Embracing Diversity and Inclusion - Acquiring the Best Talent is Good for Business - Susan Schoenfeld
Susan Schoenfeld — CEO of Wealth Legacy Advisors LLC, collaborated on an important topic with Brett Dearing of Cerity Partners. Their co-authored article, Embracing Diversity and Inclusion: Acquiring the Best Talent is Good for Business was published in the March 2021 issue of Trust & Estates magazine’s Family Business Report.
Susan is a public speaker and thought partner to families of wealth and their advisors, which make her family business insights in this article extremely interesting.
The article highlights how events of 2020 have been significant in arousing the need for diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace — specifically in family businesses. When thinking about an organization in terms of hiring, the mission should be to hire the best talent. This is possible only if your pool of candidates is broad — taking into consideration diverse individuals. Without the best talent, a family business can be overtaken by competition.
The authors further discuss how implementing diversity search initiatives can curb long term business inertia, allow the ability to grow, and help to expand and execute at a high level in the future. They highlight an alarming trend where candidates are often filtered based on the sound or appearance of their name on their resume — this practice can single-handedly break down efforts to hire the best talent.
The importance of gender diversity is another topic of discussion. The benefits of having women in the C-suite and on boards are highlighted — most prominent being greater diversity of thought and perspective.
The article ends with the risks and challenges which occur when family businesses begin to implement diversity and inclusion policies. These include overcoming initial resistance, struggling with the creation of long term plans, and finally the power of complacency.
“When fully adopted and successfully executed, diversity initiatives are truly an opportunity to help solve some of the biggest issues facing family businesses.”
