Greg Spencer, president and CEO, Randall Industries LLC Industries, LLC at his home in Oakland.
Race, equity and the role and responsibility of Pittsburgh's business community
Aug 20, 2020, 7:51am EDT Updated: Aug 20, 2020, 8:51am EDT
via Patty Tascarella, Senior Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
George Floyd’s murder has galvanized the nation to confront systemic racism. It is a time when Pittsburgh businesses are both stepping up and looking inward as citizens demand change and justice.
But that’s not to say there’s a clear blueprint as to the course they should take.
“No one’s got it completely perfect,” said Dina Clark, Covestro LLC’s head of diversity and inclusion, North America. “We all have room to grow; we’re all learning. But you have to create a seat at the table.”
While there are no easy solutions, Clark and a cross-section of executives agree it’s crucial for Pittsburgh’s corporate sector to be involved and that, within these companies, the direction and mandate has to come from the CEO.
“Major employers have a critical role, not only because of the number of individuals they employ, but the dollars they spend in the community,” said Lonie Haynes, chief diversity officer at Highmark Health. “We spend vendor dollars — when I talk about purchasing power, billions with vendors throughout the region — and the dollars through grants and our philanthropy. I often say we’re really stewards in the communities where we live and work. Small businesses, academia and nonprofit organizations look for us to set trends and to really be the beacon around best practices.”
Several large organizations in the region have already stepped up financially. The PPG Foundation is donating to multiple organizations addressing racial injustice and doubled its standard employee donation match program through June to support social justice organizations that have a mission focused on racial equalities and anti-racism. Citizens Bank made a $10 million commitment across its footprint. F.N.B. Corp. pledged $250 million, including $100,000 to the Hill District Federal Credit Union. And the largest commitment to date is PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s $1 billion to help end systemic racism and support the economic empowerment of African Americans and low- to moderate-income communities, managed by Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer Richard Bynum.
“It requires our time, our talent, our dollars,” Bynum said. “It requires we continually review ourselves with people who reflect the beautiful diversity that this country represents.”
And while companies are indeed opening the coffers, it takes more than just financial assistance.
“Corporations are resource rich, even though the balance sheet may not show that, and tapping into those resources is critically important,” observed Greg Spencer, president and CEO at Randall Industries LLC and a former executive at United States Steel Corp. and EQT Corp. “They have leadership assets. There are people who know how to plan and can provide support to the community. Every corporation here in Pittsburgh has representation on nonprofit boards.”
That the movement and momentum is occurring in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic begs a question: If companies are to change their very cultures, how can this occur with social distancing and many employees working remotely?
Haynes believes this may prove to be a positive factor.
“I was concerned initially when we started working at home at the end of March, but what I’ve observed and discussed with peer CDOs (chief diversity officers) across the country ... is that phenomenon really may be advantageous for us in that we as a society are very at ease in watching movies, videos, television and
engaging in a media sense with a diverse population,” Haynes said. “And this new work world is very much like that media we absorb on a regular basis. When we talk about diversity, inclusion, equality, it may be easier to have conversations and engage people because we are doing it via Zoom and conference calls. We have the visual piece, you hear people speak, but it’s a bit removed from one-on-one in person where you may be ill at ease because you’re directly in front of someone.”
Susan Yohe, who had been a shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and then served as its first chief diversity and inclusion officer for five years before helping to start the Pittsburgh Legal Diversity & Inclusion Coalition where she is executive director, feels the urgency of the mission “in a very visceral way.”
“We know this is a moment we cannot let pass by without harnessing the passion to do better that is alive right now,” Yohe said.
The Business Times spoke with Haynes, Bynum, Yohe, Clark, Spencer and other executives and community leaders about what businesses can do to help drive the social justice conversation forward and promote diversity, equity and inclusion not only at their own organizations, but across the region.
LONIE HAYNES, chief diversity officer, Highmark Health
This is a pivotal time in our history. We’re in the midst of a trifecta — Covid-19 and the health disparities among diverse populations, communities of color, that existed before but Covid-19 has really borne out; the economic crisis unprecedented since the Great Depression; and social unrest that is anchored in racial injustice and societal history around segregation and discrimination — with the backdrop of what our nation is going through politically.
It’s incumbent upon us to make the changes we really should make when it comes to building a much more inclusive community. My response is for businesses to have candid conversations. You need someone within your organization or someone experienced to facilitate. There are always one-on-one conversations you can have. We, as people, especially Americans, spend a lot of time talking, but we don’t really listen. I’ll use an old analogy: Where do you sit in the lunchroom? We have to ask, who do we spend the majority of our time with? Do they look like us?
Do they have the same background? We need to look at people differently, talk to people who have different backgrounds and have those candid conversations.
This fall will be the first year in history where we’ll have more children of color in kindergarten than white children. It’s a snapshot of the changing demographic of the U.S. By 2050, we’ll be a majority minority country. It already is in Florida, California and Texas. Who are these consumers or patients or members we have to be attuned to and listen to? How can we move forward collectively as a nation, in business or academia, without understanding who we are. It requires you to make the effort to have an understanding. I was in a conversation recently with a Black LGBTQ+ nonbinary transitioning individual. I’ve worked around the LGBTQ+ space, but speaking to someone female transitioning to male who was African American and nonbinary was a whole different conversation, and I had to listen to what this person was saying to engage more empathetically. We group people very quickly and it requires us to have conversations, long ones, sometimes as groups, and stop the easy thing, which is categorizing people, and really look for differences and celebrate those differences.
From a purely business standpoint, we have to facilitate this conversation. We use the tagline, we want people to bring their authentic selves to work, but in many ways, we don’t do this. Are we recruiting, hiring, developing and retaining talent that’s diverse? Are we spending money with diverse vendors, partnering with suppliers that go back and build in diverse communities and who usually hire diverse employees? Are we granting and giving dollars to organizations and entities that have the same mission and vision that we have? I call it the Three Ps — people, purchasing and philanthropy.
There’s an executive in our organization who sits on the board of a nonprofit that was trying to develop a scorecard and didn’t have the money to go out and hire, so they asked if Highmark could help. I reached out to our actuarial group, which does finance and mapping out forecasting, and someone said, “I’ll devote five hours to create a worksheet and template.” It would have cost about $1,500 to $2,500 to hire a consultant but cost us no money, (just) some intellectual talent for five hours. So it’s not only the dollars, but the resources we can lend to nonprofits who are doing work around social justice.
SUSAN YOHE, executive director, Pittsburgh Legal Diversity & Inclusion Coalition
The response of our local business community to the emergency presented by the coronavirus was nothing short of amazing. But the issues of race and social justice in our community are very long-term issues that, quite frankly, we, as mostly white business leaders, have become comfortable living with. The state of our city today when it comes to racial and gender inequality is also an emergency. We need the same urgency brought to the response to these profound and crippling systemic inequalities in our community as was brought to the emergency of the coronavirus.
As one part of our society, business has the same responsibility we all have to move to a more equitable society. Obviously it is only employers who can resolve issues of pay equity and unequal employment opportunities. But even beyond business- centric issues, our society can never resolve its centuries-long struggle to overcome the legacy of racial oppression in our past and the reality of unequal opportunities and outcomes driven by race today if we do not all get involved.
Listen to each other. Learn from each other. And learn how you can be an ally to individuals who may be or feel marginalized, for whatever reason, in your organizations. Creating an inclusive environment creates an engaged workforce, which creates better outcomes. However, this advice must come with a commitment from the top to be equally involved in the project over the long-term and the willingness to support those who want to help.
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney (where Yohe had been chief diversity and inclusion officer for five years) had never had a CDIO before me, and I had never been a CDIO before and so we did a lot of learning together. One thing I learned is that there is a big difference between responding to the present-moment issues that one must respond to in this kind of position and making long-term change. Creating long- term change requires a concentration on a particular goal and a clear and focused process for getting there.
GREG SPENCER, president and CEO, Randall Industries LLC
When this movement came about, after George Floyd’s murder, I sat back and said what can a guy like me do? What should I do? What is my role? And I really went through a significant thought process. I serve on a couple boards; I’m there to advise, make changes and influence things. And I wrote a letter to the CEOs of both companies and to the boards of both and shared with them my background.
I’m a ’60s guy. I grew up in a town where I couldn’t go to restaurants or the community swimming pool because of my color. My college had a co-op program — there were two of us assigned to Blue Cross Blue Shield in Boston, and we ended up living in the ghetto. We couldn’t get an apartment in Cambridge. I was in Boston in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. I saw the demonstration; I was in that demonstration. But I came back and went into the service and faced as much racism in the Air Force as I did in Boston. This is how I felt; this is what made me view the world a certain way.
Now I’m considered privileged. I have a role to play. That is to work at the board level on opening up ideas and discussions. I’m action-oriented, and I think what companies and organizations should do is look at the very top and try to get a common understanding of what the issues are. ... Companies need to start at the top, look at how we present things to the board and how the organization and management present things to the board.
In 1968, I was young; I was disappointed and frustrated. I didn’t see how anything could change. This movement, I’m more optimistic because I really believe people are looking at what’s going on and what has gone on and, as more and more discussions come about, folks are more aware. I have good friends who asked what they should be doing. I said, “If you hear a dirty joke about a woman, or a Black person or a Jewish person, don’t laugh. Say, ‘That’s not acceptable.’”
I think everyone is trying to figure out how to respond in this moment and, because of that, because where they live and work is called the worst city for African Americans than any place in the U.S., we’re too proud of a folk to accept that. This is going to take awhile, but it will make us better. When the community comes together and works on these issues, we’ll be better. When we get our head around what needs to change to move those communities forward, we’ll be better because of it.
DINA CLARK, head of diversity and inclusion, North America, Covestro LLC
This is truly the time businesses need to step up and say this is the time to address systemic racism and what’s going on and take action. You’re all in — or not. A lot of people are doing knee jerk reactions. What I find offensive is check the box.
It’s not someone jumping on the bandwagon. It’s not a program, not a project, not a pilot: It’s a business imperative that has a framework to really support that, to address it in a way that’s sustainable. You have to be able to measure the evolution of your effort.
One thing to think about, where businesses fall short and employees may be struggling, is people either don’t want or know how to meet them where they are. I can tell you when George Floyd was killed, I was not fine that day. I’m probably still not fine. I know others are not fine. And we have to have a space where we say to our leadership, “I’m competent, I can still function, but I’m not fine and I need you to understand how that plays out in the workplace. Going to and from work may be different. I’m targeted. I may be seen differently. It may not be safe.”
People are tired, tired of watching things continue to occur. But there’s also inspiration. Maybe this time will be the catalyst for change for business leaders to have an innovative, prepared and diverse workforce and never compromise on talent. We’ve already been doing some of this work; we could really push things forward, and Pittsburgh is in dire need.
Do you have a framework? Don’t push this off on HR. This is a business imperative. You have to do this with communication. The clarity needs to come first and foremost from top leadership. There’s a German saying, the fish rots from the head. You have to have someone say what are your actual feelings about racism and have a very candid discussion. They’re going to be setting the tone. If they’re not setting the tone to address systemic racism, it’s not going to make its way into the bones of the company for other people to support. You should be listening to your employees. This is not a quick fix.
I’m proud of Covestro. Even though we have a long way to go, we haven’t gone backward. There’s an African proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Far takes muscle, stamina and pain. They have to hear some ugly truths. But that builds the muscle to make a difference.
