CXR Announcer 
Welcome to the CXR channel, our premier podcast for talent acquisition and Talent Management. listen in as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent. We’re glad you’re here

Chris Hoyt 0:28
All right, good morning. Good afternoon. Good night. How are you? Mari?

Maury Hanigan 0:31
Good. How are you doing, Chris?

Chris Hoyt 0:32
I’m doing well. For those who’ve just joined us. This is the CXR podcast, we’re happy to be here. We’re doing a lot of pre recorded pre recorded. So that’s kind of exciting. We’re on Twitter right now. But we’re going to pump this out next week and share a little bit about that. But you can join us anywhere that you listen to your favorite podcasts. And obviously, you can tune in to all of that, get all that good stuff and the other shows at CXR.works/podcast and with that big mouthful, Superfest said, I want to introduce Maury Hanigan of SparcStart. Why don’t you do an escalator pitch. But let’s I don’t want to steal the thunder, too. I’ve known you for quite a while. Yeah, so give give the listeners who may not know you sort of the escalator pitch who who is Maury? And why should they care what you have to say,

Maury Hanigan 1:13
Okay, I’m Maury Hanigan. I’m CEO of SparcStart. We help employers connect with candidates and stop using outdated all text job descriptions as a way to to actually get people interested in their jobs. My background, I came out of Procter and Gamble and Pepsi, as did you, I know where I worked in marketing. And you know, as a marketing manager, we would never think of using the ingredient label on the back of the bottle as our marketing tools. And yet we sit down with the recruiting and say we’re gonna market this position. You pull up a job description, and that’s crazy doesn’t engage people. And so there’s a better way to do this. All your employees have high def cameras in their pockets. It’s not bleeding edge technology. They’ve been there for decades. You just need a good platform to put it all together, make it scalable and approvable. So that’s what we do for clients.

Chris Hoyt 2:03
Yeah, Mike, I was hoping that you I was hoping that you forgot that we had both been at PepsiCo because I wanted to be like, surprise. We’re family.

Maury Hanigan 2:12
You don’t forget your Pepsi days trust.

Chris Hoyt 2:15
That’s right. This is true, right? This is so true. Well, so Maury. I’m Happy Women’s History Month. Thank you. Yeah, you’re welcome. So for some who may not know, right, the entire month of March in the US is Women’s History Month. It started in 1987. And it really does focus on the contributions of women. For us, culture, US society, US history. So we think of people like I think, Rosa Parks or Susan B Anthony or Madeleine Albright, or most recently for me, Kamala Harris, right. But obviously, hundreds of others. But But let me ask you, Marie, as a professional businesswoman, as a female CEO, what does Women’s History Month sort of mean to you?

Maury Hanigan 2:57
Well, I’ll tell you, I read The New York Times every day. And I you know, flip through and see the obituaries and used to think I’m so lucky to be female, because I’m never gonna die. Because there were never any women in the obits, right. You know, it’s just all the men died. It’s like, oh, boy, that’s really sad. But you know, thank God, all the women are still alive. And the problem was, the women just never got the recognition, you know, that the times obviously, is only gonna mention people who had, you know, sizable contributions to society, or the arts or whatever. And it is, it’s still predominantly men, which is amazing, given that half of the population is women. And there are lots and lots of women out there making huge contributions. So there are times you know, it can be a double edged sword. But I think giving acknowledgement to women who have achieved and succeeded and trying to break some of those stereotypes that, oh, you know, women don’t really contribute anything or what they contribute is at home. And that’s important, but it’s not the same. There, there are amazing contributions from women. And so I think any acknowledgement is good acknowledgement. So I’m, I’m pleased it’s happening.

Chris Hoyt 4:05
Well, I love that I get I have like this visceral sort of response of like, Oh, you do good contribution at home, and then just tied up to it. It drives me a little bit crazy. Yeah. Yes. So so more, let’s talk a little bit about this project, this diversity suppliers piece, you can’t you came to Jerry and I back in, like, this was last year’s hr tag, and brought this to our attention. And we I mean, we love this initiative. It’s really, really interesting. And we had talked a little bit about that. And we’ve sort of touched base on it over the over the last couple of months. But can you for those who don’t know, can you sort of share? Can you share sort of the origin story of this project and what it’s all about?

Maury Hanigan 4:49
Let me start with who really started the ball rolling it was Susan Lamont of exactly how and Tracy Parsons of work drive and I believe in Lynn Bailey, also, you know, we’re parts Have this and the idea was that there are actually a fair number of women suppliers in the HR and the HR tech field. But it’s a different playing field for women. And you can look at that the biggest thing is generally funding, the number of women owned businesses that get funded are miniscule. And single digit 2%. Maybe. And that makes a huge difference in those businesses abilities to, you know, really build a presence in the market, build out staff do product development at the same rate, and so forth as companies that are funded. And so they start off with a real disadvantage, because they just don’t have the the deep pockets. And we hear companies all the time talk about oh, we value diversity, you know, diversity is important. And you want to say, Okay, well, let’s look at where you’re spending your money. You know, are you really spending your money among diverse people, and, and there’s a real reason to do that, you know, everybody’s saying, Oh, we’re really struggling with diversity, we can’t attract, you know, the diverse candidate pool we want. But you look at the tools, and they were basically designed by white men. And, and everybody brings their experience in their bias to their their work, right? Even the best intention. And I’m not saying that all the tools are bias, but we all do have a different take on things. And so when all of your tools are designed by a fairly homogeneous group, it maybe isn’t so surprising that they tend to attract a fairly homogeneous group. So the question is, if you had a different set of tools, if you had, or even just for your own employees, your own recruiters, just how wording is done, I probably write differently than you write.

Chris Hoyt 6:46
Probably write much better than I write.

Maury Hanigan 6:49
Yeah, maybe. But, but, but I mean, I’m a real believer that diversity has real value that bringing different perspectives together, and, and having the kind of environment where people felt heard and feel like the language is their own, and so forth. We need that among the suppliers. So if if you don’t have diversity among your tools, and among the people who develop those tools, then it’s not all that surprising, your end results aren’t more diverse.

Chris Hoyt 7:17
So So Maria, so let’s back up just a little rewind just a little bit, because at CXR, we have a vendor directory, right solutions, provider directory, and then some of those where we do a little bit of a deep dive, We notate if the leadership at that organization is diverse, right. But this from my understanding this initiative is not just about who the leadership is, if you have so many people of color, or so many different genders on the on the board, like how’s this one? A little bit bit a little bit different? And why?

Maury Hanigan 7:48
Yeah, the diversity a supplier is really designed for, you know, diverse owned businesses, and not to take anything away from the importance of having senior management diverse, absolutely. And bravo to everybody who’s doing it well. But it really the ownership really is different. And a lot of that comes back to funding and availability to get funding. And voices heard, you know, we can all look at, there’s been a lot around, you know, who gets on the podium, or who gets on the floor, at conferences and so forth. And it’s, it’s grossly unequal. You know, I railed for a long time that I’ve seen some of my male competitors, who are thought leaders, but I’m a vendor. Hark. I’ve been in this industry probably longer than most of those folks. And there’s just a different perspective of perception perception around, you know, who is an authority and who is, you know, we just think differently about it. And this industry is heavily, heavily female. And, you know, not as diverse as we’d want it, but certainly better than a whole lot of other industries. So when people say, Oh, we can’t find diverse speakers, and so forth. I’m always a little skeptical. But the same thing happens when it comes down. It really matters where you spend your money. At the end of the day, it’s your right, you can you can talk the talk all you want. But if you really want a thriving diverse community, that’s got to include your supplier pool as well. And that takes money to happen.

Chris Hoyt 9:17
Yeah, yeah. Well, you call it a lot of really interesting things there. I mean, just the shift in the last not the last two years, because we’ve been in this weird time work freeze change thing going on from an event standpoint, but just the struggle to see more females on stage and see more females in that spotlight. We’ve seen some progress there, but obviously, we’d like to see much more progress. So that’s I think that would be a whole nother conversation. That’d be a lot of fun for us to have it sort of wet who’s doing it right and who’s really leaning in on that. But I think you know, so So This website’s been propped up right this is diversity spire SATCOM, we’ve got it up. We threw the website up on the screen. What is someone supposed to do with that? Should they be sharing that? Should they be submitting for that like what? What’s next Now that we’ve all got the link, right?

Maury Hanigan 10:02
Well, first of all, if anyone is a diverse owner, a diverse individual who is an owner of a business, by all means, just reach out and ask to be added to it. Because then we’re being inclusive, and also including even veterans, you know, any under representative group, so it’s not just women and people of color. Um, you know, we want to be as inclusive as possible so that we really believe the diversity piece. But the second thing is we hear from the the corporate buyers all the time, they really don’t know who owns the businesses, it’s hard for them to understand, if you ask him, What percent of your dollars are really being spent on diverse suppliers. They look at you blankly and go, I have no idea. Maura, we know you, but we didn’t even know you owned the company, you know, what’s owned by PE firms and was owned by venture capitalists and so forth. So we started there with at least let’s identify the diverse own suppliers. So if someone says, gee, I do want to make sure I spend my money, you know, appropriately and spread it around, who are the people I should be talking to and looking at, and at least considering or at least considering, when I spend my dollars, nobody’s suggesting that you buy a product you don’t need or product that’s inferior, or any of that. But when you’re going to spend money, take a look and make sure you’re considering everybody is and I go back to the the lack of funding makes it harder for diverse own businesses, to have the kind of presence in the market that that funded companies do. And so, you know, a buyer may not have heard of a business doesn’t mean their product isn’t good doesn’t mean you know, the customer services or going to any of that, it just means they don’t have the marketing dollars. And so that, how do you give those companies visibility, and so that the diversity a supplier website was the first step in giving those companies at least visibility’s you could find them. And, and the second piece is that we talked to folks that say, Go back to your agencies, because they tend to be the gatekeepers for new products that come to the buyers. There’s so many HR tech companies, I’m so glad I don’t sit on the buyer side of the desk, just swamped. So they often rely on their agencies to you know, do a short and bring them tools and services that will be valuable to them. So you can turn around to your agency or your consulting firms or you know, your RPO provider, whomever and say, you know, a, what is your, your policy here, in terms of the kinds of things you bring to us? And what kind of commitments you’re willing to make. And, you know, here’s what we’d like to see, whenever we’re looking at a particular tool or particular service, we’d like to make sure that you know, included in the demos, is one that you know, represents an underrepresented owner.

Chris Hoyt 12:53
Yeah, well, and I’ll tell you, Jerry, and I were super, super excited when you asked if we could help. And so for those who don’t know, we have a 501 C three, it’s a nonprofit, it’s the CSR Foundation. And we’re not going to put a little bit of muscle behind that to help with some of the heavy lifting that you and all the others who have begun this project have put together so we’re super excited. If you want to learn more about that you can go to CXR dot Foundation, there’s nothing on there yet about the diversity suppliers piece, but the diversity supplier site is up and running. Looks great. And I think we’ve got some stuff on there for everybody to certainly check out into share, or anything if anybody’s got one big takeaway from this, this conversation of you, what would you give them? What would you say to walk away from this quick conversation with?

Maury Hanigan 13:37
Um, I’d say walk away from first start and audit, go look at where you’re spending your money, and who owns those organizations and look for you know, if you’re looking for something new, something that you know, whether it will help your diversity or whether it just help your, your core process be more efficient, say, you know, is there another take, is there another approach to this? Who should I be listening to whose product should I be looking at? There may be something I haven’t thought of.

Chris Hoyt 14:02
I love it more, I just want to say thank you so much for giving us that time. We love that you’ve dedicated a little bit of heart not just work but a lot of heart to the space and we really appreciate you making time for the show.

Maury Hanigan 14:12
Well, thank you to see Eric’s for taking over. I mean, we’ve been all of us have other businesses and we have full time day jobs. So really appreciate you know, the foundation taking over some of the the lifting and the expense and the rest of it. So thank you.

Chris Hoyt 14:27
Oh, it’s good stuff we’re excited to do and just honored that we got to ask so thank you so much. Look for everybody that hanging in there with us. Just upcoming we’ve got a couple of things are all new CXR Lecture Series, brings experts to members and covers a wide array of topics we have brought in leaders and professionals to talk about empathy, storytelling, a couple of other items and I think coming up on March 24, we have invited Taz Latif. She’s the head of inclusion partnerships at Intuit. Now. She’s going to talk with us about unconscious bias. Also our next CXR book club meeting is April 1, that’s no joke. We’re discussing Ruth Bader Ginsburg that documentary that you can watch online. You can see it on TV too. It’s streaming. So you got to be watching it now if you’re going to join us because we’re gonna talk about on April 1, of course that’s open to anybody at all who would like to join and of course, until next week, we’re gonna see everybody out there at CXR.works thank you so much

CXR Announcer 15:22
Thanks for listening to the CXR channel please subscribe to CXR on your favorite podcast resource and leave us a review while you’re at it. Learn more about CXR at our website CXR.works facebook.com and twitter.com/CareerXroads and on Instagram at career X roads. We’ll catch you next time.