Name: HPE's Antonio Neri outlines company's diversity initiatives in response to George Floyd's death
Uploaded: 2020-06-18
Duration: 10 min 3 s
Description: Neri details company-wide goals in hiring initiatives and employee dialogue.

Neri details company-wide goals in hiring initiatives and employee dialogue.

HPE's Antonio Neri outlines company's diversity initiatives in response to George Floyd's death

Leadership

Neri details goals in hiring initiatives, employee dialogue.

HPE's CEO outlines company's diversity initiatives

Antonio. In view of the fact that there are two major events going on around the country right now, I thought it would be a good idea to focus our conversation on what kind of leadership is needed at this time. Right after the death of George Floyd and all the protests that erupted around the nation, you wrote to H P E employees that those events made you feel angry. Disbelief, sadness and frustration. What was your intent in sharing those emotions with your employees? You know, I was watching T v like everybody else during that weekend and watching the events unfold, you know, as a leader. As a human being, I failed a shame. A shame of what? What what I was seeing. And obviously everybody has different emotional, you know, kind of journalists that go through. But the fact we are in 2020 here and seeing the systemic oppression, racism and that still exists in our society. Obviously it doesn't. It doesn't make you feel good at all, obviously, and we have a responsibility as leaders to shape award for equality for all people and diversity. Inclusion are the core of that of that those principles. And so we as a company, we're going to take action. The first action was to stand stand up and make sure that people understand our position. The second step of this is to listen to our people to engage them, to involve them, Uh, in the solution. Obviously, we are actually now, as after, you know, you and I speak here, I'm going to host a call with my 63,000 employees. So we're going to talk about this and we are launching, um, are you know what we call the person's inclusion? Uh, kind of council, where we involve a lot of people from the from the from the employee base and, uh, and in that we're going to talk about how to become federalized, how to address diversity, Have to have the right conversation. Honestly, one of the challenges we have, Susie people are not comfortable having the right conversation. I don't think many people don't have to have that conversation. And so we're gonna basically, um, implement a series of actions where we as a company, not the CEO, but we as a company all are going into the same direction and taking assertive actions to this, you know, very, you know, unfortunate set of events which are completely unacceptable. You talk a lot about the importance of listening in your leadership. And, you know, I understand you held what you call these listening sessions with all your employees. Um, after that weekend of protests and you said that it has expanded your mind and your heart. In what way do you think that those discussions have impacted the way you're going to lead? What did you learn from that? That is going to change your leadership. Yeah, I think you know starts by committing right yourself. Um, and I am now more committed than ever to doing everything under my control and put every resource in our company to address this fundamental problem and, you know, and do it in a way where it becomes part of our core DNA in our culture. You know, I have spoken about the cultural transformation have driven in this company, but it has to become part of the fabric the way we think about it. You know, I grew up in multiple countries. I worked in many different countries. For me, diversity and inclusion were natural things right. I don't even think about it. But obviously, in our country, in the United States we have a lot of work to do and ultimately is about teaching people, enabling them with the confidence to have the right conversation. Because when you're confident to have those conversations and you listen, you will learn a lot. And then obviously there is an engagement process, an emotional process that goes with it, and then eventually, you know, touch the hearts of people and touch the months of people to do the right thing. And to me, this is kind of what we are. And this is what we need to do. Going forward. Well, you you mentioned that as CEO, you're going to do whatever it takes to move things forward. And in fact, you wrote you put it down on paper in one of your opinion pieces, you said that you're committed to ensuring equal treatment, equal opportunity, equal inclusion at HP. But beyond those words, what meaningful action do you want to see? Well, obviously we have to measure progress on this. And, um, there is many different ways to measure progress, Right? One is the culture itself. how people interact with each other through engagement, trust, respect how we drive those a conversation. The other one is how much diversity inclusion we have throughout the ranks. You know, all the way to my leadership level. Um, I know one of things I'm really proud of is that we have one of the most diverse corporate governance in America. But I know we have way more work to do in the company in the executive ranks. And we're going to put very aggressive goals and obviously take deliberate actions and the way we hire people, the way we develop people going forward. And I think you know, you need to create a positive cycle. So that ultimately becomes the way you run the company on an ongoing basis as a CEO of my responsibilities Dr. Succession in this company and, uh, and part of that is obviously diversity and inclusion, Right? Let's talk a little bit, uh, more about the diversity and inclusion numbers at HP, and you're right. Uh, you do have one of the more diverse boards, especially in the technology industry, and not to mention Antonio, that you are one of the very few Latinos CEO running a Fortune 500 uh, company. But when we look beyond the leadership team and we look at your overall diversity numbers, here's how they stack up. More than 50% of your employees are white. More than 22% are Asian. Um, 6% are Hispanic and 6% are black. What can you do to change those numbers? How can you improve the hiring of people of color? Yeah, it's by holding people accountable. I mean, fundamentally, you know, there are different things we need to do from the hiring perspective, the way we we have the slaves for the higher in the way we promote within, um and, um, you know, we need to beware more aggressive on the gold settings, right? So when we go higher opposition, we need to make sure at least 70% of the slightest diverse right? The reality is that we need to do a better job starting in in in the internships. Uh, you know, every summer will bring actually quite significant amount of interns and how we recruit them, how we give the prospect to come to the company growth and then make sure we have diversity inclusion at every level of the ranks of the company. So that is easy to move people up and sideways so that we can create that positive momentum in some areas, we have done very well in some others were obviously not. Well, you sound so engaged on delivering on this promise. What do you think that those diversity numbers are going to look like a year from now? Well, you know, it depends also the ability to go higher and obviously at this time, with a situation where we are seeing right, So we are being careful. Um, you know, the type of skills were brain and the quantity of people will bring because obviously we want to protect as many jobs as possible. But I'm actually looking more like a three years horizon, Susie. And obviously we need to see a significant improvement in the executive ranks position. And we need to make sure that also in the middle management, we see also significant improvements. And when I see a significant improvement, I'm talking about 10 plus percent in each of them is also depending how much organiz organization we change in thermal hiding. You know, Antonio the world around us is moving so rapidly and beyond. The discussion about race and racism were in the middle of a pandemic. Do you feel that the rules of business leadership are changing, and more than that, do you feel that your employees and also the public, expect more leadership from you Because you're a CEO? Absolutely. I mean, you know, six months ago, we were talking about E s G environmental social governance of responsibilities as one of the things CEOs and corporate boards need to focus on in that obviously, diversity and inclusion are key components of that. But obviously there is a heightened sense of urgency and awareness. And, um, you know, and I think you know, the latest unfortunate events will will drive us to take even more aggressive action. You know, one thing is standing up and share your opinion. I think what the consumers and our customers, by the way, right, uh, will demand is to take way more deliberate action. Two years ago, we were talking about you know, what we're doing around climate change, what we're doing about improving our carbon footprint. Many customers put in there are IFP's, you know, when you go bed for an opportunity, very stringent rules about you be able to compete for the business. I will now be surprised is that the customers now start including some of these aspects, because they want to work with companies that really care about the situation we're in and care about, you know, making clear improvement on this on this aspect of the of the society.