Several iterations of me ago, I worked, as a risk analyst, for a startup in the insurance business that was using a risk-based approach to create medical and dental insurance products. We would spend time meeting with company management and other employees, asking what they wanted and needed in terms of coverage. We would try to work their needs into affordable products. Having studied economics, mathematics, and accounting, I felt that this work justified all of the time and money spent on my degrees AND it allowed, and even encouraged, me to throw in some innovation into my work. One day, I was in the office when my colleague's phone rang. She had stepped out of the office so I picked it up, "Hello, this is Rumbi."
A woman's voice responded, "that's just too difficult, I'll just call you Susan." She then launched into whatever it was that was on her mind. She spoke for a while and then, noticing a lack of response from my end of the line, she paused and, in a panicked tone, "Is anyone there? Hello?"
"Yes, I am here," I replied.
"Well, why aren't you responding to me?" She sounded indiginant.
"Because I am not Susan, so I figured you weren't talking to me." I remember her sounding confused and upset. I don't remember though if she asked to speak with my boss or just hung up. I do know that the one thing she did not think she needed to do was call me by my name and, since I'm not called Susan, the one thing I did not do was engage her in conversation.
A few years later, I had moved to a new city and, as part of my job hunt, I reached out to a headhunter. In my name, the sound of the "u" is as in "put" and the sound of the "i" is as in igloo. When he called me, he sounded like he wanted to purchase an alcoholic beverage. It was fine - I corrected him as I do with people who are unfamiliar with my name. He then asked me if I had a nickname that I used. I told him that people call me Rumbi. I mean, I have an uncle who often called me "princess" but that was just uncle K, not people. The headhunter then decided that he needed to give me some advice. He informed me that I needed to adopt and start using an "American" name as that would help me get a job. I felt a bit deflated. Was he telling me that I could have skipped the whole do well at school and get a good education thing? Could naming myself Susan Stone been all that I needed in life? I was pondering all of this when he mangled Rumbi again and I decided that the one thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want to work with him.
A few months later, the head hunter randomly popped into my head and I decided to try an experiment. I had my resume on a job search website and decided to create a new account with just one change - my name. I decided to borrow from my mother, used the name Patricia Stone and see what happened. Just about the next day, Patricia started to received emails and phone calls - it seems she had a very impressive resume. Things were pretty quiet on Rumbi's end, even though the only difference between her resume and Patricia's was the name at the top. I had a moment when I thought about accepting a job as Patricia. Maybe I could interview as Patricia but then have them switch to Rumbi when I started working there. What if they insisted on Patricia; could I go to work every day and answer to that? Would people think I was in witness protection or hard of hearing if I didn't respond when they were speaking to Patricia? And then I had a thought - do I want to work for a company would have skipped over my resume if I had used my actual name? Fortunately for me, Rumbi had a job and all my ponderings remained theoretical.
After that experience, I was not surprised when I read articles about how job candidates of color are "whitening" their names to improve their job prospects. Black and Asian applicants found that call backs rose from 10% and 11.5%, respectively, to 25% and 21% when they "whitened" their resumes.If you are an employer who wants to attract, outstanding talent, are you okay with missing this talent because of their name?
How we are socialized, our friends and families, and stereotypes can result in our holding biases we don't even realize that we have. The first step in addressing biases is acknowledging that they exist and then working to be mindful of when ours pop up. Within the workplace, where we can, we should take steps to take the bias opportunities out of the equation. Organizations are constantly working to improve how they take bias out of the hiring process and some steps they have taken include:
- Taking the name off the top of a resume. In addition to names, some organizations will also remove other characteristics that may cause bias, such as the university a person went to, graduation dates, and even years of experience.
- Using an interview panel, instead of a single person conducting the interview. Think about how to make this panel as diverse as possible - look to get people, for example, from different parts of the organization, or at different levels of seniority.
- Use a structured interview that, first of all, means candidates will be assessed on the same criteria and that criteria is based on the job and not on how the interviewer feels about a candidate.
- Decide ahead of time, the scope for making the decision. Creating a checklist may help the interview panel keep superfluous information and opinions out of the decision-making process
Many organizations, as they speak about their cultures, champion their employees bringing their authentic selves to work. These organizations must recognize that the authentic selves include authentic names. If your colleagues are made to feel other than because people are not even trying with their names, or they are declaring that those names are too hard, somehow not "American", or making fun of the names, then your organization is not practicing a culture of inclusion. Those of us who have our names, know our names, so we don't get worked up if someone asks us, "Is it Steven or Stephen?", "How does one spell Iqbal?", "How do I pronounce your name correctly?" Taking the time to show you are working to get it right goes a long way.
No doubt, I have a vested interested in this. I can't imagine myself as anyone other than Rumbi and I am lobbying hard to keep from being forced to decide if I need to give up my name in order to thrive.