Inspiring Workers to Take Action in the Movement Towards Social Justice

BY Maddie Connors | December 25, 2022

In the summer of 2020, in the face of ongoing racial injustice, Hoai Scott’s mission began to change. “I dedicated my life to changing narratives. And I fully intended to retire early from the corporate world in order to do this work full-time. And that all changed with George Floyd’s murder,” said Scott, the SVP of HR for the filmed-entertainment division of NBCUniversal. Scott decided to use her passion for social justice within her company to create an anti-racist workplace. 

In a fireside chat about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, part of From Day One’s recent conference in Los Angeles, Scott first addressed her personal ties to diversity. She was a refugee from Vietnam in 1975 and experienced both the warmth and isolation of the immigrant experience. Married to a Black man and being the mother of a biracial son, she had many worrying conversations with her son about police brutality. As anti-Asian crimes and inequality were mounting during Covid, Scott began to share her story in the workplace. “All of a sudden, I was talking about this, and our employees’ eyes were opened. We’ve never really talked openly about racism before at work.” These conversations created compassion, and Scott’s coworkers were eager to be part of the solution. 

Inclusivity needs to be a universal value throughout the company, Scott told moderator Alison Brower, Los Angeles bureau chief for Insider. She emphasized the need for a top-down effort, which has been achieved at her workplace through an inclusion committee. “This group has five pillars of work: culture and belonging, workplace practices, business practices, and partnerships, as well as creative partners and storytelling because we are a film organization,” said Scott. “And the final piece is around social transformation, which is how to create equity and justice in our local communities.” With a concerted effort, Scott explained that employees feel proud that their company has a meaningful culture outside of HR. 

Scott also spoke enthusiastically about the company’s work with second-chance hiring, a program that gives formerly incarcerated people employment opportunities. NBCUniversal has hired 17 formerly incarcerated people as interns, which have become full-time roles. “The stereotype is that formerly incarcerated people are dangerous and threatening. Untouchable. And what we’re trying to change the narrative to hard-working, organized, an important contributor.” Scott said that the program has been an opportunity to help people reimagine their future, many of which have been affected by systemic racism and unemployment. 

Storytelling can also be a powerful tool in uplifting marginalized voices, Scott argues. In recent years, NBCUniversal has been committed to telling stories about marginalized communities. “We have a very good history of telling these stories.” Over the years, Universal films like Straight Outta Compton, Brokeback Mountain, and more recently the gay romantic comedy Bros, have showcased diverse perspectives for communities that don’t often populate the silver screen. 

Finally, Scott expressed that inclusive workplaces give companies a competitive advantage. Diverse teams offer top-level creativity and innovation, she asserted. “When you allow an opportunity for people to really come and thrive, they’re going to give you their best work.” One of the ways to ensure these employees’ success is through feedback to develop their skills. “And so, when you give feedback, it really is an act of equity. It's an act of justice.”

Scott concluded that, with support from leadership, inclusivity measures can be integrated every day. “There are so many practical day-to-day ways to implement DEI. And I think we have to because employees expect it right there, holding us accountable for it. And so, we keep the work going, and we make it a priority.”

Maddie Connors is a comedian and writer based in Los Angeles who has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and W magazine. She currently hosts a stand-up show called Icons Only at the Elysian theater and her stand-up has been featured in the Los Angeles Times.  

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You’re kind of viewed as just a piece of paper,” she said. “It’s not a recruiter’s fault, it’s just the landscape right now.”Kelly Bourdet, the founder of Apparata Media, far left, moderated the discussion At Employ, which owns platforms like Lever, Jobvite, and JazzHR, Stevens is helping shape how technology can drive more intentional, inclusive hiring. With the recent acquisition of Pillar AI, Employ is adding tools that not only transcribe interviews but also help deliver feedback and better match candidates to roles. But data is only powerful when it’s used well. Stevens emphasized the importance of reviewing candidate source data to track diversity metrics and refine outreach strategies. Ultimately, the role of AI and data not just as a way to fill roles faster, but as a means to support people, says Stevens. “Our audience is overwhelmed,” she said. “We just need to be there to support, coach, and guide.”Skill-Matching Technology New York Life is harnessing AI-powered skill-matching tools to enhance the recruiting process for both candidates and hiring teams. 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Carrie Snider June 12, 2025

How Women Can Build “Experience Capital” to Overcome Obstacles to Career Success

Despite years of inclusion initiatives, the statistics for women in the workforce today are bleak. “At the entry level in the United States and around the world, for every 100 men who are promoted, there are 89 white women, but only 64 Latina women and 54 Black women,” said  Kweilin Ellingrud, senior partner, director of McKinsey Global Institute, and head of diversity and inclusion at McKinsey & Company.Ellingrud, also the co-author of The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women—and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It, spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Minneapolis conference. Since about 70% of employees across the talent pipeline are entry level, and 48% of them are women, this “broken rung” along the career ladder leads to a major disparity in representation among leadership roles. Her new book, based on extensive research, identifies the broken rung as more pervasive than the glass ceiling in holding back women from career success. Ellingrud reveals the problem’s underlying cause and where the solution lies: women need to build their “experience capital” to level the playing field and maximize their earning potential—and employers need to do more to address these inequalities in the workplace.How Experience Capital Can Help Women Thrive Ellingrud points out that women’s high achievements in early life often don’t translate to later career success, due in part to that broken rung. “Women today in the U.S. and most developed countries, receive about 59% of college degrees, are 70% of valedictorians, have higher average GPAs, [the] majority of master's degrees, and majority of PhDs. Women academically have been outperforming men for 40 years,” she said. 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Remarkably, knowing that a man has children can work in his favor, as he becomes viewed as more trustworthy and stable, even more so the more children he has. That’s “the fatherhood bonus.” This means women need to be thoughtful in their approach to maternity leave so that they don’t lose momentum and keep building experience capital.They also must take their health into account. “Women, on average, live longer than men. We also live 25% more years in poor health” Ellingrud said, as they are more likely to be misdiagnosed or not taken seriously when they have a concern. Women have lower retirement savings, so they live less comfortably later on, and are less likely to be involved in financial decisions, even when they know just as much as their male partners. All of this comes down to smart planning for the future. Ellingrud and her co-authors compiled more than a decade of research and interviewed 50 women before deciding to write the book. She hopes that the information can empower women to make better career decisions. “Every time I would share [the research], I felt like it was new news to so many people,” she said. “And if you don’t know the facts, how can we make the best decisions and tradeoffs for ourselves?”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Top Think, and several printed essay collections, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photos by Travis Johansen for From Day One)

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Once seen as back-office support, HR and benefits teams are now central to both business success and the employee experience.“Employees come to us as if we’re an educated consumer, understanding the health issues that they’re facing, that their colleagues are facing, requesting certain products and services,” said Stevi Evans, senior director of benefits at Weight Watchers. That’s a good thing, as far as she’s concerned. Not only does it indicate trust in the HR department, it also means that she can hear from employees, first hand, about what they need. “It’s definitely a new dynamic that has helped employees stay more engaged.”Evans and her colleagues in corporate benefits gathered for a panel on flexible benefits during From Day One’s NYC half-day benefits conference. 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Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza June 04, 2025