Inclusive By Design

At Ceresa, we have invested years of research in delivering world-class professional development at scale, and we have a clearly defined set of core design principles that enable this. One of the most critical is “inclusive by design”.

Why does it matter?

Lack of diversity impacts business

The data is compelling: A 2020 McKinsey research found that the most diverse companies are now more likely to outperform their less diverse peers by 36 percent. According to a Catalyst study, Fortune 500 companies with female board members outperformed those with none on equity (ROE) by 53%.

Lack of diversity impacts recruiting

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts also impact recruiting talent. Among Millennials, 86% of women and 74% of men consider an employer’s policies on diversity, equality, and inclusion when deciding which company to work for.

Lack of inclusivity impacts succession planning

Representation drops off very quickly for both gender and race/ethnicity at the first-time manager level. A professional development solution must be more scalable to reach talent earlier in their career in sustaining your leadership pipeline. 

Where are we?

The Lack of representation in leadership

When Boston Consulting Group (BCG) first reported more men named John than women among CEOs of the S&P 1500 in 2015, the implications were sobering. Women accounted for just 14.2% of the roles, which dips down to 5.8% at the CEO level. Over the past six years, the gains in representation for women have improved across most of the corporate pipeline. However, there are still significant gaps: The percentage of women promoted to manager positions is much lower than men. And women only account for 24% of the C-suite, which is three times less than male executives.

The view for women of color is much worse: according to a 2021 McKinsey study, they account for just 9% of senior managers/directors, 12% of VP/senior vice presidents, and 4% of the C-suite.

History shows that black workers have been overrepresented in entry-level jobs and underrepresented in senior roles. Based on several sources, this trend continues to exist today:

• In 2021, black workers made up 12% of the entry-level workforce and just 7% of the managerial workforce.

• Black employees are 35% more likely to intend to leave their company than white, with black women the most likely to leave.

What does that mean to be “inclusive by design”?

Ceresa provides professional development for all, and by “ALL,” we deliberately include under-represented groups in leadership today.  

We recognize that many formal training programs and career growth models have not been designed to be inclusive and therefore fail to meet the needs of under-represented, more diverse talent. 

However, there is no fundamental capability gap – the issue is an ACCESS gap. Ceresa invested years of research in designing a solution that delivers access and impact to all at scale.  

How does “inclusive by design” show up at Ceresa?

There are 8 key aspects of Ceresa that are specifically designed to address inequities in how under-represented talent receives professional development:

1. Convenience 

• Challenge: The burden of caregiving responsibilities falls disproportionately on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) populations, and the vast majority of household chores are performed by women (even in dual-income, heterosexual relationships). These additional time commitments can make it much harder to show up to a specific training session at a specific time (e.g. Training sessions at 5 pm on Thursday). In the US, women spend 1.5 hours more on unpaid work daily than men, and 40% of family caregivers identify as BIPOC.

• Ceresa design: Ceresa is designed to be accessed whenever convenient–even in your PJs with a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning or during your train ride on the way to your office. Ceresa can be consumed in bite sizes for five to ten minutes (encouraged) or in larger blocks of time – whatever works best with your schedule! 

2. Access

• Challenge: World-class business schools and institutions are often out of reach of those with lower financial resources and in specific geographic areas. Some of the most dynamic and successful companies are headquartered in certain elite areas, making the location of very senior leaders and experts also geographically concentrated. In short, simple access to high-quality professional development resources is inequitable.

• Ceresa design: No matter where you live, you should have access to the best leaders, mentors, experts in the world – and those that fit your specific goals and needs. That is why Ceresa was designed to be virtual from day one. Furthermore, a key principle at Ceresa is to remain as affordable as possible rather than creating another expensive solution that could cost ten grand per year or more. Whether individuals choose to pay for the Ceresa platform themselves or get assistance from their companies to access the program – we want to reach as many people as possible. 

3. Aspirations

• Challenge: The number of women aspiring to senior leadership roles drops precipitously within less than 5 years of working. A study shows that 43% of women aspire to reach top management compared to 34% of men. After two years of experience, that number plummets nearly threefold for women, to just 16%, while it remains at 34% for men. Research in the UK found that 21% of black children believed the color of their skin would impact their job prospects (compared to 2% of white children).

• Ceresa design: Ceresa incorporates a reflection on values and a broader life vision statement exercise (the last line of Mary Oliver poem frames this – “Tell me what is it you want to do with your one wild and precious life”). This helps individuals ground in their “why” – what they are working towards across their life – helping to align their professional aspirations.

4. Feedback

• Challenge: Challenge: HBR research shows that feedback provided to women tends to be less actionable and less useful for leadership progression than feedback given to men, making it less likely that women will advance to more senior positions. Women of color also report receiving less support from their managers.

• Ceresa design: Ceresa offers a highly effective 360 feedback tool for all members, providing quantitative and qualitative feedback from a broad range of colleagues on competencies, development opportunities, blind spots, and advice. This tool is consistently rated very highly by Ceresa members.

5. Mentors

• Challenge: Black employees are 23% less likely to receive support to advance. One in five women never has access to a mentor. The lack of representation of women of color in senior leadership roles makes it even harder for women of color to find mentors like themselves.

• Ceresa design: Ceresa provides hundreds of mentor stories from a diverse group of leaders sharing their life with you. Our curriculum allows access to people you wouldn’t have access to yourself and provides a broad range of lessons for you to learn different perspectives and see what most resonates with you.

6. Whole-person

• Challenge: Women take on the lion’s share of household responsibilities even in dual-income households, and BIPOC populations make up a disproportionate share of caregiver responsibilities. Women are even more burned out now than they were a year ago, and the gap in burnout between women and men has almost doubled. These additional burdens place a higher likelihood of stress, lack of time, and mental health decline, with both women and BIPOC populations more likely to leave their employers.

• Ceresa design: We fundamentally believe that it is part of professional development to help address all aspects of well-being, so an individual can perform at their best. Ceresa provides coaching exercises, mentor stories, and expert learning content around mental health, resilience, nutrition, and more.

7. Next Level Skills

• Challenge: The first-time manager level is the largest drop in the diversity pipeline (for gender and racial diversity). For every 100 men promoted to manager, there are

  • 85 women

  • 71 Latina women 

  • 58 Black women

The skills required to navigate this transition are hard to learn in a classroom - management skills, influencing skills, communication skills, and strategic thinking. If you don’t have a mentor or coach helping you, it can be hard to know these are critical factors.

• Ceresa design: Ceresa provides 360-degree feedback that ensures individuals understand what types of capabilities they need to work on. These common competencies are a core part of our learning curriculum – with structured learning content and mentor stories to help individuals grow in these areas. Ceresa helps identify blind spots and then provides ways to make tangible improvements.

8. Belonging

• Challenge: Many women, BIPOC, and other under-represented groups experience self-doubt and imposter syndrome at their workplace. This oppression takes its toll mentally and professionally.

• Ceresa design: Unlike many other environments, we want all people to feel like they belong and are safe as soon as they access Ceresa. With visual representation, the choice of language, and various design treatments, Ceresa ensures the experts and speakers who are leaders in their fields come from a broad range of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. You will see a rainbow of people when you first come into Ceresa and know you are home.

Does your existing approach to professional development address these eight criteria?

If not, come and speak with us about how we can support you – helping you to keep and grow the talent you work so hard to recruit – for less than the price of your coffee and bagel each week.

We’d be delighted to show you how Ceresa works to support all your teams. Please schedule a demo here, or reach out for more information.