Dr. Christal Morris has been in Human Resources for over 23 years and has a passion and commitment for all things Human Capital and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
As a former VP and Global Head of Diversity, she’s formally launched CLM & Associates http://www.clmandassociates.com/ and has owned a human capital and DEI consultancy practice where she is staying quite busy with both large and small organizations as they develop new approaches to create belongings.
This podcast episode was recorded in early May of 2020.
More from Dr. Christal Morris…
Many companies nowadays are hiring ‘Chief Diversity Officers’ or people for similar roles. Dr. Christal Morris has served in this role and explains more thoroughly what the job entails. And for what it’s worth, it’s not just about hiring people of different races, though that does play a big role.
“It’s working with the recruiting team to ensure that you’re helping to uncover unconscious biases, so that they’re not ruling out a resume because perhaps they can’t pronounce the name.
Then it’s making sure that the hiring manager understands the recruiting process and that they don’t have biases. It’s educational. So it’s introducing people to data and studies around blind spots and bias and introverts versus extroverts and different communication styles and just making sure that you’re providing the most inclusive experience that you can for everyone.
Then there’s all the external partnerships. So it might be working with outside organizations to bring in talent to source talent to have people volunteer to give for giving from a philanthropic standpoint.
It’s working with leaders on all the talent management processes, so you might be sitting around a table calibrating on someone’s performance and helping leaders think through how to make sure they’re speaking appropriately about a woman who may have just returned from maternity leave, perhaps they’re discussing what kind of jobs or career trajectory she may have. And they’re saying, ‘well, you know, she may not be able to do that, because she just had a child.’ So your role might be, [to say] ‘well, why don’t we allow them to make a decision? Right? Why don’t we present the opportunity to her because she may have a nanny, her husband may be stay at home, we can’t make the decision for them on whether or not they have the capacity. We know she has the capability, let’s let her decide on whether or not she has the capacity.
So it’s helping inform and shape decisions that sometimes people just don’t think about. They’re talking really quickly. They’re making snap judgments, which we all do, but it’s helping to shape and inform decisions in a way that give people the opportunity to build skill sets and capability and be more open-minded in their discussions about talent.
So it’s everything. If you’re working for an organization that has a product, it could be multicultural marketing, it’s how do we penetrate a larger market and make sure that we are tapping into the Latino market in Los Angeles for XYZ product? How can we use the employee resource group to help us think through a marketing strategy?
So Chief Diversity Officers honestly, sometimes they become the Chief HR Officer, or they can go into operations because their job is to really partner with the business very closely, to have an eye on inclusion, but also to align business strategy with inclusive practices.”
