Company Culture and the Bottom Line

It seems like you can’t turn on the news without hearing new headlines of sexual harassment misconduct these days.  The Wall Street Journal and New York times have front page stories with big names like Weinstein and Louis C.K. being outed for their behavior.   Women are speaking out about secret behind the scenes support systems that have been created in the tech industry.  Stories about groups such as “Glass Ceiling Club” created in the 90’s by a group of ambitious women who worked for Bear Stearns and wanted to make the work environment more female friendly are being revealed. It feels as though there is a shift in the workplace culture.  Every industry is being affected. Allegations of sexual harassment have led to the resignations of Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups, and the dismissal of Steve Jurvetson of DFJ, venture capitalists once-celebrated kingmakers are facing pressure from founders and limited partners to clean up their act. 

Board room meetings are centered around how to proceed. Should they have a company Christmas party?  Should they put in new policies on dating?  How do they proceed so that the talk around the “water cooler” is about work and not the scandalous behavior within their walls?  Should they stop mentoring women?   Should they avoid the problem? Can they just do away with diversity in their employees?   The answers may not seem easy, but it’s important that solutions are found and ignoring the problem or depleting the talent pool won’t fix the problem and it will create long term problems.

To be a strong company you need diverse talent pool, strong leaders and strong teams. Putting in the work to build a culture that supports men and women assures long term growth and an ability to compete.    Companies that take the culture issue seriously are playing the long game. They know to succeed that they want to be the strongest competitors.   They are willing to put in the resources to be proactive by evaluating their procedures, their people and their systems and finding ways to make a strong culture of integrity.  Companies that wait until they have an issue, are then working on crisis management.   They are reacting and they you are bound to lose time, respect and resources which affect your bottom.

It isn’t enough to have an online sexually harassment training program. It’s a great gesture, but in a report last year, the United States Equal Opportunity Commission found that much of that training was ineffective and that workplace harassment was widely unreported.  What would be more effective when combating issues is finding ways to encourages transparency through conversations that allow persons to have candor without retaliation.  And there needs to be a clear response to that information that includes verifying the validity, but that also considers the level of power the person being accused has over those that are investigating the issue. Which is why Y-Vonne Hutchinson the founder of a diversity solutions firm was quoted in wire as saying, “Right now, the accountability measures that exist within companies are not sufficient. I generally recommend having a third party—whether that be an ombudsman or some other reviewer— for claims.”

The answer is not to stick our heads in the sand.  The answer is to create new expectations within companies for conduct.  This will require that everyone is educated on the ethics and etiquette expectations within their workplace.  And it requires you to expect a high level of integrity within those persons that you deem leaders within the company. With the goal to be to build a culture that will support a workplace that is successful and holds people accountable. And that will make the bottom line soar.