Turning Commitment into Action: How WCM’s Equity Impact series connects the dots from research to action

In summer 2020, following the death of George Floyd, many organizations saw the need to take a stand against anti-Black racism and promote diversity in their workplaces. The Black Lives Matter protests became a call to action and a way to rally around equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) practices. A year on, many advocates feel that despite the commitments, not enough progress has been made.

Dismantling deep-rooted structures of inequality is a massive challenge that we all collectively need to work on. We need to examine our biases and understanding of the systems in place that contribute to inequality and lack of diversity in our workplaces.

WCM’s newest event series, Equity Impact, focuses on providing senior business leaders, decision-makers, and executives with access to cutting-edge research on how to achieve ED&I targets and the areas organizations typically experience roadblocks. WCM's Equity Impact events connect the dots between research, and the essential advocacy and policy changes firms and leaders can take to ensure the commitments made around ED&I issues are addressed.

Our inaugural session features Dr. Sonia Kang of the Rotman School of Management. In conversation with WCM’s President and CEO Lara Zink, Dr. Kang will discuss her recent research on the phenomenon of resume bias and resume whitening. Resume bias is found across many organizations, even those that purport to be diversity-friendly. Dr. Kang's work explores why resume bias occurs and what organizations can do to remove this barrier to recruiting and promoting diverse talent within their organizations. She will dissect how capital markets firms and leaders are impacted by resume bias and what steps can be taken to identify and mitigate this.