
and we can actually start to think
much, much more holistically
beyond those those demographic boxes
that we've put people into
about how our programs,
our efforts can be much more efficacious
across a broader segment of the workforce.
-: Thank you.
Look, it's a pleasure talking to you, Gabi.
I could sit and talk about this for much, much longer.
You've heard about it here today.
Please do go check it out.
The research is fascinating.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Gabi.
-: Thank you, Pamela.
It was a pleasure.