To Celebrate Black History Month, Paradigm for Parity® Coalition Member Companies Reflect on how they Elevate Black Women Leaders

A conversation with Jil Littlejohn, Director of Learning Development and Diversity Inclusions & Engagement for Hubbell Incorporated

To commemorate Black History Month, the Paradigm for Parity® coalition spoke with executives in our member companies who are responsible for diversity and inclusion programs to learn how each is using the coalition’s 5-Point Action Plan to address the unique challenges facing women of different backgrounds in order to close the gender gap in corporate leadership.

Below is our conversation with Jil Littlejohn, Director of Learning Development and Diversity Inclusions & Engagement for Hubbell Incorporated. Littlejohn offers specifics about the company’s journey to help elevate Black women within the company.

Why did Hubbell join the Paradigm for Parity® coalition?

Our Chairman and CEO, Dave Nord, led the charge for Hubbell to join the Paradigm for Parity® coalition because he understands that true gender equality starts from the top. He stated, “Diversity of ideas will make the difference between where a company is today and where it is five, 10 and 20 years from now.”

How does Hubbell support black women within the organization?

WATCH, or Women Advancing Their Careers at Hubbell, is an employee inclusion group that is focused on providing opportunities for all women that includes development and formal mentoring relationships. Our Development committee is currently chaired by an African-American woman who is helping lead the group to select topics important to women to help in personal and professional development. We provide leadership opportunities that give women an opportunity to expand their knowledge, showcase their skills, and provide access to members of our leadership team for exposure.

When you look at the Paradigm for Parity® coalition 5-Point Action Plan, is there a particular step that you think is most critical to ensuring women of color have the same opportunities for advancement as their colleagues?

There are two steps on the 5-point Action Plan that are critical to the ensuring advancement opportunities of women of color: ‘Minimize or Eliminate Unconscious Bias’ and ‘Identify Women of Potential and Give Them Sponsors, as well as Mentors.’ Education is key to bringing the idea of unconscious bias to the discussion table in an open manner. It provides a place to unpack previously held ideas that one may not have realized is a bias and therefore, a barrier. Understanding how that unconscious bias may be hindering their ability to help eliminate barriers for women and particularly women of color, is critical. WATCH has also helped provide a formal mentoring program to women at Hubbell. This has been an important endeavor for us as we provide both women and men as mentors, the benefit to both our mentees and mentors has been tremendous. As pairings have been successful, we have found organic sponsorships evolve as leaders get insight to talent they wouldn’t normally have met or engaged with. We want to capitalize on the success of this program to help build a blueprint for proactively aligning sponsorship in addition to mentors.

What steps has Hubbell taken to ensure that its WATCH (Women Advancing Their Careers at Hubbell) Initiative is accessible to black women and other women of color?

WATCH’s mission is to inspire the women of Hubbell to pursue their personal and professional goals, surpass their own expectations, and support other women within the network. We created WATCH Regional Chapters to bring women together at a local level to engage in professional development, quality discussions, enjoyable events and more. Regional Chapters provide an opportunity for women to network regularly at the local level, across groups and functions, in a variety of ways. Support from the local businesses enable the chapters to involve both salaried and hourly employees in these events to help promote the message of WATCH and develop women at every level of the organization.

What role do you feel mentorship and sponsorship plays in helping women ascend to leadership positions? How does Hubbell ensure that black women have mentors and sponsors?

Our mentoring program allows women to create their own pathway to success which allows them to ascend to leadership positions. The Mentoring Program offers women the opportunity to work one-on-one with experienced business leaders. The mentee identifies certain objectives that she wants to accomplish through this relationship. Examples, such as, leadership skills, understanding Hubbell’s structure or learning about a new business function. The mentor is aligned based on the objectives of the mentee and they make a commitment to each other with agreed upon objectives during the program. The program is advertised throughout the company globally and is open to any female employee who wishes to participate.