The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today's answer to the question, “How can you play a role in advancing workplace equality?” is written by Cliff Johnson, cofounder and chief development officer of Vacasa.
I've always believed that businesses are strongest when they foster diversity and equality. Working with people of different ages, races, genders, and backgrounds gives you valuable insights and often leads to unique, disruptive solutions. This ultimately benefits your bottom line and helps you attract the best talent from all walks of life, but creating this type of environment is not easy. As the co founder and chief development officer of a global company, I have learned a few important lessons:
Ask the hard questions.
First, understand that equality and diversity aren't the same thing. Plenty of businesses pride themselves on having diverse junior and entry-level teams, but this diversity isn't reflected at the higher levels of the company. Even the most well-intentioned companies can improve when it comes to equality.
It's also important to consider socioeconomic status, educational opportunities, and whether your employees come from blue- or white-collar backgrounds. For business leaders, recruiting and operating in economically disadvantaged communities is a powerful way to foster equality.
You know that when you're recruiting, it's essential to meet with a wide range of candidates. But you also have to dismantle your own expectations of who your ideal candidate might be -- expectations that are deeply rooted and sometimes painful to confront. We all have assumptions about how people in different roles are supposed to look, talk, dress, and behave, and these assumptions absolutely influence who we hire.
Have you ever assumed that the young woman with the Spanish accent was the administrative assistant, rather than the attorney? Or that an engineer wouldn't also be a great writer? Or that a woman at a tech company worked in marketing or HR, rather than finance or product development? These often-subconscious assumptions can keep even the most well-meaning business leaders from building a truly equal work environment.
Create a work environment that fosters success equally.
In general, to achieve equality, businesses should strive to neutralize differences between employees. For example, there's a perception that women who want to have families will leave the workforce before they get to the top. There are complex, nuanced reasons why women are more likely than their male peers to become stay-at-home parents. From my perspective, though, the work environment plays an important role. If we don't create a workplace that's conducive to parenting and supportive of both men and women with families, we'll lose amazing people.