The Importance of Culture and Diversity in the Workplace

About this episode

MARCH 6, 2020

In today's world, workplace diversity and inclusion are business necessities. Diverse employees can bring together their different talents, experiences and various skillsets to come up with creative and inventive solutions. In honor of Women's History Month, Madison, Monica, and Celia take over the GEEK FREAKS PODCAST to discuss their experience as women in the tech industry, as well as the importance of company culture and the benefits of having diverse employees.

MEET THE GEEK FREAKS

Madison Bronkan

EMPLOYEE SUCCESS MANAGER

10+ Years in Food Service (including many years in Management), 3 Years in HR.
2 Bachelor’s Degrees (BBA, BA), SHRM/KHRMA Member.
Loves all aspects of her job: staffing, employee relations, performance management, benefits administration, process improvement, and most recently added—marketing. But her favorite part is training and development because she loves seeing individuals and the company as a whole become the best it can be and continue to grow.
Loves exploring and trying new things – traveling, kayaking and paddle boarding, food, beer, bourbon…wherever life takes her. Doing the same thing over and over again bores her. She also really enjoys hanging out with her friends, husband, and dogs.

MONICA GORDON

MARKETING SPECIALIST

Bachelors in Marketing, specialization in Business Analytics from Western Michigan University
Certified in Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Google Analytics, YouTube Channel Growth, B2B Marketing on LinkedIn, and Advertising on LinkedIn
Loves spending time going to shows and music festivals, paddle boarding and just being on a lake or beach, traveling, and experiencing new things. One of her life goals is to visit all 50 states (She's at 30/50) and all 7 continents (2/7)!
Fun fact: Monica had a cat named Nacho after the movie Nacho Libre

Celia Kinney

I.T. DISPATCHER/FST COORDINATOR

IT Glue Certified Professional, 1st Degree Black Belt
Loves cats, energy drinks and anything AV related
In her off time you can catch her playing pen and paper games, studying Japanese, or snuggling her cats.

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Episode 21 Transcript

Madison: (00:00) Welcome to the Geek Freaks Podcast, your go to destination for answers to the most crucial business technology questions every business owner needs to hear.

Music: (00:14) [Intro Music]

Madison: (00:21) For today's podcast, the ladies of the office are taking over, uh, for woman's month, which is March, right, Monica?

Monica: (00:29) Yup.

Madison: (00:29) Okay. Um, we're going to talk about workplace culture and diversity. So I guess to start off with what, what do you guys think defines a good...A good work culture?

Monica: (00:44) Wait, do you want to introduce us?

Madison: (00:45) Oh yeah.

Celia: (00:46) Shall they know who we are? We've been here once.

Madison: (00:49) I am your host for today, Madison Bronkman and I have Monica Gordon here with me and Celia Kinney.

Monica: (00:58) Hello.

Celia: (00:59) Hello.

Madison: (01:00) Okay. Yeah, we did it.

Celia: (01:02) Yeah. Thank you for the introduction.

Monica: (01:04) Yes.

Madison: (01:04) Sorry about that.

Celia: (01:05) Happy to be here.

Madison: (01:05) My first time hosting.

Monica: (01:07) You did good.

Celia: (01:08) Great. Um, so with that segway...

Madison: (01:12) ...back to what, uh, what makes a culture a great strong winning culture?

Celia: (01:20) Do you want to go first?

Celia: (01:21) Yeah, sure. I can go first. Uh, well, the way that I look at it as a, it's inclusive and everybody feels like they have something to contribute without the fear of, you know, being called out on it or not feeling valued in a place that you wake up to and you don't feel like you're going to work. It's like I'm hanging out with like minded people and we're going to get some, some cool stuff on today.

Monica: (01:45) A strong culture to me, um, is somewhere that I work, but it doesn't feel like such a burden to go. Like, I enjoy coming here every day and I like the people that I work with. Um, and I think that just makes, you know, coming here, doing my job a lot more enjoyable cause I like what I do and I like who I work with. Um, and the culture aspect of it. Like we all get along outside of work too. Our work events are fun. Like I enjoy going to those. It's not just something that I feel like I have to go to. Like I do enjoy going to the work events that we have.

Madison: (02:19) Yeah. I think, um, I think we have a pretty good culture here. Uh, and I'm not just saying that because I'm HR, but I really, I really enjoy coming to work every day. I think everyone else enjoys coming to work as well. Um, we all seem to have a good time, but we get down to business and get stuff done, uh, on a regular basis, so. Pretty good. So we have some core values. Do you think that those play into culture at all or, um, how do you think those play into culture?

Celia: (02:52) I mean with our core values specifically, I feel like it really ingrains you into doing better to not only just thinking about yourself but everybody else here together as a whole. And like every company has their own core values, but I feel like ours, since they are so almost like personal, like for personal development helps nurture that professional development. So I think they are really big value on.

Monica: (03:18) Yeah, I think they relate, um, I mean we vote on our core value winners each quarter. So it's nice to kind of put someone to that core value who demonstrated it well that quarter. Um, and I don't know, my favorite one is grow or die cause I think that one really is a good representation. Everyone's trying to get better for themselves and for Omega as well.

Madison: (03:41) Yeah. I, uh, I think back to the unlimited PTO that we did just a end of last year, middle of last year, and that whole promise was based on do the right thing, which is one of our core values. It's do the right thing for the employees here. And if we're doing the right thing for them, they're going to do the right thing for us and each other. And, um, it really doesn't become a big thing if, if everyone's only taking the time they need.

Celia: (04:13) Sure.

Madison: (04:14) That's it's, yeah. I dunno, that's just one of the examples that I thought of.

Monica: (04:18) Yeah.

Madison: (04:20) So when it comes to diversity, we're a tech company, so sometimes, um, specifically women in tech since it is a women's month. Women in tech, uh, don't have as much representation in the tech culture as, as they should. How do you think or why do you think that is?

Monica: (04:44) Um, I was looking up some stuff beforehand for this recording and it was saying that women, um, just from the beginning, like early childhood education, they don't really have that much of an interest from the beginning or that interest isn't nurtured or like you said, they feel misrepresented or underrepresented. Um, so that just kinda plays into them not really going into the tech field or studying tech.

Celia: (05:10) And developmentally as like a female would be, it's typically, you know, the household type things that they're really nurtured or encouraged to do. So, you know, anything technical or engineering or physical women tend to shy away from that because they're told all their life like, you're soft and you can't do it or that's not something that's meant for you. And I really like the, nowadays that women are like, no, I'm just as good as you can do. I can do it. You can do it. We can all do it together. Type mentality.

Madison: (05:39) Yeah, definitely. Um, I think to one of those, one of the big things is tech companies are becoming more diverse. Um, but you mentioned the word that I liked earlier. It's about being inclusive. So getting a diverse workforce and then keeping it by making the people feel included, not just like, oh, there's our one lady tech over there. She's just works in her own corner, does her own thing. It's, it's really about like celebrating that.

Celia: (06:14) Yeah, exactly.

Madison: (06:16) Celebrating that difference.

Celia: (06:18) Yeah. That's nice.

Madison: (06:20) Um, so how do you think that companies can make women in tech feel more comfortable to, uh, to really branch out and if they're studying, um, it to like feel comfortable applying or even getting into the industry to begin with. How do you think that companies can do that?

Monica: (06:41) Um, I know, I think it was either Google or Microsoft, maybe Facebook, one of the big tech giants. They are, um, like putting programs in place for girls in high school or like, um, they're putting those programs in place to kind of get them to feel more comfortable and just to think about tech. So I definitely think that will help.

Celia: (07:03) And just going with treating them like they're, no, they're just not treating them any different, you know, encourage them. Like you would encourage the guy next to you or the guy that you see just look at them, not necessarily as a guy, but as a human. Like you can do it not as opposed to like, you're a girl or you're a guy or you're such and such ethnicity, ethnicity, but they're treating them like they're people. Like everybody should just be treated like people.

Madison: (07:28) Yeah.

Monica: (07:29) Yeah. Not like special treatment.

Celia: (07:31) Yeah, exactly don't give me special treatment because I'm a girl or, you know, give this guy a special treatment or a special way of looking at us. Oh, he's the guy so we got it easier. It's like, no, we both worked the same, same amount.

Madison: (07:41) Mhm yeah, I like that you said that because there's, um, a lot of diversity and inclusion programs in place right now that, um, focus on celebrating the differences in, um, different people, which I think that's totally okay to do. But sometimes in the workforce, like you said, we just need to treat everyone as people and encourage them the same way, um, ask what their goals are and get them to the goals. Uh, I was also reading an article came out last week from Forbes, so it basically just talks about, um, the title is, let's see, uh, 'what if workplace diversity is the biggest scam yet.'

Celia: (08:25) Dun dun dun.

Madison: (08:26) Um, basically just saying there's, there's all these programs in place and they're actually, like, a lot of the programs are failing because they're trying to, um, bring people in, celebrate those differences and then people actually feel isolated.

Celia: (08:44) Yeah. It's stigmatizing.

Madison: (08:45) And then, um, they, I don't know, they, they kind of look to those people to create the, like to, um, create the diversity and inclusion programs and like enhance them when it's like, ah, we can all work together on this somehow. Some way. Yeah. So...

Monica: (09:06) Yeah, I was just reading something else too that was saying that, um, as much as like the programs are in place, that since, I think it was like the study started in 2014 looking at the diversity at Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook and Apple. And um, they're saying that now like, and those five, six years, it hasn't really changed that much. Like, um, Apple, they're, they're unchanged at 6% with their diversity. And then, um, Facebook is the only one that has that went up. They have a 23% female workforce now, which is up from 15% in 2014. So, but the other ones like there was really little change or no change at all to the diversity.

Madison: (09:53) That's interesting because that's really the big push for the past couple of years, especially in big companies like that. Um, yeah. I don't know. I don't, this isn't a podcast about us knowing the answer, that's for sure.

Celia: (10:08) But I wonder how if you took a poll in like Google's office or Amazon's office or something along those lines. And how many of those employees, men, woman, any race, if they feel valued or if their culture is inclusive or if it's hostile or stigmatizing, how many of them would say, I like to work here. You know, and it's all about not just having those diversity hires and celebrating their differences, but also celebrating their similarities too. So that's like not stigmatizing and not being like you're the token person now make the difference. You have to empower them and encourage them and make them feel valued. Like what I'm saying matters.

Madison: (10:46) Right. Um, and I mean, I, I do a lot of our sourcing, recruiting, hiring a lot of what I do, all of it. Um, and I, I specifically like I really enjoy when I get, um, like very diverse backgrounds and just diverse people who apply. Um, but for the most part I like to keep it, I like to keep that unconscious bias, like in check. So when I, when I pass along an applicant to the hiring managers, they don't even know who this person is. I just do like first initial, last name. Um, they just see their resume, their qualifications, and then if that person gets passed along to the next to the next, um, stage in the interview, that's when I'm like, heck yeah, that's, that's a woman I'm excited or, or whatever the case may be. So I'm not putting that in their head before a certain stage in the interviewing process.

Monica: (11:51) Yeah, I think that's a good way because whether some people know it or not, like they do form those biases.

Madison: (11:59) Uh, yeah, definitely. Um, but I dunno, I think, I think women in tech can do any just as well, if not better. I was kidding...

Celia: (12:11) But I do also like the way that you go through the hiring process as somebody that was hired, you know, as also a woman and a woman, a woman, you take more time and effort than a lot of men that I've noticed. And you also include like the personality, like our disc assessments and things like that to make sure that we're going to meld well and also bring our own strengths and weaknesses. And it's really nice to see somebody going into the hiring process being like, now let's, let's test your personality and see how well we're going to mesh or how you can do this. And it's really cool just mentally as well being like, these people want to hear what I can do, want to hear what I need help with and have people here that are going to compliment me and empower me and incredible. And that's probably coming from a woman. That's why.

Madison: (12:54) Yeah. I mean I, I love our disc assessments. I don't, I can't say whether they're the best or the worst, but they're just really enlightening to kind of see, we have that disc wheel on our, in the hallway that says kind of shows how we're all like different, different personality types, but all very similar. Yeah. All very similar. And I think that's another thing that became a thing in the past years, which was a hiring for culture fit. Yeah. Um, and now companies are just now kind of getting, Oh, actually we're not going to hire for culture fit. We're going to hire for culture add because we don't want all these same cookie cutter people that doesn't add to our company. Really that doesn't add right. Well it doesn't add diversity but it also, if everyone comes from the same place as the same age, the same race, the same gender, the same ability level. It's like you really don't have any different perspectives for business ideas or brainstorming or really anything like that.

Monica: (14:04) Yeah, I would agree.

Celia: (14:06) Absolutely. Cause you have that one baseline and you're never going to have a lot of growth if you don't have outside opinions and thoughts and processes.

Monica: (14:12) Oo that was good answer.

Madison: (14:16) So that that culture add instead of culture fit. What are you guys, what do you guys think about that?

Celia: (14:24) Yeah, I mean Monica if you...

Monica: (14:26) Yeah. Um, so you were saying the how our disc assessments are all kind of similar. I think I would disagree. I think we're all pretty different. Um, cause we're kind of all over the wheel and I think that plays along with what you were just saying where it's not the culture fits the culture add like we have people like the Ds, the Is, the Ss, the Cs, and all in between. Um, which is nice cause like certain personalities are better for certain positions. Um, but yeah, I think we're all different and like we do compliment each other in different ways. So I think it works out well that we're kind of all over the disc assessment.

Madison: (15:03) Yeah, I agree. Um, I think I was talking to you after we left MAIA um, and I was saying that, so you and Luis are pretty similar, not, not the same, but similar. And in marketing, some of one of the disc assessments was saying that they can make fast decisions on the fly. And then, um, the contrary, there's, uh, some of the techs I don't even know. I'll throw Thomas in there. Um, really likes to get all the facts, analyze it all lines at all, come up with a way to problem solve it, and then he'll give his answer after he knows everything. Um, does it take a little bit longer? Yes. Is there, is it right that marketing can make a split decision and Thomas would like all the facts first. I don't think there's a right or wrong. No, it's just an interesting way his job that's, that's better for that. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it is interesting to see all those things. What do you think about the culture fit versus add?

Celia: (16:13) I think the culture ad is great because like you said before of the stagnation and then you're just really just leveling it out. But I do like the two perspectives of like marketing and Thomas to speak. Um, because if you move too fast and you might miss something or if you move too slow, you'll also miss something. He might miss the opportunity or you might miss a detail which could cause the opportunity. But it's really cool to see like the two different sides of that situation where they're, they could be very close on the disc wheel, but they've got two different forms of thought and it just adds to it and makes it that much cooler because you're seeing it from somebody else's perspective. And a lot of times in the workplace you are kind of in that cubby or in the box and you're getting helped out. Kind of cool.

Monica: (16:55) Well even like Thomas made that document for us, for the 2FA. So you know, he spent all that time like going through it and then pass it along to marketing. And so we kind of were like the Guinea pigs of how the clients wouldn't feel it out. And so it's nice cause like we, you know, found like, not errors but things we slipped up on so then we could give it back to Thomas and he could kind of revise it. So it helps like having different people, different personalities look at, or not personalities but different. Um, yeah, I guess personalities. The disc assessment is personalities. Yeah. So different viewpoints, looking at different things cause not everyone has looks at something the same.

Madison: (17:32) So yeah, I definitely, um, not to say that Thomas can't make a fast decision or marketing never thinks about their disease at all. I mean there is, there's a balance to it, but, um, awesome. So to kind of wrap the podcast up, I have one last question. Um, what as women in the tech space, what advice would you give to other women, um, who are kind of looking to grow their careers either in a tech role or in an, I dunno, like marketing or HR and a support role in the tech world.

Monica: (18:11) Um, I know when you had reached out to me on LinkedIn for this job, when you said I was a tech company and um, that kind of scared me a little bit cause I don't come from a tech background and my knowledge and that is very limited. Um, but I've definitely learned a lot since I started and it's a lot of fun. Um, so I was a little nervous at first when you messaged me and I kinda hesitated on responding, but I thought, you know, I'm just gonna like go with it, see what comes out of it. Um, and I'm really happy that I did. Obviously I got the job and I love working here, so I would just say like, don't be afraid from the start. It just, I don't know, just go for it. See what happens.

Madison: (18:49) Dive in.

(18:50) Yup.

Celia: (18:52) I mean, honestly, if you've got a passion for something, then go for it and don't listen or take whatever anybody says with a grain of salt and know that you can turn those frowns upside down.

Madison: (19:02) Just go for it.

Celia: (19:03) Just go for it. You're just as good as anybody else.

Madison: (19:06) All right.

Monica: (19:07) That's true.

Celia: (19:07) Yeah. I know we're not sponsored by Nike, but just go for it.

Madison: (19:13) Just do it. I mean, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. Don't do it. Um, all right. Well, um, thank you Monica and Celia for joining me for our ladies takeover.

Monica: (19:26) Thanks for hosting.

Madison: (19:27) Definitely it was lots of fun. I was a little nervous at first.

Celia: (19:30) No, you were excited.

Madison: (19:34) We made it. Um, and thank you everyone for listening. We'll see you again next week.

Music: (19:42) [Outro music]