Leading Diversity

Group D: Decision Makers

Namita Vatsa Eveloy

Timothy Houston

David Otten

Jim Singh

Alejandro Silva

Sachit Mistry

Global Leadership @ GM 5486 J1 (2015DS)

Professor Christine Pearson

Due Date: February 2nd, 2015

As a global company, Motorola Solutions (MSI) embraces and values diverse individuals, opinions, cultures and abilities. It is this

unique perspective of their employees that enables Motorola Solutions to pioneer so many innovative products and technologies.

Significant strides have been towards inclusion and equitable gender balance. In keeping with prevailing challenges of attracting and

retaining female employees in senior roles high tech industries, MSI is making a concerted effort at the highest levels to narrow the

divide from the current 17%, to effectuate a more inclusionary workforce across the enterprise.

1.] MSI’s hierarchical gender balance is: (Motorola_Solutions_2013_Corporate_Responsibility_Report)

Gender balance - Worldwide - Senior Management (Director and above) & Worldwide Employees

2 a.] Current state of MSI’s senior executives mindset:

"As a global company, we not only embrace and value diverse individuals, opinions, cultures and abilities, we actively

seek them. It is the unique perspectives and experiences of our employees that enable Motorola Solutions to pioneer

so many innovative products and technologies.” (GREG BROWN, CEO, MSI)

"Our employees are our most valuable asset and the foundation of our competitive advantage. Inclusion and diversity

is embedded in our talent management practice to maintain an inclusive workforce, where everyone can be their best

in the moments that matter. The HR team is committed to ensuring Motorola Solutions has the right talent, at the

right time, to grow our business.” (Chris Ouimet, Corp VP, Head of HR)

“Collaboration and Influence in managing people can increase the likelihood of being a great global leader by nearly a

third” (Corporate Executive Board 2011)

2 b.] Current state of MSI’s Approaches & Advances today (content from Appendix GRAPHIC #1, GRAPHIC #2):

● Invest in our employees by providing learning and development opportunities to help them excel in their jobs.

● Value diversity of thought & experiences, and embed these elements into our organization through our purpose...our values... &

our leadership model. This improves understanding of markets & enables creation of innovative products..

● Through the ‘Motorola Solutions Foundation’, support organizations that focus on women and people of color who currently are

underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.

● Strive to create an inclusive, open environment where employees’ diversity of thought, attributes, cultures & experiences are

valued & celebrated, which helps increase employee innovation & productivity—a main source of our competitive advantage.

● Build partnerships with diverse organizations to help stay current on inclusion & diversity best practices, employee engagement, &

recruitment and retention strategies. MSI has partnerships with many organizations

(Motorola_Solutions_2013_Corporate_Responsibility_Report).

● A multi-focussed approach (see measurements in 2b-cont.) are all part of Annual Alignment Assessments supporting the strategic

goal of narrowing the gender divide and drawing on the vast potential of female workers.

2 b-cont.] Measurements in place today: (content from Appendix GRAPHIC #3) (graphic has details of MSI primary metric tools ):

● Employee Engagement: improve key indicators on employee engagement survey

● Demographic: talent Pipeline; Executive Leadership; Promotion; Retention

● Talent Development: developmental plans and investment in Professional Development

● Periodic surveys: conducted to determine where Inclusion/Diversity development opportunities exist. Action plans are developed

to move the bar towards higher employee engagement

GRAPHIC #1 Graphic #2 Graphic #3 Graphic #4 Graphic #5 Graphic #6 Graphic #7

2 c.] Plans & measurements for the future (content from Appendix Graphic #2; Graphic #3)

MSI is making a concerted effort at the highest levels to narrow the divide from the current 17%, to effectuate a more inclusionary

workforce across the enterprise. MSI realizes expanding an equitable gender diversity which incorporates different viewpoints, ideas,

and market insights, better enables problem solving, ultimately leading to superior performance. A gender-diverse workforce would

afford the firm to serve an increasingly diverse global customer base of which females are over 50%. Furthermore, it would help in

attracting and retaining talented women for many years to come. This is especially relevant as the firm looks towards global markets. It

simply cannot afford to ignore 50% of the potential workforce and expect to be competitive in the global economy.

3 a.] What does this all mean for MSI’s individual employees?

Dependent and family care programs are offered to all, such as maternity and paternity leave and support, flexible spending

accounts for health care and child care, and referral programs. Other services include flexible work plans and programs support

employees through life-changing events: time-off for new marriages, new parents, adoption assistance, education assistance,

relocation assistance, employee counseling, child care services, family medical leave, bereavement leave and disability programs.

Lastly, MSI also sponsors onsite childcare facilities in several of their office locations around the world.

3 b.] What does this mean for MSI’s competitive future? (content from Appendix Graphic #4, Graphic #5, Graphic #6, Graphic #7)

A gender diverse workforce would ensure the firm is poised to unleash the power of diversity to generate business value. Motorola

Solutions is taking deliberate steps in creating opportunities throughout the organization to realize the talent of all its employees.

Globally, an Inclusive Workforce creates a competitive advantage! Diversity helps fulfill government contracts and helps customers

fulfill theirs. A win, win!

Employees reflect customers and the marketplace which means globally, increasing women in senior leadership; and increasing

people with disabilities in all talent pipelines. In the US, this means increasing women in senior leadership; and increasing veterans,

people with disabilities and people of color in all talent pipelines

In summary, MSI’s competitive future is a result of its Return on [human] Investment:

● Maximized Employee Engagement ● Sustained Competitive Advantage ● Increased Innovation & Product Quality ● Effective Teamwork and Collaboration ● Efficiently Leverages Multi-cultural Experiences

4.] Three actions you would recommend to this organization:

We focused around improving women’s needs as the 3 recommendations for MSI. Retaining talented women mid-career is a challenge

that many organizations struggle with. Our proposed solutions come from discussing varying initiatives implemented or implied by

either our employers, our friends employers, or other organizations we have read about in common literature.

1. Flexibility: “Family related pulls and work-related pushes conspire to force women to either settle for dead-end jobs or leave the

workforce” (Hewlett, Rashid). For mid-career women to be at their best, they need flexibility. This flexibility can come in the form of

varying work schedules:

a. Seasonal Hours - half-day Fridays all summer

b. Working from home one day per week, keeping in mind that many employees commute long distances

c. Flex time - start times between 7 am and 9 are allowed to manage school drop offs.

d. Part time work for mid-career professionals: Recently the company has allowed employees to arrange a 75% position, with work

hours between 8:00 AM and 2:30 PM to allow for being home with children after school. While this is available to men and

women, only women are taking advantage of stepping down their hours, without leaving a professional level position.

2. Affiliations:

“Help your women recruits build networks to fight isolation and gain visibility while achieving their business goals” (Hewlett,

Rashid). As stated in our reading, affiliation is important to women. Initiatives that allow women to connect with others, through

informal and formal mentoring and networks, help female talent to feel connected to the organization. However, these events

should take place over lunch, as women with young children often choose not to attend happy hour or evening events.

3. Childcare responsibilities:

a. Childcare is cited as a top concern by professional women and many large organizations respond by offering childcare on site,

where employees are not losing one hour or more of their work day dropping off children at daycares across town with rigid

hours. Workplace childcare benefits the employer by allowing employees more time at work. While often this means contracting

a “KinderCare” type of facility to open near headquarters, some facilities actually have on site spaces for young children.

Understanding female talent often has more childcare responsibilities than their male counterparts

b. When mothers return to work, a ‘mothers room’ is sometimes a closet in far off corner of the headquarters, and it makes for a

lot of lost time or a source of frustrating inconvenience. In contrast, some organizations have mothers rooms with laptop

chargers, fridges, or storage lockers which make “pumping time” not work time.

Work environments still predominantly cater to white males, so to attract and retain women who wish to remain true to themselves,

organizations such as MSI, but also in general, need to remember that talented female managers and leaders of today want to be able

to have a career AND a family. To make that possible, without sacrificing quality, minor but meaningful adjustments need to occur

which will pay off for organizations. Working Mother magazine honors companies that make workplaces female friendly by publishing

an annual list of top 100 companies. This list drives candidates seeking a family friendly workplace to these companies.

Epilogue: This assignment shed light on how far companies still have to go. One student’s company refused to provide gender

information by grade level, yet both the HR rep and VP of HR who denied the request are women. A copy of MSI’s Corporate

Responsibility Report was sent to that HR dept as an opportunity for corporate self-improvement. A second company would not

provide information for public use although that large manufacturer actively pursues STEM and internally highlights Women in

Leadership positions. This paper has enlightened us more than we expected, seeing so many missed opportunities still exist.

Supporting Graphics/documentation (proof of content for the 3 page assignment):

GRAPHIC #1: Strategy elements; approaches and advances today

Graphic #2: Plans apply today and into the future

Graphic #3: Measurements today

Graphic #4: The future

Graphic #5: Guides for the future

Graphic #6: Where MSI is going into the future

Graphic #7: what is the ROI of why this is important