Conversations around modern corporate culture often circle around surface level traits like how leadership acts, how many hours are worked, how the office looks, and what fun perks we’ll get.  

But the essence of corporate culture is in the cumulative behaviors and environments brought to life by the decisions the company makes and the people it hires, which is a lot harder to evaluate.  

Corporate values are initial attempts at establishing the foundations for culture, and they’re easy to write.  But living them requires commitment and persistence, which is a lot harder to execute.

For example, DE&I has been “trendy” the last few years, which has resulted in roles and programming created to show progress.  But it looks a lot more like checking a box when you look at C-suite, senior management, employee makeup and salaries to evaluate what tangible change and impact has actually resulted.

Then DE&I budgets and initiatives were slashed when COVID hit, but the murders of Ahmaud Arbury, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have pushed resources back in that direction just two months later.

What I hope is different about this resurgence is that it’s not a trend, but the beginning of fundamental and systemic change that will actually result in real differences for BIPOC, womxn, and other marginalized groups in the corporate landscape.

I don’t have much faith in a top down approach for companies to sustain the momentum on their own because they’re often reactive to crises of the moment.  Unless they’re compelled to.  And that’s something each of us can do from the bottom up as a current or prospective employee.

I do have faith in this moment, in the humans that want to be part of this movement to advance the momentum beyond our streets, and in the opportunity at hand to hold companies accountable to the things they say they value.

As a starting point to consider how we can push companies to act in accordance with their words on DE&I, here are a few areas companies can audit and action change (and we can ask them about) on race, gender, sexual orientation, and age equality…

• Pay equity

• Recruiting and hiring practices for open roles at all levels 

• Performance standards for recruiters to develop diverse networks and present diverse candidates

• Talent evaluation methodology for performance reviews, promotions, salary increases, and bonuses

• Staffing practices for new projects and opportunities

• DE&I responsibilities for managers and leadership that are reflected in performance reviews and compensation

• Management, allyship, bias, microaggression training 

• DE&I business objectives as part of annual strategic planning

These are DE&I specific, but the same approach applies to values across the board. 

Does what they do match what they say and can you see the results?

Operationalizing values isn’t an easy lift.  Especially when retrofitting them into legacy processes that weren’t developed with those values in the foundation to begin with.  But it’s no more complicated than instituting any other process-oriented business priority, assuming it’s a priority.

If it’s important to us that our company’s values align with our own, it’s our job to educate ourselves on what our company’s values are and how they materialize in our day to day work lives.  And if we’re not seeing results, it's our responsibility to communicate the changes we want to see and hold our companies accountable.

Our power lies in our collective ability to advance a company’s objectives.  They can’t operate without talent.  And if more of us choose who we work for based on values in action, in addition to starting salary and unlimited PTO, they will listen.  Maybe not immediately, but change doesn’t happen overnight.

After all, unlimited PTO started somewhere. 


🙏🙏,

Pam