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C O V E R S T O R Y / S E T H W E L B O R N

What can diversity do for your business? From ensuring that employees feel valued to fostering a more creative environment, a diverse and inclusive workplace yields plenty of practical, real-world benefits. For our September edition, DS News spoke to an array

of industry experts about why diversity and inclusion is good for business, which D&I myths should be dispelled, and how best to implement an effective diversity strategy within your business.

So, why is a commitment to D&I so fundamental? According to Charmaine Brown, Director of the Office of Diversity at Fannie

Mae and American Mortgage Diversity Council (AMDC) Vice Chair, a multicultural mindset enhances both understanding and leadership skills.

“Increasing your cultural competency will ultimately allow you to be a much more inclusive and successful leader,” Brown said.

Phyllis Wright, SVP of HR Strategies at VRM Mortgage Services, told DS News that “inclusion is the key to getting the best results.”

“To include means to be a part of,” Wright continued, “and that usually means to be part of something bigger than yourself. You cannot have diversity without also having inclusion.” Wright also noted that diversity and inclusion, without proper leverage, cannot function within a business.

“Diversity and inclusion needs to be seamless

Diversity is about more than just race and gender. Find out how diversity and inclusion practices can make your business thrive.OUT OF MANY, ONE.

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to the business,” she added.Dr. Cheryl Travis-Johnson, EVP and

Chief Operating Officer at VRM Mortgage Services, also observed that neglecting multiculturalism can lead to ineffective marketing and bad business outcomes. According to Travis-Johnson, leaders need to evaluate their teams to ensure the best economic outcome with diversity.

“Diversity and inclusion is a business imperative,” Brown said. “But the wrong takeaway would be if it’s only important to the extent that it makes you profitable. It’s also the right thing to do.”

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSHow are these businesses and business

leaders implementing diversity and inclusion plans seamlessly? For many, it means looking at diversity programs in a new way as the landscape shifts.

Jacqueline Welch, Chief Human Resources

Officer and Chief Diversity Officer at Freddie Mac, discussed how Freddie Mac is moving away from a “diversity and inclusion” strategy to an “inclusion and diversity” strategy.

“For employees, we place a priority on attracting and recruiting a pipeline of diverse applicants while advancing a culture of inclusion where everyone at the company feels welcome and valued,” Welch said. “Signature programs that drive our efforts include 10 employee resource groups (ERGs), 11 division-specific inclusion councils, and other initiatives such as our leading autism internship program.”

“For suppliers, we ensure diverse suppliers are included in the bidding process, which has ultimately increased our diverse spend,” Welch continued. “We also develop qualified diverse suppliers through our Vendor Academy, helping them learn how to strengthen their business to be more competitive for opportunities with Freddie Mac and other companies.”

Bank of America’s A.J. Barkley, SVP

Neighborhood Lending Executive, Consumer Lending, said that creating a diverse and inclusive workplace starts at recruitment.

“Our employees are our most valuable resource, and one of the most important aspects of responsible growth is attracting and retaining exceptional talent,” Barkley said. “It starts with how we recruit new teammates to our company and extends to the many ways we support employees’ professional development, engagement, and career growth and advancement once they are here.”

Colleen Winslow, Chief HR Officer at RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation, also noted that diversity begins during the hiring process, so it’s critical that a business’ hiring process should be one that fosters inclusion. According to Winslow, businesses should make sure they are assessing a diverse slate of candidates, “and that the process candidates go through is consistent, not favoring one group versus another.”

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“Training and Communications initiatives go a long way toward building awareness of unconscious bias and how an unfriendly work environment can occur,” Winslow added. “You must build awareness before change can occur.”

THE BENEFITS OF DIVERSITYWhen diversity is implemented properly,

it positively impacts company performance. Dominica Groom Williams, VP of the Office of Inclusive Engagement at Freddie Mac, told DS News that, when a business is committed to inclusion and diversity, it attracts high-performing talent, and “ignites innovation through diverse perspectives and it strengthens the way we serve our diverse customers.”

“In all these instances, inclusion and diversity enables us to better deliver on our bottom line while executing on our mission of making home possible.”

Lisa Haynes, SVP, CFO, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the Mortgage Bankers Association, noted how, as the demographics of the United States change, so should the business. A business should reflect and understand its customers, and younger consumers are increasingly focused on diversity.

“It is a business imperative for companies to attract and retain diverse talent to ensure they understand the differences in culture, the thought patterns, and buying habits of the changing customer base,” Haynes said. “As the workplace begins to shift, younger generations are seeking an organization that emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion. Companies that can attract top talent will remain competitive in the marketplace.”

While these practices can apply to most

businesses, how have diversity and inclusion practices impacted the mortgage and servicing business specifically? Housing situations vary as much as people do, and a diverse team is better suited both to deal with diverse situations and to outperform the competition in the process.

“Diversity and Inclusion are essential to business success,” Brown said. “It drives innovation and lifts performance. In fact, research shows that diverse and inclusive companies are 15% more likely to outperform competitors. Additionally, our talent pool and future homebuyers and renters are the most diverse in our nation’s history. This rich diversity provides tremendous opportunities for even greater innovation in developing housing solutions that work for everyone.”

Diversity and inclusion is not only a key factor in remaining competitive, it is also key to keeping your business strong.

“Diversity and inclusion is important in the mortgage industry because it affords companies a means by which to remain relevant to and attenuated with their customers, constituents, and stakeholders,” said Michael Ruiz, Director of Supplier Diversity at Fannie Mae.

WHERE TO BEGIN?A D&I initiative starts with an inclusive

culture. Jacqueline Welch offered three practical steps to get started: 1) ask the important, actionable questions; 2) make inclusion a leadership principle; and search for and address biased systems.

“When done intentionally, real, sustainable, and positive change can happen.” Welch said.

Colleen Winslow noted that organizations may start by looking at their employees, surveying and asking them “what would make them more connected/engaged to develop a diversity and inclusion engagement strategy for their organization.”

The goal of examining data like this is to find where breakdowns are occurring.

“Organizations started by understanding the profile of diversity overall by looking at their data, and later they determined that while the statistics may look okay overall. When you drill into the layers and look at department/functions, you find that diversity at the top, or in one part of the organization, may not be in line with other parts of the organization, making it difficult for employees to identify and connect,” Winslow said.

When D&I is prioritized, companies are better for it. Dominica Groom Williams noted

“D&I is about changing the culture and creating environments where there are differing views at that table. ...If there are views not at the table because we believe we’ve reached an adequate level of diversity, we’ve missed the boat.”

—Lisa Haynes, SVP, CFO, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, MBA

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that at Freddie Mac, we prioritize diversity and encourage an inclusive environment.

To be successful, you need to have the right structure in place. Last year, we transitioned to our newly named Office of Inclusive Engagement (formerly, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion). The office is now organized to apply my team’s attraction, development and engagement skills across the various audiences we serve. In our model, the team responsible for attracting diverse employees is also responsible for attracting diverse suppliers. This creates a much more holistic approach to our inclusion efforts and is yielding positive results.

Intersectionality refers to how traits vary among gender, race, and other categories, as well as finding where they intersect. This means identifying the fact that each person, no matter were they fit categorically, experiences different forms of discrimination.

“Intersectionality recognizes that, although a trait such as gender can be shared, the intersection of that trait with other diversity traits cannot be ignored,” Haynes said. “For example, all women’s experiences are not the same. A situation may have the same facts, but the experience may be very different for a woman who is white or Asian or differently abled or black or wealthy or uneducated. It is important not to paint a broad brush across any single diversity characteristic.”

“D&I is about identifying those diversity traits and using those differences to create a better culture,” she continued. “In an ideal world, D&I would erase the discrimination referred to in intersectionality.”

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONSA diverse workplace is more than just a group

of people from varying backgrounds. Instead, it should be about celebrating differences, including strengths and weaknesses. Suzy Lindblom, COO for Planet Home Lending, noted that diversity and inclusion practices are not about making everyone the same.

“Diversity and inclusion activities are vital to continuing education regarding the differences between genders and how to embrace them,” Lindblom said. “It is not about being the same—it is all about recognizing and understanding our differences and learning from each other. Our diversity is what makes us strong.”

However, one common D&I myth is that it only relates to race and gender. According to Lisa Haynes, this is simply not true.

“D&I is a complex issue that involves the

totality of a person,” Haynes said. “Back in the ’90s, two women (Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener) developed a framework for how to think about dimensions of diversity. They identified 21 attributes of diversity. That is 21 ways that we can be different from each other—race and gender are only two.”

Companies such as Freddie Mac are examining ways to leverage the unique differences of various communities to further impact the business by transitioning their employee resource group (ERG) model to a business resource group model.

“Through this transition, we will leverage our ERGs to strategically influence business results,” Welch said. “Most recently, our PRIDE ERG, targeted to LGBTQ+ employees and allies, and several of our business-line divisions commissioned a first-of-its-kind study to better understand the LGBT housing experience in the U.S.”

Haynes also noted that, while D&I is often seen as an initiative or a program, it is an ongoing practice, with no real end.

“D&I is about changing the culture and creating environments where there are differing views at that table that may be from any one or all of the 21 attributes, with the goal of getting to the best decision, creating the best product, and ultimately benefiting the company in achieving their mission. If there are views not at the table because we believe we’ve reached an adequate level of diversity, we’ve missed the boat.”

Seth Welborn is a contributing writer for DS News. He is a Harding University graduate with a degree in English and a minor in writing, and has studied abroad in Athens, Greece. An East Texas native, he also works part-time as a photographer.

“A commitment to inclusion and diversity ignites innovation through diverse perspectives and it strengthens the way we serve our diverse customers. In all these instances, inclusion and diversity enables us to better deliver on our bottom line while executing on our mission of making home possible.”

—Dominica Groom-Williams, VP of the Office of Inclusive Engagement, Freddie Mac