Kendall Harrell
VP, People & Culture
Caribou Coffee
Kendall Harrell, vice president of people and culture, had actively avoided diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) as key components of his work until he found his calling at Caribou Coffee.
“There was a fear of tokenism and not wanting to be the assumptive leader of DE&I, because I'm a Black male in the HR world. There was a need and desire to validate my own professional value to an organization, in its growth, fiscal health and cultural health, and not have that solely be tied to diversity and inclusion,” said Harrell.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are tied to nearly every aspect of the customer and employee experience -- there is no longer a need to create a business case for such programs. The data are well-recognized and irrefutable: companies that have more diverse teams will drive increased revenue.
Reflecting on why Caribou felt like the right place lead DE&I, Harrell said, “I went through my own realization that this is the place where I can help bring greater change from a diversity standpoint, and be proud of leading it in an organization that I think has all of the assets to be able to do it well. And as a leader, I have reached a point personally and professionally where I have embraced the perspective I can bring to D&I.”
Outside of being the “right thing to do,” Harrell suggests that a company should think about the reason they want to focus on DE&I. Is it for the shareholders? Is it to avoid bad media coverage or bolster your organization's reputation?
Or, are you doing it for your people?
Becoming Inclusive by Design
“We started it really by wanting to listen to the organization, and what we discovered was there was so much for us to learn,” he said.
One population that was disproportionately affected by non-inclusive systems were transgender employees. During an all-company meeting, an employee directly and emphatically asked when they were going to start honoring preferred names.
“She said, ‘You have a significant contingency of transgender employees that essentially find themselves having to come out every day, if not multiple times a day,’ and at first, I wasn't clear what she was referring to,” said Harrell.
This revelation was pivotal. While general managers created work-arounds at the store level to help their transgender employees feel comfortable and bring their whole selves to work, adjusting those processes ad-hoc was merely a band aid, and it didn’t create the environment of pervasive inclusion Caribou aspires to at an organizational level.
“It was inspiring, and also embarrassing. We had to ask ourselves, how did we not know that this is going on,” he said.
Once they addressed the system and made it easier to honor preferred names, the impact was huge, with some employees saying they felt as if it were their first day at work again. By updating their internal systems to honor preferred names, they were able to ensure the preferred names appear on schedules and on the printed receipts customers receive, Caribou was able to make a small change with a large impact on the feeling of belonging.
Who Are You at Your Core?
Many organizations struggle with making DE&I “sticky.” Whether a DE&I program sticks is largely determined by its integration into organizational culture. Do such efforts reflect an organic desire to grow, or do they just feel like compliance?
“These programs have real stickiness and start to really get ingrained and become part of the way a company operates when there is an unapologetic intention around doing what's right for your organization,” said Harrell.
A key piece of advice Harrell has to offer to organizations rethinking their DE&I strategy: don’t fall into the trap of doing what you think you’re supposed to do.
“As leaders in our organizations, we have to understand and embrace the scrutiny all of our practices should face. When you start to contemplate what that means, it can be really daunting, and it can start to expose us because many of us have built our careers off these processes, these systems, and often these assumptions,” said Harrell. Challenging this status quo and embracing the opportunity to do what’s right requires grace, humility and patience, but it’s also essential to evolve culture in a meaningful, sustainable way.
What this work ultimately means is we have a lot of deconstruction to do."
Battling Bias
Bias becomes ingrained in our formative years, and many institutions and systems are inherently not inclusive. Biases around whether certain names can be attributed to a certain race or gender can impact that candidate’s ability to make it to the next step in an interview, for example.
Addressing bias takes courage and time, and while the work can feel daunting, avoid trying to do everything at once. Instead, focus on what impacts can be made through incremental changes, and listen to what the workforce tells you is necessary to achieve a feeling of belonging — which requires a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.
“We are doing the right work, right now. As we continue down this path, we're going to continue to do things we are really proud of. And we also know we can't do everything, but at the same time, we aren’t imposing limits on what we are willing to rebuild,” said Harrell.
Creating a forum for employees to tell their stories and express their needs is critical to discovering what changes need to be made and understanding how your organization can best support the unique group of employees who are foundational to the business. There is no singular way to evaluate the work being done in the DE&I space; Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), taking action on employee feedback, hiring outside consultants to evaluate the efficacy of the program, and community outreach and support are all parts of a larger movement toward a better, more inclusive future of work.
“There are companies out there doing some amazing things that have just taught us what's possible, and I'm just happy Caribou Coffee is a company that can be part of the conversation and part of the change.”
Special thanks to Kendall Harrell and Caribou Coffee.
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