Take a hint from DoorDash on how to promote women of color

When I had a conversation with DoorDash CFO Prabir Adarkar this past spring, he told me it’s a priority to the tech company that “Dashers” have meaningful earning opportunities. Leadership roles can be both meaningful and lucrative. And it seems DoorDash’s work in DEI has developed best practices in how to retain and promote high-potential women of color into senior positions.

A recent Harvard Business Review piece highlights DoorDash’s career accelerator for women of color called Elevate, now in its third cohort. Fellows in the program have a six-month cohort experience, according to the report’s authors (DoorDash’s Bie Aweh, senior people growth manager for women and underrepresented talent, and Gayle Allen, Ed.D., cofounder of The Innovators’ Circle). Women in the program have access to an external executive coach, an executive sponsor, and meetings with C-suite members and company directors. Before the program ends, fellows work out a career plan with them. The data shows the program has had an impact, with 38% of fellows earning promotions, a significant increase compared to their non-Elevate peers. 

Diversity has traditionally lagged in the tech industry, and it’s not rapidly improving. Wiley, an academic publisher, released its Diversity in Tech: 2021 U.S. Report last month. About 68% of businesses surveyed feel there is a lack of diversity in their tech workforce, the report found. However, just 46% are actively trying to address the issue within technology teams. And 77% of women of color respondents said they’ve felt uncomfortable in a job because of their gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, or neurodevelopmental condition.

DoorDash’s program appears to have hit the trifecta with its combination of mentoring, coaching, and sponsorship. “Women continually cite lack of support as one of the primary reasons for gender disparity in the workplace,” according to a 2020 Accenture report. “However, the impact starts early on; young girls do not have equal access to mentors and sponsors that might encourage them to enter into STEM fields,” the report noted. In the workplace, having a sponsor—an active advocate—is key. For women of color, having a sponsor can lead to “positions of power and higher pay,” according to a 2019 PayScale report. An example? Hispanic women with a sponsor earn 6.1% more than Hispanic women without one; and Black women who have a sponsor earn 5.1% more than Black women who don’t, the report found.

In their report on DoorDash, Aweh and Allen offer advice on how organizations can launch their own career accelerator. It first starts with identifying the right leader. “Find a ‘passionate builder,’ an advocate for women of color who’s eager to create the program,” the authors write.

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See you tomorrow.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

The State of Hybrid Workforce Security 2021, a recent report by Palo Alto Networks, an American multinational cybersecurity company, examines the impact of an immediate shift to remote work at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. More than half (61%) of companies have struggled with their remote access and have experienced security challenges. And 48% admitted they were lax in enforcing network security policies. Companies are continuing to evolve their security architectures to support a hybrid workforce, according to the report. The data is based on a survey of 3,000 enterprise IT professionals.

Going deeper

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Leaderboard

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Overheard

"[Private equity] firms have also been swooping on UK assets and there might be real interest in getting in on that action without taking on the risk individually."

—Susannah Streeter, an analyst with Hargreaves Lansdown, as told to Reuters.