WON Meeting Highlights July 2010: Social Media in the Workplace, Engaging Straight Allies, and Helping Diversity and Compliance Work Together

Over 55 Diversity and Compliance professionals from approximately 40 organizations met for the Workforce Opportunity Network Meeting in July hosted by member PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City. Members and guests heard from a variety of speakers on various topics such as, social media in the workplace, engaging straight allies in the workplace, and how diversity and compliance can work together.

Social Media and Diversity- Leveraging the Benefits while Managing the Risk

Diversity Day, day one of the Workforce Opportunity Network (WON) meeting, began with a presentation by Jacqueline Wagner and Jack Teuber of PricewaterhouseCoopers. They talked about PwC’s cutting edge policies and programs regarding the usage of social media for outreach, recruitment, employee resource groups and other activities to enhance diversity and inclusion effectiveness. They spoke to participants about their three-prong strategy which includes a US National program, one-on-one relationship building, and education and communication.

The US National program focuses on the firm’s brand and how they leverage this channel to support strategic goals. The one-on-one relationship building focuses on an individual’s brand and how best to use social media to represent oneself in the best possible light. They talked about the risk and impact that social media can have on one’s reputation and stressed the need for policies around the use of social media in the workplace as well as employee training. The third and final aspect of the strategy is education and communication. They focus on training employees and giving them tools to use. Most importantly, they stressed the need for a strategy and a policy regarding social networking. They developed their policy by starting with existing company policies and expanding from there.

Engaging Straight Allies in the Workplace

In the afternoon, meeting participants heard from Marla Hassner, Director of Employee Relations at UBS and the Empire State Pride Agenda, Pride in My Workplace. Marla explored some of the barriers and challenges to acting as a straight ally and engaging straight allies, as well as some strategies for engagement.

Some of the barriers Marla pointed out for straight allies in the workplace are fear of attribution, conflicting values/beliefs, lack of information, and not knowing what to do or say. These issues also play a role in seeking ally support and in addition, Marla said LGBT employees need to play more of a role in making straight allies feel included.

Some of the effective strategies for engaging straight allies are, including “A for ally” at the end of LGBT, engaging senior leadership in LGBT employee resource groups (companies reported having a direct report to the CEO or their general counsel as executive sponsors), company giveaways with pride flags (magnets, pins, etc.), membership drive initiatives where an LGBT employee brings a straight ally and making it a part of the on boarding process.

WON Members and Global Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Practice staff pose together for a photo at the PricewaterhouseCoopers office in New York City.

How Diversity and Compliance Can Work Together

WON Members Peter Kim of Pfizer, Margie Rivera of AstraZeneca and Nora Vele of Merck led a discussion for how diversity and compliance professionals can work better together.

Nora mentioned that in Merck it was management which called diversity and compliance together and asked for one set of standards to comply with. As a result, Nora who reports to the head of Diversity at Merck, Deb Dagit, worked with her diversity colleagues to prepare a single set of diversity metrics which are developed out of the company’s affirmative action plans. Merck is one of the companies who have functional affirmative action plans (FAAP) and the structure of the FAAPs helps align the company’s AAP goals with the way the company actually functions.

Margie Rivera began at AstraZeneca as a compliance person but worked very closely with the people in Diversity. Now Margie has responsibility for both compliance and diversity which enables her to speak with one voice on such issues as metrics.

Peter Kim came to Pfizer at a time when there was a divide between Diversity and Compliance with Diversity having an arm’s length relationship with Compliance. Compliance at Pfizer is in the Law Department. Once Peter arrived, Diversity professionals began coming to him discussing how they should develop their metrics. Peter was able to assist them to develop metrics that met their need and were legally supportable. Once the two groups saw how they could work together, Peter has been able to work with Diversity in a more integrated fashion. New leadership in diversity in Pfizer has endorsed this approach which has strengthened the relationship between Diversity and Compliance.

The panel’s presentations created lively discussion among the members. There continues to be friction between Diversity and Compliance especially when it comes to who has access to metrics showing progress towards goals. The discussion and questions show that while there has been progress in the relationship between Diversity and Compliance, more can be done to help them work together towards their common goal of improving diversity within their organization.

Compliance Issues for Employers around Social Media in the Workplace

On Day 2 of the Workforce Opportunity Network (WON) Meeting, Compliance Day, members heard from social media expert Elise Bloom, Partner, Proskaeur Rose. Elise warns employers of the potential risks social networking sites can bring. According to Elise’s presentation 22% of employees visit social networking sites five or more times per week and 23% visit social networking sites 1-4 times per week. In addition, according to a recent survey, 53% of employees said their social networking pages are none of their employer’s business. However, employees should have no reasonable expectation of privacy if they are on any company equipment at any time, according to Elise.

Training and employee education is essential according to Elise, who also said employers need to include language about employee’s use of company equipment including computers, cell phones, etc. in their company policies. She provides three steps employers should take to “Harness the Virtual Water Cooler” including, a written electronic communications policy, developing regulations regarding hiring and screening procedures that make use of web 2.0 applications, and updating document retention policies.

OFCCP ANPRM

In preparation for the National Industrial Liaison Group meeting the following week, the members discussed the OFCCP’s ANPRM requesting information on how it can revise its regulations to improve the hiring and promotion of individuals of disabilities under Section 503. One of the questions OFCCP asks is whether Section 503 should have goals and timetables like EO 11246. A letter of comment will be submitted by September 21 to OFCCP in response to the questions.

Also issued on July 20, 2010 was the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force recommendations. The two recommendations which are most relevant for the members are the rescission of the OFCCP’s 2006 compensation guidance and reinstitution of the Equal Opportunity Survey. OFCCP is expected to issue an ANPRM on compensation in the near future.

WON Members listen to a presentation on Social Media in the Workplace

Thank you to PricewaterhouseCoopers for hosting a fantastic meeting!

The Next Workforce Opportunity Network Meeting is October 26-27 at Georgetown Hotel and Conference Center.

Members can register here https://www.orcnetworks.com/node/3226

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