Wal-Mart’s Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, on the Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion

Are you under 6 feet tall? Do you speak with an accent? Do you have a hair color other than blonde? Have you been told you have a baby face? If so, you represent a population that’s been shown to be underpaid compared with taller, blonder, less-accented peers.Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, executive vice president and treasurer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., used this series of questions in her BRAC Signature Speaker Series presentation on Tuesday to illustrate that we are all victims of unconscious bias — including more obvious racial, gender, orientation and religious biases — and that we all perpetrate it against others. It’s human nature. But with a few adjustments, we can correct this course and celebrate diversity and inclusion in the workplace with very successful results, Babineaux-Fontenot said.

The Diversity Imperative

Babineaux-Fontenot opened her presentation with an anecdote from her college days in Lafayette, saying a man approached her and said he could tell just by looking at her that she came from money and was an only child. In truth, her grandparents were sharecroppers and her parents did not finish high school.Babineaux-Fontenot noted that she has 107 siblings through birth, adoption and foster care, and that her parents are in the Adoption Hall of Fame. She said this experience exposed her to multiple races, genders, disabilities, religions and personalities, making diversity second nature to her. This situation, of course, is not always the case in the workforce.Wal-Mart celebrates the differences among its employees, setting high expectations for employees, getting to know them and then leveraging their differences so the whole is more than the sum of the parts, she said.She said she likes to assess strengths, honestly evaluate gaps and then hire to fill them, and that she constantly seeks people who can bring another dimension to her team. The result is that her team members don’t look alike, think alike or talk alike, and all get to talk and be heard.

“I’m Not Everything, but I’m Really Something.”

Babineaux-Fontenot noted that we all must remember we have strengths and weaknesses, and that if we’re honest about them, we can build upon them. That means finding the right tool to paint your office, not taking a hammer that’s in hand and pretending it’s a paintbrush, she said.In the workplace, this means using tools such as assessments to get to know your employees and discover skills gaps on your team, then hiring with those gaps in mind. She said she embraces a philosophy of “I’m not everything, but I’m really something” to build a team with minimal gaps.

Hiring Without Bias

There are over 150 scientifically acknowledged biases, Babineaux-Fontenot says. We may proudly state we aren’t racist, then unconsciously favor tall, thin candidates over stockier people. The key is to acknowledge such biases and try to eliminate them. She recommends an implicit-association test produced by Harvard researchers.Acknowledging your biases is a first step toward removing them from the hiring process, especially the pre-interview selection process, she said. Babineaux-Fontenot recommends the following steps:

1. Write out all the core competencies for the job before you interview anyone. Include an evaluation space for “brings unique perspective to the team.”
2. Allow only one intangible objective, like cultural fit or executive presence. These intangible qualities are often where bias creeps in.
3. Rank and weight the competencies in advance.
4. Have someone who is not a part of the interview process remove names and school names from resumes. Babineaux-Fontenot said she has encountered many people who erroneously believe students went to historically black colleges and universities because they couldn’t get accepted elsewhere. Removing school names can help to eliminate that issue as well as affinity bias, when you give someone credit merely because they went to a school you attended.
5. Evaluate candidates solely on tangible competencies first to get through to the interview.
6. Once you’ve hired someone, keep up a culture of idea diversity. Any time you’re the highest-ranking person meeting with a team about a challenge, present the challenge and then ask for ideas before sharing your viewpoint. This will eliminate a chorus of nodding heads from people who don’t want to disagree with the boss. Babineaux-Fontenot said she often finds she makes adjustments to her original idea based on what her team delivers, and it lets them contribute and feel heard.

This process should get you a more diverse team that’s equipped to meet many different challenges, she said. By leveraging everyone’s strengths, your group will be strong and successful.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.