解决科技行业多元化问题的关键在于留住员工
科技行业的多元化对话往往更关注于“交流途径”，让更多少数族裔的员工跨过这道门槛。不过，这只是第一步。第二步、也是最为关键的一步是，让他们留下来。如果具有不同背景的员工不能给公司创造一种包容性和友好的环境，那么公司就没有必要耗费资源来聘请这样的员工了。
“这并不是说你不应该重视招聘，而是说你不仅要重视招聘，还要把精力放在留住员工上面，这就像你正在填满漏水的水桶一样。”Paradigm 的首席执行官乔利·埃莫森（Joelle Emerson）告诉我。
Paradigm 是一个专注于多元化问题的咨询公司。目前 该公司正在与一些高速发展的公司合作 ，例如 Pinterest 和 Slack，用以培育并保留多样化的工作场所。这是因为，如果企业不能有效留住背景不同的人才，那便是对金钱和资源的大量浪费了。事实上，根据美国进步中心（Center for American Progress）的 研究 ，招聘和雇佣新员工的成本通常在员工年薪中占到 20%。
Twitter 工程部经理莱斯利·米莱（Leslie Miley）是位黑人，他告诉我：“我认为，即便不是更重要的一个问题，但留住员工也很重要，因为你不想挖掘具有不同背景的员工。因为如果你拥有了背景不同的员工，这便和你的文化有很大关系了。不想拥有这种员工的企业，将永远无法增强自身的多元化。这听起来很简单，但是真的很有趣，有些公司还没弄清楚这一点。”
米莱谈到，流失这样的员工可能意味着几件事。一是表明公司的企业文化没有意识到员工多元化的重要性，二是说明公司有“害群之马”，让员工在这里呆不下去了。
“事实上，我之前遇见过这样的情形，在我的职业生涯中，有人只会给有色人种创造让人寒心的环境，”米莱说道。“例如有这样一家公司——但我不会说出这个公司的名字——当他们意识到问题的时候，一切都太晚了。”
虽然米莱并未指名道姓提到 Dropbox，但我敢打赌，他指的就是 Dropbox 前员工安吉利卡·科尔曼（Angelica Coleman）遭遇的情况。科尔曼称，由于 Dropbox 工作环境对女性不友好，她最终离开了这家公司。
根据《哈佛商业评论》实施的 一项调查 ，女性离开科技公司的比例是男性的两倍。最常见的原因就是工作环境，例如得不到晋升、工作时间长以及工资低等。
埃莫森表示，若想解决员工留存问题，一个办法就是确定你的公司是否可能存在这种问题，做到这一点并不难，通过对员工进行调查即可。这种调查应该问员工几个问题，如他们打算在公司工作多长时间，他们如何看待公司的多元化和包容性问题，他们是否看到获得晋升的机会等等。若想让具有不同背景的员工们明白他们会有晋升的机会，那就是确保公司有少数族裔背景的人在领导岗位上。
埃莫森指出，企业还必须意识到，具有不同背景的员工留存率高，并不意味着企业做的任何事情都是对的。员工有可能会出于经济方面的考虑被迫留在公司里，而不是因为他们真的很享受在那里工作。“如果人们并没有离开，企业有时可能自我感觉不错，但事实并非如此，”埃莫森说。
团队任务管理平台 Asana 是与埃莫森有合作关系的另一家高增长型创业公司，该公司已经认识到多元化员工的留存重要性，但它并没有试图通过建立一套有效的机制，将员工留在公司里。
Asana 人力资源部门主管安迪·斯托（Andy Stoe）说：“我们并不是依靠我们作为‘北极星’的自我价值，让我们各司其职，相反，我们还试图打开‘黄手铐’（golden handcuff），这样员工会出于合理的考虑留在 Asana。”
斯托所说的“金手铐”是指各种公司福利，比如说股票期权及其他丰厚的奖励等，旨在鼓励员工不要离开公司。Asana 尝试放松“金手铐”的束缚，改变标准的劳资协议条款，令其适用于公司新的股票期权规定。
以前，Asana 员工离职后，只有三个月时间来执行股票期权，过后即丧失期权。如今，从 Asana 授予其股权之日起，员工将有 10 年时间来执行期权，即便他们任职未满 10 年就离开了公司。
最终，科技公司必须对两个问题进行深入思考，一是创造哪种工作环境，二是如何能让背景多元的员工寻找和获得晋升的机会。此外，企业还必须要知道激励员工留下来的原因是什么。是企业包容、健康的工作环境，还是说员工手腕上的“金手铐”？如果是因为后者他们才留了下来，那么企业就必须做出改变了。
Hacking Diversity In Tech By Emphasizing Retention
Conversations around diversity in tech often focus on the “pipeline” and getting more people from underrepresented groups through the door. But that’s just a first step. The next, most critical step is retention. There’s no point in a company using its resources to hire a diverse people if they’re not going to offer them an environment that is both supporting and nurturing.
“It’s not to say that you shouldn’t focus on [hiring], but to focus on that and not focus on retention, it’s like you’re filling up a leaky bucket,” Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson tells me.
Paradigm is a consulting startup that focuses on diversity. It’s currently working with high-growth companies like Pinterest and Slack on fostering and retaining a diverse workplace. That’s because if companies can’t effectively retain diverse people it’s a huge waste of money and resources. In fact, the cost of recruiting and hiring a new employee is typically 20 percent of the annual salary for that person, according to the Center for American Progress.
“I think that [retention is] as important if not more important because you don’t want to churn out diversity,” Twitter Engineering Manager Leslie Miley, who is black, tells me. “Because if you churn out diversity, that says a lot about your culture. Companies that do churn out diversity will never be able to increase their diversity. It sounds very simple, but it’s really interesting to see that some companies haven’t figured that one out.”
Losing diverse employees could mean a couple of things, Miley says. It could mean either that it’s a culture that doesn’t recognize diversity matters, or it could be that there’s just a bad apple driving people out the door.
“I have actually seen that previously in my career where one person can create an environment that is just chilling for people of color,” Miley says. “There’s one example, but I won’t name the company, by the time they realized that there was a problem, it was too late.”
Even though Miley didn’t specifically call out Dropbox, my bet is that he was referring to the situation with former Dropbox employee Angelica Coleman, who says she left the company because of its unsupportive environment.
Women leave tech companies at twice the rate of men, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review. The most common reason is the working conditions (e.g. no advancement, number of hours, low salary).
One way to combat retention issues is by determining if your company is at risk of them, which can be accomplished through surveys, Emerson says. These surveys should ask employees things like how long they plan to be at the company, how they perceive diversity and inclusion in the company, and if they are aware of opportunities for advancement. And one way to signal to diverse employees that there are opportunities for advancement is to ensure there are people from underrepresented backgrounds in leadership roles.
Companies also need to recognize that a high retention rate of diverse employees doesn’t necessarily mean the company’s doing anything right, Emerson says. People might be forced to stay on at a company because of financial reasons, not because they actually enjoy working there. “If people aren’t leaving, companies sometimes make the assumption that everything is fine, and that’s not always the case,” Emerson says.
Productivity startup Asana, another high-growth company that Emerson works with, recognizes that retention of diverse employees is really important, but it tries not to create mechanisms just to keep people at the company.
“Instead we rely on our own values as the north star, and literally hold ourselves accountable, Asana Head of Recruiting Andy Stoe says. “We also try to remove the ‘golden handcuffs’ so people want to stay at Asana for the right reasons.”
The “golden handcuffs” Stoe is talking about are the benefits, like stock options and other deferred payments, that aim to discourage people from leaving the company. Asana has tried to loosen the handcuffs by changing the standard terms that apply to the company’s new stock options.
In the past, employees had just three months after leaving Asana to exercise their options before they were forfeited. Now, employees have 10 years to exercise those options from the date Asana grants them, even if they leave the company before that time.
Ultimately, tech companies need to be thoughtful about the kind of work environment they create, and how they enable diverse employees to seek and attain opportunities for advancement. Companies also need to be aware of what is incentivizing people to stay. Is it because of the company’s supportive, nourishing environment? Or, are employees staying because of the golden handcuffs around their wrists? If it’s the latter, something needs to change.
来源：techcrunch
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