CEO focusing on equal workplace opportunity
Most SiliconValley companies have failed to set diversity goals, Paradigmchief says
By QueenieWong
PALO ALTO — By the time a sexual harrassment or discrimination case reached her desk, lawyer Joelle Emerson was frustrated that so much had already gone wrong.
“I started seeing these patterns emerging and issues that my clients were facing in their workplaces that were repeating over and over again,” Emerson said. “I was really interested in seeing if there was a way to disrupt those patterns early on.”
In 2014, she started Paradigm, a company that is helping more than a dozen tech companies, including the photo- sharing site Pinterest, make their workforces more diverse.
Emerson sat down with this newspaper to chat about how the firm is trying to solve Silicon Valley’s diversity problems before they hit the courtroom.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. QDescribe
what Paradigm does to make a company’s workforce more diverse. AWe
start with an assessment and look at what we see as the four stages in which companies have a significant opportunity to create better diversity and inclusion outcomes. Those four stages are attract, select, develop and retain. We give the company a report that identifies the biggest barriers at each of those stages, let them know where we think they should focus and recommend strategies and interventions based on social science research. Piece two is that we partner with companies on an ongoing way, have a monthly retainer model and they pay us to help them