Welcome to my first post featuring a real human DEI professional!
Olivia Wong was the first person to respond when I messaged her on LinkedIn requesting an interview for my little baby newsletter. At the time, I had 0 subscribers, but Olivia was all in. Thank you, Olivia, for being my guinea pig and for being so generous in sharing your insights, experience, and humor.
To my fellow After Party-goers, have fun and enjoy the show! Iâd love to hear your thoughts so please do leave a comment if anything piques your interest (or reply to this email if youâre feeling shy).
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As the Group Head of Diversity & Inclusion at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd., a conglomerate that owns various businesses in a range of industries â from Cathay Pacific (aviation) to Swire Coca Cola (beverages) to Taikoo Motors (automotive) â Olivia Wong has her work cut out for her.
When I asked her how she got into the field of DEI, Olivia said, âthe writing has always been on the wall,â referring to her experience as a minority throughout her life and career. Her first experiences as a minority began when her family immigrated to the US from Hong Kong when she was young. Olivia and her family were one of two Asian families in the neighborhood. âWe had to learn how to fit in and fight our own battles because there were no other kids that looked like us,â she recalls.
Being part of the minority followed her in her career, where she was always the âfirstâ in any given role â the first woman, the first Asian. Olivia recounts:
Every time I worked overseas, I was a minority. When I was in Malaysia, I was the first female country manager working in Kota Kinabalu. When I moved to the Netherlands, I was the first female country manager working in the Netherlands. When I was in Singapore, I was the first female country manager in Singapore.
By the time I got to Germany, I was no longer the first woman, but I was the first Asian to hold that role as a country manager. Now that I look back, I was always the minority in most of the roles Iâve ever held. That kind of gives me a true appreciation of not only the necessity of diversity, but also the importance of inclusion and knowing that you need to include voices of minorities to make things work.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Asia
As someone who grew up in Asia but has never worked professionally in Asia, Iâm always curious to learn more about working culture in the region.
When I asked Olivia what is unique to Asia or Hong Kong in terms of DEI, she focused on three areas: gender, the LGBTQ+ community, and culture & ethnicity.
On gender:
If I speak specifically about Hong Kong, women have a lot of opportunities but thereâs still the expectation that if you are a woman and if you are in a heterosexual relationship at home â where you have your parents â the woman would still predominantly take on the childcare and elderly care role because, culturally, that is the expectation.
While you can see women rising into senior leadership, often many of those women do not have families. Even in the concept of gender within Asia, we have to take into account the cultural expectations of what we expect women to do.
On LGBTQ+:
In Hong Kong, same-sex marriage is not criminalized but itâs not recognized. However, you can register and get married elsewhere, and in most large organizations like the Swire Group, if you bring back the marriage certificate as a same-sex couple, you will enjoy the benefits of a married couple.
On culture & ethnicity:
People sometimes think that in Asia, this doesnât apply. Weâre all the same, arenât we? But even in Asian countries, people in the North are very different from people in the South. People that grew up in the East are very different from people in the West. Even though people might ethnically be the same, culturally they are different. Thereâs a bit of nuance there. If we look specifically at Hong Kong, we can talk about ethnic minorities or underrepresented groups, like South Asians from India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Itâs not as obvious as in the US with Black Lives Matter, but you can still see that race and ethnicity are issues that we should look at and talk about.
Diversity & Inclusion at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd.
In her five-year plan for diversity & inclusion at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd., Olivia and her team have identified five diversity focus areas:
Gender
Sexual orientation
Race, ethnicity & culture
Disabilities
Age
âOf course, you have things like cognitive diversity, which is very important,â Olivia clarifies. âBut, in Asia, the concept of diversity and inclusion is still relatively new, so in order to socialize the conversation, we want to make sure that we talk about subjects that are relatively easy to understand.â
In short:
These are the five areas that we look at because we feel they will make an impact on the way we operate.
When it comes to building DEI strategies, Oliviaâs central approach is to develop policies that will effectively benefit everyone.
She learned this in 2019 when John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. introduced flexible working policies (pre-COVID-19!), including staggered working hours and the opportunity to work remotely, take a sabbatical, or work part-time.
While these flexible working policies were aimed to mostly benefit (working) women â who spend about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic and care work as men â the policies actually ended up benefiting everyone. Olivia explains:
When we talk about flexible working, itâs really about meeting our people where they do their best work. In that sense, weâre hoping to introduce these kinds of policies where it helps everybody.
In essence, by creating policies that aim to serve the least represented groups, you might find that these policies actually cater to a wider audience â and are, therefore, more inclusive.
Whatâs Wrong with a Little Lip Service?
Olivia tells me her biggest challenges in making DEI happen include holding people accountable and reporting on progress.
To address the issue of accountability, Olivia has found that storytelling can be quite an effective tool â sharing success stories across the company helps keep DEI visible and top-of-mind. She says:
Itâs ultimately about people, right? The human factors become very important. How do you know you are doing the right thing? How do you know you are making a difference? Itâs by storytelling, by talking to people and finding out what speaks to them. Youâve got to see the whole person.
Addressing the matter of progress is a bigger challenge. While Olivia has clear targets in her five-year plan â such as the number of women in senior leadership, the use of diversity panels in the recruitment process, and the amount of voluntary disclosure of sexual orientation or disability â sheâs honest about the fact that it might just look like lip service. Mwah!
People always say, âWouldnât that just be a box-checking exercise? How do you know theyâre really interested in DEI?â And theyâre right, I have no idea. It could be lip service. It could be just a box-checking exercise, but at least you get them to do it first.
Even if you donât meet the targets, Olivia says itâs the effort that counts.
Your stakeholders, including investors, are not going to be upset about it. Theyâre going to say, âOkay great. I can see that they have a system. We know what they have done. They know what they need to do, so we have the confidence that theyâre going to meet the target.â
Playing the Long Game & Taking the (Small) Wins
In tracking their progress â both quantitative and qualitative â Olivia knows her team gets impatient. But, in DEI, itâs all about the long game.
You need to take time because we are talking about changing peopleâs mindsets and culture. Itâs a marathon. Youâve got to take every little win because youâre going to have times when you are super frustrated.
Fortunately, the future looks bright. Olivia credits the rise of topics like DEI and social and racial justice to social media. In discussing it with me (a millennial, #thankyouverymuch #heresanotherhashtag), Olivia says, âYour generation has come in and been much more vocal in raising these issues because you are inheriting a world that is probably not sustainable.â
In an ideal world, we wouldnât need roles like Oliviaâs (sorry, Olivia). We wouldnât need people like chief sustainability officers or chief diversity officers â because the company would hold sustainability, diversity, and ethics, in its core values and actions. One can only dreamâŠ
This is Oliviaâs mission moving forward: for her role to become unnecessary.1
As any human being, why shouldnât we recognize the importance of respecting each otherâs voices? Why shouldnât we understand the importance of social justice? Why shouldnât we stand up for those who are vulnerable and who do not have a voice?
You donât need someone like me to wear a DEI hat and say, âHey, are you being inclusive?â Iâm excited to see more people talking about it. Weâll no longer need to have someone constantly reminding everyone of the importance of DEI because it is in our DNA.
The Takeaways đ
DEI policies that cater to the least represented groups might end up serving everyone (#inclusion!).
Storytelling and qualitative feedback can help keep DEI visible within an organization and hold people accountable.
Lip service isnât necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes ticking a box is whatâs needed to get the ball rolling.
Celebrate the small wins. Nobody works in DEI for short-term success (at least, I hope theyâre not). DEI is a long game that involves changing peopleâs mindsets and behaviors.
Further Reading: Recommendations from Olivia
Talking About Race (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
Women in the Workplace 2021 (McKinsey)
Our Asian Voices (McKinsey)
2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey (Deloitte)
Donât worry about Olivia, sheâll be fine.
DEI is in our DNA đ§Ź
This was a great post. I love the format, very digestible with the sub heads, bullets, and quotes! I also like the idea of you interviewing people working in the field. I think thatâs a great fit for this newsletter. I also like the takeaways. Awesome work!
love these takeaways!