Marijuana companies may be asking themselves, too, how their cannabis industry workplaces can be more welcoming to people of color, whether job applicants, employees, customers, or vendors. One day of training likely won’t have much impact.
The most effective way to change behavior is to change our environment and to nudge people into new behaviors. Focusing on program design and policy design such as changing hiring practices…will have a bigger effect than just teaching cannabis industry employees the right thing to do.
That is the tactic the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is taking in the discrimination cases it wins against employers. In July 2017, for example, Bass Pro Outdoor World agreed to make good-faith efforts to increase its diversity in addition to paying $10.5 million to members of a class-action lawsuit involving hiring discrimination against black and Hispanic job applicants.
The company is to participate in job fairs in communities with large minority populations, reach out to minority colleges and technical schools, and post job openings in publications popular among people in black and Hispanic areas.
Hiring Practices
Changing hiring processes is one way to alter the makeup of an organization’s ‘in-group‘ and to change the perception that underrepresented groups are outsiders. She recommended blind screening of resumes and using structured interviews so that all job candidates are asked the same questions. A lack of structure may make it difficult to compare and rank applicants because they are not asked the same questions.
Organizations use blind screening by asking job candidates to omit information that includes their names and the names of their schools when they submit cover letters and resumes. It also has expanded its recruitment to include diversity-specific job boards. “Ban the box” is another change some are pressing for so that employers no longer ask job candidates about their criminal histories on an employment application form.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says this is especially important for black job seekers, who make up 14 percent of the U.S. population but 40 percent of the nation’s incarcerated population. Inquiring into criminal history can wait until a face-to-face interview is scheduled or after a conditional job offer is made.
Talk to Employees
Ask employees what they think about their organization’s diversity, discussions can take place at any time, such as at a staff meeting or a company town hall meeting, and they don’t require a professional facilitator. You don’t have to launch a giant training; just show up and be authentic. That requires HR to work with leaders to help them get comfortable addressing what can be sensitive subjects, such as racism.
When an employee approaches HR about an incident – such as after hearing racist comments – suggested asking'”What else?‘ three times to get a full picture of what occurred. HR can use such information to alert company leaders to behavior that does not align with company values. This awareness gives leaders a jumping-off point for a conversation with employees, and HR can help them with talking points.
It’s a big call to action for HR professionals to empower leaders to have conversations that 15 years ago went straight to HR.
Use Scenario-Based Training
Starbucks must start talking about this issue so employees have a common understanding, and awareness, of unconscious bias and how it can negatively affect their decisions. And there must be repeated opportunities for active learning, reflection, and practice.
One training strategy is to use scenario-based videos or role-playing. Scenarios enable someone to ‘walk a mile in my shoes‘ and create emotional connections. If you can display unconscious bias by playing it out…that’s how people will remember the negative effect unconscious bias can have and how it can innocently crop up” in the workplace. “It’s very hard to do that through other instructional strategies.
While there probably is not a lot of overt racism in dispensary workplaces, unconscious bias occurs frequently in decisions affecting promotions, performance reviews, and other work-related interactions. And breaking down that unconscious bias doesn’t happen overnight.
You have to change the culture of the organization, and that takes time, and that’s hard work. Dispensary managers and leaders have to be the role models here…they’re the ones who can drive cultural change.
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