The former CHRO of Equifax and Coca-Cola talks DEI, ESG and company culture

After spending more than 35 years working in human resources, Coretha Rushing has learned a thing or two about creating company cultures that employees respond to.

The executive coach and former CHRO at Equifax and Coca-Cola has recently joined the board of ThredUp, an online marketplace for secondhand clothes. The new post at the mission-driven company comes at a time when workers around the globe are thinking about the bigger role they play within an organization, Rushing says.

“People want to see a greater purpose in the job they have, irrespective of the level of skills and capabilities that they bring,” she says. “ThredUp, which is changing the consumer’s view of secondhand clothing and keeping clothes out of landfills, offers a chance for employees to do well and do good.”

Read more: How to create a company no one wants to leave

Rushing spoke with EBN about how the employer and employee relationship has changed in recent years, detailing ways managers can play a bigger role in their team’s success, how to communicate in a remote workplace, and why the success of a company comes down to a rich culture.

Courtesy of ThredUp

How have you seen the workplace, and what employees want from it, change over the years? Has that evolution been accelerated as a result of the pandemic?
This whole concept of employers trying to create the best workplace, that’s been going on for 20 years. Some companies may have paid lip service to it, but the better employers that have been able to attract and retain employees over time have been the companies that are connected not only to a financial mission, but the community that they service and that they’re part of. I started my career at IBM, for example, and IBM always worked on making sure that the educational systems, in the cities where we had our big plants and facilities, were good. Employees always volunteered at local charities, especially in the area of education.

Now, companies are being more explicit about those efforts, and trying to solicit from employees: How should our organization serve our community? I’ve never worked at any company that, at some point in time, didn’t say that people are their greatest asset. But over these last 18 months, it’s never been more true. If you haven’t valued your people, they’ve made the decision to work somewhere else.

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We’ve talked a lot through the pandemic about employees feeling more comfortable speaking up and offering feedback to their employers. How do you see the smart companies responding?
There’s always been that saying: people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. But with this hybrid model we’re in, you can’t manage from the top. So we’re seeing companies really trying to equip their rank-and-file managers to have conversations with their teams, and make sure that each individual manager is connecting with his or her people and getting feedback.

What are some ways that companies can help managers, especially young or new managers, understand how to support employees?
My heart goes out to new managers because it’s really hard right now. But there are no experiences or feelings that managers are having that the people who report to them aren’t also having. We’re all going through this pandemic. But I always say to managers, there are three magic questions that you should be asking each person on your team at least once a week. First, what are you working on? Because especially in a remote world, project direction can change, and you want to make sure that no one is spending time on something that’s no longer valuable. Second, how can I help you? And that’s not about doing someone’s job, it’s about getting things out of their way and referring them to people who can help them complete the task. And the final question is, how are you doing? If you ask those questions, you get to the real issue that might be bothering people.

In recent years, companies have gotten really good about talking about ESG and DEI, but often, employees don’t report seeing a lot of action on those fronts. How can that change?
On the ESG front, it’s important to understand that it’s not a one-time thing. It’s a long-term thing. Communicating to employees where your company stands today, environmentally — the good, the bad, the ugly, and your plans to improve — shows that you intend to make a difference and hold your system accountable, even if those results don’t occur overnight.

And when it comes to DEI, I think in general, companies have done a pretty good job trying to attract and hire a diverse workforce. Where I see companies fail is, they hire a number of women and people of color, but two years later we’re back where we started, because those people chose not to stay. If those people don’t progress through the ranks, we’re not making any progress.

Read more: LinkedIn report spotlights the biggest trends coming to the workplace in 2022

What’s the fix if that’s happening?
That’s where culture comes into play. Think of it like a party: You and I can plan a great party and invite a whole bunch of different and diverse people, and we’ll send out the invite and let everyone know that it’s going to be a slamming party, and we get all these people to come. That part is easy. But once they’re at the party, are they going to see food and drinks and hear music that they like? Or are they going to be uncomfortable because they’re a beer-drinking person but we only have wine? And then the hardest part of having a party is, if you’ve got a dance floor, people have to get on the dance floor and then get off to keep the party engaged. At a business, if your revenue is static, sometimes people will have to leave and get off the dance floor so to speak, and you’ll have to adjust your strategies to both grow that revenue and build an inclusive and engaged workforce.