Colt's Keri Gilder on why inclusion is still a 'strategic imperative'

Keri Gilder, CEO, Colt Technology Services, explains why diversity, equity and inclusion programs are an important part of the company's growth strategy and how she thinks AI will impact opportunity within the workplace.

TRANSCRIPT

Joanne Taaffe: Hi, I'm Joanne Taaffe from TM Forum. I'm here with my colleague Dawn Bushaus, and we're delighted to welcome Keri Gilder, CEO of Colt Technology Services. Keri, you've joined us to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion, and your timing is impeccable. Many companies are reassessing the value of diversity, equity, inclusion programs, and some are even being phased out. There are some notable exceptions, such as Apple; its shareholders voted in February to retain the company's DEI program after it was challenged. At Colt historically, you've had a very strong focus on DEI, and we're interested in finding out more about why it's important to you and how it's evolving and why.

Keri Gilder: Joanne, thank you for having me today on this podcast. This is one of my favorite subjects to talk about, and you're absolutely correct. Colt has been, and continues to be, committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. I believe, as the CEO of this company, that it's a strategic imperative for us to grow and for us to remain competitive in the industry and this is one of the elements that enables that. I think sometimes companies forget that gender diverse leadership teams are 45% more likely to report an increase in market share and are 70% more likely to capture new markets than those that are less diverse. And if those statistics don't tell the reason why this should be a part of your strategic imperatives and your strategic plan, then I don't know what does.

Dawn Bushaus: Keri, how do you measure the success of programs within Colt and what are some of the more innovative things you've done?

Keri Gilder: I would say metrics associated with DEI are quite difficult. So, when you think about DEI and the programs that you put in place, one measurement you can use is employee engagement. You may not be able to identify whether one program or not had an impact on it, but you can look at an overall engagement score and see if you're driving an inclusive culture.

And I believe when you focus on inclusion, even prior to diversity, I think your engagement, from an employee perspective, is going to go up, and it's one of the majors that we look at very often. We do pull surveys throughout the year, as well as annual surveys, we do listening sessions with our ambassadors and I think all of this input enables us to understand, are we driving an inclusive culture that is allowing engagement across the company.

The other metric that we still use, which we created with TM Forum and Bain a few years back, is a diversity and inclusion score. We measure diversity within the company but also - as far as we can for the areas that employees are comfortable letting us know, where they participate in those employee resource groups, or where they are comfortable giving us the data - we can measure our level of diversity in certain areas.

But inclusion is harder, and through the TM Forum DEI score that we created, we were able to get three questions that can determine your level of inclusion on a company basis. And we still have those questions within our employee ... survey, and we still utilize them as a key indicator as to whether we're moving in the right direction. I would say those are two major measurements that we use to let us know whether the programs that we're driving are the right ones and whether the engagement is at the level that we need it to be.

Joanne Taaffe: You mentioned focusing on inclusion prior to diversity, and I was just wondering why you put inclusion first? My thinking is you can't really have inclusion if you don't already have diversity.

Keri Gilder: I actually disagree with that. I think if you don't focus on inclusion and you focus on diversity without inclusion, then actually your diversity isn't going to work. It'll fall apart. And so, what you really need to think about is, how can I create a culture and environment that actually values different perspectives, different opinions, that thought diversity that enables those growth metrics I talked about for the business earlier.

I'll give you one artifact that came out of the initial measurement when we first ran the pilot of the TM Forum DEI score, and it was one that I didn't expect. We ran the pilot, the survey went out to the employee base, and what actually came back was “I actually don't feel, as an employee of Colt, that I have the opportunity for promotion because I don't speak English as a first language”.

And I thought 'interesting, that's not what I expected'. But when 90% of my employee base has English as a second language, and the headquarters is based in an English-speaking country it’s not rocket science to understand that is the feeling that was out there.

We immediately changed the way that we communicate, the way that we engage. We put closed captioning on, we enabled translation to be happening in more of the challenging languages, like Japanese, and we also started building in different tools to enable real time translation.

Because we were no longer using English as our immediate language with the teams the next time we ran the survey, that no longer existed, our engagement score went up. Now it wasn't just that we have this massive, diverse team that's in 34 countries all over the world, but now they all feel that they can be included in career progression regardless of the background that they have or the language that they speak.

And that's just one example of many, when we think about diversity, we think about attributes, right? We think about physical attributes between men and women or transgender, we think about age, we think about whether someone is a veteran or not and those, I think, are definitely attributes... So, the question is, how do you actually make sure that regardless of the background or the makeup of your employee, they feel like they can be a part of the growth process? As far as their career, and as far as the company that they're working for.

Dawn Bushaus: You mentioned gender equity, and I'm wondering are you happy with Colt’s progress there? I would say, and I look back, we talked a couple of years ago about this topic, and I think at the time, there were only five women who were in the CEO role within telcos, and I think I can count at least seven now. So, are we heading in the right direction?

Keri Gilder: Yeah, I think I was the fifth. I remember distinctly that I was the fifth female CEO to come into the industry, and it was a very small space at that time, I do think we've made some progress because we have seen more female representation in the CEO space. For Colt, we've done well, because I very much focus on team dynamics and when I hire executives, I do a multitude of cultural and personality-based analysis to make sure that the team dynamics are going to work. And that always includes an element of assurance associated with diversity and so if you look at my management team, it's 50/50, between men and women and we also have various levels of different diversity as well. We have neurodiversity, we have LGBTQ+ diversity, we have racial diversity, and we have age diversity. So, I think if you look at my management team, we are probably the best representation of diversity in the industry.

That being said, I think we're doing quite well at the management layers, [but] where I think we still need some to do some work is in the STEM, the operations, the engineering kind of areas. Right now, we're at 33% representation of women, and where we found we're still struggling to hire and also retain women is in those more technical roles. And I think this is even more at threat as we look at some of the next generation technologies that are coming on, like AI, where actually the jobs that AI is predicted to take over are held more by women than by men. And so, I think one of the areas that we as an industry need to focus on is, how do we bring more women into these technical roles? And how do we make sure that there is a fast-paced training process in order to enable that? And that's one of the things we're focusing on here at Colt within our operational engineering teams is, how do we actually accelerate that career process, that training and that learning for women in particular?

Joanne Taaffe: To what extent is Colt leading in this area? I imagine you need the wider industry to also be investing in training women in AI as well.

Keri Gilder: I think there are different companies. You mentioned it at the beginning that Apple is still investing, it's good. It is unfortunate we are seeing, whether it's through our employee resource groups like Women+ that we have, or our pride organization, that companies are not as forward on those programs as they were in the past.

And so, I think it means that, more so now than ever, we need to try to be a leader in this push for thought diversity, because ultimately, that's really what it is. But it's also enablement of society. If you look at skills shortages, you know, here in the UK, we have a massive skills shortage when it comes to technical skills.

If we're not considering a diverse workforce, a female workforce, to fill the gaps that we have in those skills, then ultimately, not only our industry, but our countries will be at a disadvantage and I think that's what we have to consider. There's not enough people, let alone women, in these skill bases today. Because of that, we need to consider the entire population, not just the traditional stereotype individuals that have gone into those roles.

Dawn Bushaus: Jo, you mentioned a really interesting VR application that's in use at another telco, where it actually allows men to understand what it feels like to be a woman in the boardroom. I thought that was a really interesting use of technology to explore some of these inclusion ideas. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? And maybe Keri can talk about whether they've done anything similar?

Joanne Taaffe: It was a conversation over a coffee with somebody at a telco in Europe who's leading DEI for the IT department. She mentioned it's a VR headset that they can ask men to wear, and they see the world through the eyes of a woman. So, when you walk into a room, you see men looking at you the way they would a woman, not a man. You're shorter than other people. You look down, you see a woman's body. Men might exclude you during a meeting or repeat what you've said, etc. It's that sort of experience. And she said it had a really profound effect on how men understood the issues that women can face in a workplace, particularly one in which there are very few other females.

Keri Gilder: I think it's interesting. I guess my question, would be, how useful is it long term? I think it could possibly bring the environment forward, as far as understanding the differences. I worry that something like that doesn't have long term impact on change, whereas, for example, what I found is that if you only have one woman in a boardroom, or you only have one woman on a management team, they're going to always be disadvantaged. And so, what you really need to think about is the overall makeup of the team and how you actually bring larger volume of diverse representation as well as a larger representation of allyship. And I think that that VR headset is interesting because maybe what it does is it enables, especially the allies, to be able to recognize what's going on, and so they can help you more down the road.

I have to admit, though I'm a little bit hesitant on long term usefulness, where I think sometimes you just have to go back to the basics. Instead of trying to determine a tool or a technology, go back to the basics on team makeup and on inclusive leadership programs.

And that's one of the things that we've done at Colt is we have two things, that I think have made a tremendous difference. One is we do run an inclusive leadership program, and that's actually for all our managers, and it is a training program that's pretty extensive, that helps to develop an understanding of inclusion, why it matters, and how to actually do it on a day-to-day basis within your team.

The second thing that we've done is we've really ramped up on our Allyship in action program, and from what we know, whether it's again, women, LGBTQ+, or what we found out recently is the number one area where you can support neurodiverse colleagues, is actually in allyship.

And so that Allyship in action program, which may be the VR headset comes in there, if that is actually amplified throughout the organization, then if you do have that one woman, or that that one neurodiverse representative, that you at least have an ally in the room to make sure that their voice is heard or that their voice isn't misrepresented, which often happens in that environment where a man will actually take the answer that the woman just had and repeat it as if it was their own, and then all of a sudden it's listened to.

If you have an ally in the room that says “Okay, well, wait a minute, that's what Sally just said” then all of a sudden, Sally is amplified in the room. But you need either another diverse representative in that room, or you need an ally that is going to be always on a day-to-day basis, looking out to support and help amplify that voice within whatever setting they're in.

Dawn Bushaus: How do you fill that allyship program? Is it more of a volunteer thing, where you make it known that this is a program, or do you try to recruit people into it? How does it work?

Keri Gilder: Yeah, it is volunteer. We love regulations, and we love the regulatory landscape in Europe. So, I think if we made it mandatory it would not work here in this region, so it does have to be voluntary.

One example of this that may not be well known is Colt actually became a menopause friendly company. And menopause, of course, is something that ... over a billion women are going through literally, as we speak.

And whether you're a female employee going through it, or otherwise, you probably have a mom, a sister, an aunt, or someone who actually is going through it. And what we actually found is that was one area that we were really able to help, not only the women, but we were actually able to help the allies understand what was going on with their sisters, mothers, aunts, etc. and they were very, very appreciative of the training because they knew what was going on, they felt more informed, and they knew better ways to actually help, their friend or colleague.

And so that's one example that I would have. We need more, though, and we need we need more allies to truly be allies. And in those micro aggression type environments, we need them to be able to really step forward and step up to support the diverse employee in that environment. But yes, it is voluntary.

Joanne Taaffe: This sounds great, but it doesn't sound like something that's quick and easy to put in place if you're a leader in another company listening to this. What advice would you give for someone who's not as advanced as Colt is. Where do you start?

Keri Gilder: I'd say, find people within the company that are passionate about these areas and actually you’d be surprised how quickly some of these things can build when you have the right employee resource groups coming up.

I'd say the other thing is, if you don't know how to do it, or you don't know how to start there's many companies like us that would love to talk to you. Our employees, resource groups will literally give you the handbook on how to set some of this stuff up. We don't have IP or ownership on diversity and inclusion so we're happy to share anything that we've done or have and help you along that journey.

I'm a member of the board of an organization called Change The Face, that's another area that you could engage with, because there other company representation. We have Vodafone, we have Deloitte, we have Cisco, we have many companies that are participating in that. And what we're doing through that is, actually, regardless of where you are in your DEI journey we're offering basically a library of fantastic information on what worked and what didn't work and those how-tos that I think are critical to actually get your hands on to accelerate the process of building allyship, building menopause, building transitioning at work programs, like we have here at Colt for our transgender employees, as well as starting to think about even some of the basics on neurodiversity and how to use AI as a tool in order to help our neurodiverse candidates. So, there's a lot of information out there. Reach out to us. Reach out toChange The Face. There's a website out there for Change The Face and we're happy to help.

Joanne Taaffe: Great. Just one last question from me. You mentioned AI earlier. Do you think things are set to get easier or harder for women in the technology sector?

Keri Gilder: I have a very good friend that has gone through the AI program at Oxford as well as the AI program at MIT, and when we think about AI, there's a couple of things that we think of. Number one, we think it's intrinsically biased, and to some extent, that's true, but I think why it's biased we don't truly understand in just regular kind of communication, because we think, okay, because there's only one in five ICT specialists that are women and one in three STEM professionals that are women. The programming of AI and the training of the large language models and even kind of, the prompt training is happening primarily by men, and that is true.

So that's one aspect of it, but that's actually not the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem is that less than 20% of the data that exists in the world has either been created by OR is about women.

So just like when you think about DEI you have to think about inclusion first, when you think about AI, what you have to think about first is data, where you're getting it, how it was created, who it was created by, and then how that will enable representation going forward. So, unless we actually start to change the entire socio-dynamic of data about women and machine learning about women, and understanding of women, I think there's always going to be some bias in these large language training models.

That being said, I think there is a major opportunity to use some of the AI tools that are coming available. In Change The Face, Microsoft participated with us and gave us some great understanding of how to use copilot in order to help, for example, someone who is autistic, to ask a better question to their boss in a meeting. And what we're seeing is that's happening across the board.

I'm dyslexic, for example, and I've always used spell check, but let's be honest, sometimes spell check doesn't even work when you're dyslexic. But what I have found with copilot is it's made it a lot easier for me to be able to draw up documents and to create information, even to review things and to give me examples of where I am wrong because of the language ability that's within it. So, I do think there are major opportunities for more inclusion to take place, especially for the neurodiverse using AI tools. When it comes to bias around AI, I think, unfortunately, it's going to exist for a very long time, just because the data is not there in order to have fair representation.

Dawn Bushaus: I would just follow on that to ask a little bit about AI's impact on the digital divide. You talked about women often having roles that are more impacted by automation and AI, I would assume that it's probably also impacting other minority groups. So, is there a way to identify people for training, maybe to have them move up into a more technical role as automation takes away some of the jobs that are considered maybe lower level?

Keri Gilder: Yeah, I think it's interesting. I mean, the actual statistics around this, on some recent research said that 71% of AI skilled workers are men, compared to 29% women, and only one in five older workers have been offered AI skills training, as opposed to almost 50% of younger workers. So, I think first we have to remove our own unconscious bias associated with the demographic that AI can exist in. Because older workers, younger workers, neurodiverse workers, women, men. It doesn't matter. AI can be a tool for everyone. And I think what we have to consider going forward is, how do you actually build your entire employee base to be AI articulate and to be able to do AI prompting and to be able to actually understand data.

And so some of the things that we're starting to consider within Colt are actually building in to our objectives and key results from a performance metric, data quality metrics, as well as AI as part of our mandatory training program, some AI mandatory training around just learning how to actually ask better AI prompts, because that's kind of where we are on the journey right now. So, we're not asking everyone to be an AI developer, to know what the difference is between a large language model and an inference or anything like that, but I think these basic skills need to be learned. They need to start with data, as I stated, and how to actually recognize and also have an impact on data quality within your role. But also, how do we actually start building the skill base of good AI prompting and understanding, how to actually use the tools so that we can enable that across the entire base and not just within the technical teams.

Joanne Taaffe: So, inclusivity is extending to AI skills as well,

Keri Gilder: Exactly.

Joanne Taaffe: Well, that's a great note to end on Keri. So, thank you very much for your time. It's been it's been brilliant hearing about what you're doing here at Colt

Keri Gilder: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Thank You.