Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Been looking forward
Speaker 1: to this all week. Uh, and first of all, I
Speaker 1: just want to kind of set the stage. We've got
Speaker 1: some news this week on the diversity front. It was
Speaker 1: announced at Rosalind Brewer she's going to take over a
Speaker 1: CEO of Walgreen's Boots Alliance. That's gonna happen in March,
Speaker 1: making the three largest U S pharmacy chains now led
Speaker 1: by women for the first time. So we have definitely
Speaker 1: seen some progress when it comes to women in the
Speaker 1: c suite and at the top of companies, but they're
Speaker 1: still making up less than six percent of CEOs of
Speaker 1: S and P five hundred companies. Let's get into this um.
Speaker 1: Delighted to have with us Kara Helander. She's managing director
Speaker 1: and chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer over at the Carlisle
Speaker 1: Group based in Washington, and that's where she joins us
Speaker 1: on the phone. Also with us as Bloomberg News Finance
Speaker 1: and Wall Street reporter Shnelli Boss, She's joining us in
Speaker 1: our Interactive Brokers studio. So car is so great to
Speaker 1: have you here with me and Shnally. I know you
Speaker 1: guys have talked a lot over the past, but let's
Speaker 1: just kick it off with where are we when it
Speaker 1: comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace? Have we
Speaker 1: made significant progress in your view? You know? Carol, thank
Speaker 1: you first of all. Um, delightful to be here, but
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, there are we have made progress. Um.
Speaker 1: The objective numbers show that we're making movement, but it's
Speaker 1: slow and it's something that we are as a community,
Speaker 1: business community, and certainly at Carlisle, we're very focused on
Speaker 1: and as I have spoken with Shnali about, part of
Speaker 1: the reason that we're very focused on it is it
Speaker 1: really does lead to value creation to improve business performance,
Speaker 1: you know, and we're we're about making the portfolio companies
Speaker 1: that we invest in stronger and this is definitely part
Speaker 1: of our value creation for them, and it's also part
Speaker 1: of making sure that our organization has the right skills,
Speaker 1: that perspective, the diversity of thought that we need to
Speaker 1: really make the best investment decision. Carl you mentioned that
Speaker 1: the change is slow. I'm wondering what is the friction?
Speaker 1: What are some of the reasons that some of this
Speaker 1: progress that are being slowed down. You know, I think
Speaker 1: that this is it's about a couple of things. One,
Speaker 1: it's about UM changing and perhaps improving the way that
Speaker 1: we have traditionally done things like higher people UM. And secondly,
Speaker 1: it's about helping people see and improve the ways that
Speaker 1: we make decisions so that we are as objective and
Speaker 1: unbiased as pros possible. And you know, I'll give you
Speaker 1: a couple of examples for us at Carlisle. UM. What
Speaker 1: we've done is put a lot of focus on making
Speaker 1: sure that we're improving how we attract and UM recruit people. UM.
Speaker 1: For example, we require that every interview slate has at
Speaker 1: least two diverse candidates. UM. That's based on some evidence
Speaker 1: that that makes a difference. But we've also become more
Speaker 1: consistent in how we're evaluating people against you know, the
Speaker 1: most important criteria for that role. UM. And that helps
Speaker 1: us all just make sure that we're hiring the person
Speaker 1: who's the best qualified, perhaps not the person that we
Speaker 1: immediately connect with as readily. UM. It almost sounds a
Speaker 1: little bit like and forgive me, I just wanted a
Speaker 1: bit like we've had a lot of discussions around Bloomberg
Speaker 1: about should we bring back quotas and it has helped
Speaker 1: bring more women into the workplace, But what do you
Speaker 1: how do you feel about that? You know, I think
Speaker 1: it I think first of all, you can set aspirational targets,
Speaker 1: but I think what's really important is setting um measuring
Speaker 1: the quality of the process right so that you are
Speaker 1: if that example of having at least two diverse candidates
Speaker 1: weates is important because you are then saying we want
Speaker 1: you to make sure that you're running the most quality
Speaker 1: process possible. And we know that's part of it because
Speaker 1: if you haven't cultivated that, then you haven't really reached
Speaker 1: out and identified the best talent in the market. Speaking
Speaker 1: of measurement, you know, as a reporter, we try to
Speaker 1: look for everyone's diversity data and traditionally it's been so hard.
Speaker 1: It's so hard, Um, what what are these difficulties about?
Speaker 1: Why is it so difficult for so many companies to
Speaker 1: disclose the product the progress they're making? You know, I
Speaker 1: can't speak for other companies. What I can speak to
Speaker 1: is Carlisle and the fact that this is a strategic priority,
Speaker 1: and like any strategic priority, we measure it um and
Speaker 1: so and it's not new we've been doing this for
Speaker 1: a while and that's important because, um, we really need
Speaker 1: to be able to do that to drive change. And
Speaker 1: I think the other thing I would emphasize is that
Speaker 1: we're pretty comprehensive in what we're tracking. Just as I
Speaker 1: spoke about, you know, the gender equity index that we
Speaker 1: we were part of Bloomberg's Gender Equity Index. Um, you
Speaker 1: know that is certainly important, but we also track metrics
Speaker 1: around a broader range of diversity in our workforce. You know,
Speaker 1: we define diversity as being including the meaningful differences that
Speaker 1: are in our people and in our portfolio companies and
Speaker 1: in the markets we serve you. And we're talking to
Speaker 1: the break that you know, measuring diversity, measuring inclusion, like,
Speaker 1: there's different things. You're measuring women, you're measuring race. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of things. There's a lot of things, and
Speaker 1: race tends to be very difficult as well. There are
Speaker 1: different types of rules around how disclosures are made and
Speaker 1: car I'm really interested in how you think about this
Speaker 1: issue and how when you're thinking about disclosure, how you're
Speaker 1: going beyond gender and looking at all forms of diversity.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so, Tonal, You're absolutely right, different locations, different geographies
Speaker 1: by law and also what's meaningful in terms of diversity differs.
Speaker 1: We UM. We definitely collect information that we can by
Speaker 1: law UM, and in fact, we've been expanding so we
Speaker 1: can collect gender, we collect race, ethnicity in the US UM,
Speaker 1: but we've also been looking at ways that we can
Speaker 1: expand the information that we can collect on our employees
Speaker 1: so we can better meet their needs. One great example,
Speaker 1: as we recently allowed or helped our employees UM with
Speaker 1: the ability to self identify lgbt Q plus status, and
Speaker 1: what that means is because we better understand the makeup
Speaker 1: of our workforce, we were better able to serve them
Speaker 1: with the benefits that they need. UM. We recently announced
Speaker 1: enhanced fertility benefits that are really quite cutting edge, and
Speaker 1: in part that information helped us to do that. UM.
Speaker 1: We're also but we're on a continued effort to UM
Speaker 1: understand what we can collect. We also collect data on
Speaker 1: the boards of our portfolio companies UM, and we do
Speaker 1: this because our data shows that those companies that have
Speaker 1: more diverse boards outperform those that don't. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: that for a second. Car I just wanted to chime
Speaker 1: in here because I wanted to explain. Carlisle owns a
Speaker 1: lot of companies across the country, across the globe, and
Speaker 1: so do many of your peers. When it comes to
Speaker 1: the portfolio companies, what is what are some of the
Speaker 1: areas where you can make the most progress? Um, The
Speaker 1: board is a is a key area because the board
Speaker 1: sets the tone, it sets the strategy and direction for
Speaker 1: the company, and so we are very focused on that.
Speaker 1: And in fact, as we mentioned, those boards that are
Speaker 1: diverse in our portfolio show average earnings growth annual earnings
Speaker 1: growth that's nearly twelve percent higher than those that don't
Speaker 1: have a diverse board. And so that's clearly part of
Speaker 1: our value creation strategy. And we set a goal of
Speaker 1: having diverse directors on the boards of our controlled companies
Speaker 1: within two years of our ownership. And you know, this
Speaker 1: is a great example we're measuring and keeping track of.
Speaker 1: It really makes a difference, um in of the new
Speaker 1: directors added to those company boards were diverse. You know.
Speaker 1: So it's that old it does what what what matters?
Speaker 1: You measure, and so we're definitely measuring. I ask and
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like these conversations we've been having,
Speaker 1: not just with you, but with so many people for
Speaker 1: a long long time about diversity and more women, more minorities,
Speaker 1: whether it's boards, whether it's senior positions, Um, why is
Speaker 1: it taking so long? First of all, it takes intention.
Speaker 1: You've got to embed and reinforce this in everything you do.
Speaker 1: It's not just one prod checked, it's not just one
Speaker 1: sponsorship or one statement. And it has to be comprehensive
Speaker 1: and it has to be led from the top. And
Speaker 1: I think you know our CEO q S only. He
Speaker 1: is the chair of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Counsel
Speaker 1: and he is committed to driving this. I give you
Speaker 1: a good example. We have specific action plans around diversity
Speaker 1: equity inclusions for each one of our funds and our functions,
Speaker 1: and progress against those plans gets reviewed in quarterly business
Speaker 1: reviews just like any other priority. What we see is
Speaker 1: when you do that, you can make progress. You know,
Speaker 1: last year in the United States, six of everyone we
Speaker 1: hired into the firm was either female or an ethnic minority.
Speaker 1: So you can make progress with consistent intentional effort and
Speaker 1: focus and using some smart strategy. So some of these
Speaker 1: things are really hard to measure, and when we look
Speaker 1: at for example the Bloomberg Gender Equally Index. What we're
Speaker 1: seeing is one of the things we measure is inclusive culture.
Speaker 1: Some of these things so feel so intangible. How do
Speaker 1: you measure things like that? It is intangible, and we
Speaker 1: can we do we put the measures in place that
Speaker 1: we can and that can be measures from employee sentiment surveys,
Speaker 1: it can be tracking how talents is moving through your
Speaker 1: organization and are is the career trajectory progressing at the
Speaker 1: same rate? Um you know, I think one of the
Speaker 1: other things that we've done is we've equipped all of
Speaker 1: our people with an understanding of what unconscious biases, how
Speaker 1: it can show up, but more importantly, what they can
Speaker 1: do in their day to day to mitigate it. And
Speaker 1: I think you know we've had of our employees go
Speaker 1: through that session. So that's one of the measures we're
Speaker 1: raising awareness and a quick being people to contribute to
Speaker 1: him inclusive culture. So one thing I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you because one of the things that car we've talked about,
Speaker 1: and there's been reports out too, about women being set
Speaker 1: back in the workforce because of the pandemic. What have
Speaker 1: you seen on that front, whether it's you know, the
Speaker 1: struggles within your within Carlisle or your portfolio companies, you know,
Speaker 1: more broadly, I mean, what are your thoughts about that
Speaker 1: are just more broadly in society, you know, I think, Um,
Speaker 1: there's no question, UM, we've all been juggling and challenge.
Speaker 1: I had a colleague who ran into her closet to
Speaker 1: do a conference call because her kids were making noise outside. Right,
Speaker 1: we's all been living that life, um, I And I
Speaker 1: think you know, we're very attentive to UM making sure
Speaker 1: that we're taking that into consideration in how we're managing folks. UM.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the point about inclusion
Speaker 1: and shannali one of the other things that you know,
Speaker 1: for example, we're beginning to measures who is on the
Speaker 1: deal teams that are in due diligence for those you know,
Speaker 1: those key companies, who's managing those companies sort of it's
Speaker 1: measuring not only the outcomes, but what are the what
Speaker 1: are the what's the access and opportunity that helps advance
Speaker 1: somebody's career and are we giving those equally throughout the
Speaker 1: organization or cross population. UM, in terms of women and
Speaker 1: the challenges faced with COVID, there's no question, UM, and
Speaker 1: I think what we're trying to do is be attentive,
Speaker 1: equip our managers to be aware and manage effectively. In
Speaker 1: light of that, well, Kara, I hope we can continue
Speaker 1: this conversation with you, because I think it's an important
Speaker 1: one and the more we talk about it and it's conversations,
Speaker 1: but as you says, it's intentions, setting intentions and actually
Speaker 1: deliberate actions that are making a difference and we can
Speaker 1: hear it in terms of what you guys are doing
Speaker 1: at Carlisle. Thank you so much. Have a good weekend,
Speaker 1: Kara Hilander, she's managing director, Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer
Speaker 1: at the Carlisle Group. And our thanks to our own
Speaker 1: Shenali basic important conversation and let's keep this going. Let's
Speaker 1: keep it going. Yeah, it's really really important,