Dr. Steve Safier’s Integrated Talent Management class welcomed distinguished guest speaker, Coretha Rushing. Coretha is an experienced Global HR Executive, Board member and Business Advisor whose leadership experience includes having served as the Chief People Officer for the Coca-Cola Company and CHRO for Equifax. Coretha is well-known for her business savvy, commitment to DEIA and service to the global Society of Human Resource Professionals (SHRM), where she served as both the Board Chair and Board Chair Emeritus for 350,000+ members.
Thank you, Coretha, for sharing with us your experience and insights around DEI. We've summarized some key points from our Q&A here.
How are Boards and Chief Human Resource Officers thinking differently about DEIA today?
- “There is a lot of reflection about the DEIA positions of organizations, desired demographics and goals for the future to best serve customers. A lot of organizations have been forced to look at DEI differently. For any business trying to grow its market share, as much as it may be a nice-to-do to build an inclusive and supportive workplace, it is also a business imperative”
- “It all starts with the customer and the reality is that customers are diverse, and businesses are operating globally. Companies should use their data and look at the population they are servicing to ensure their workforce is representative.”
Where should HCM professionals be focusing?
- “It seems like everyone is committed to improving representation, which is a great thing, but I’ve been challenging people to look at issues associated with culture. If the current workforce does not feel they can bring their best selves to work, it will be tough to keep people with different experiences and backgrounds. It’s like filling a tub with water, if I go out and I fill the tub as quickly as I can with diverse employees, but the stopper on the bottom is out, which would represent bad culture, then the tub keeps draining.
- “We should focus on workforce experience. When we have a bad experience, we tend to tell many more people about that bad experience than we talk about a positive experience. We need to bring people into an inclusive, welcoming environment.”
