How To Create More Inclusive Workplaces
Interview with Authority Magazine
Creating inclusive workplaces is crucial for any organization that wants to get the most out of its talent. This means creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong, has equal opportunities, is empowered to do their best work, and feels comfortable making requests and contributing ideas. In this series, we asked prominent HR and business leaders about the steps they take to create more inclusive workplaces. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Maurice Harary.
Maurice Harary is the co-founder and CEO of The Bid Lab, a consulting company dedicated to helping small and medium-sized businesses find, manage and build their RFPs and proposals. His experience building a company that started with just $1,500 into a company that has grown tremendously is a great way to help with stories and pitches outside of just procurement and the RFP process. Furthermore, he has helped countless small and medium-sized businesses win their first multi-million-dollar deals, and helping smaller businesses drives The Bid Lab’s mission!
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we drive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better.
Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Asa middle child in a family of six children, I draw parallels between my upbringing and my love of the bidding process: both require being an expert navigator of complex situations and contrasting personalities.
I attribute this ability to the experiences I had growing up. Born and raised in New York City, I attended New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and graduated with a degree in Business and Political Economy. I knew, however, that I wanted to see, learn and experience more than what one city had to offer. So I committed to spending semesters in both London and Shanghai. Living in foreign cities taught me about the intertwining nature of business, politics, economics, and culture, which has been invaluable in my career thus far.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I made some foolish assumptions about who my first clients would be. I learned that it’s not about the size of a client, but about how much you can assist a business. One of our best clients came to us with just over $100,000 in revenue, and we have grown together to be multi-million dollar businesses!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Did you know that the vast majority of married couples choose not to work together? My wife and I are the exception. Jordan is my partner in every sense of the word. Back in 2017, she was climbing the ladder in the automotive industry while I was working at IHS Markit. Jordan was tasked with completing an RFP for her business and hired an outside consultant for assistance. When we saw the final work product, we saw the subpar quality accepted by the industry. The formatting was off, the writing was shoddy and the information was not even compliant. She called me and we worked through the night putting together a proposal she could stand behind. It was then that we realized combining her writing talent with my RFP knowledge was a winning formula for success.
Since then, we’ve created the world’s leading RFP company, had two daughters, and recently launched our own RFP search engine, Bid Banana.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There is an old Japanese proverb: “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” Throughout the years as we have continued to expand and grow, there have been inevitable hiccups along the way. The key to overcoming these hiccups is that we EXPECTED them to happen. You have to be prepared for and accept bumps in the road when you are trying to do something great. What’s great is that we always get back up, even if the fall was so hard it sometimes takes a second to heal.
Thinking back on your own career, what would you tell your younger self?
There is an old Japanese proverb: “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” Throughout the years as we have continued to expand and grow, there have been inevitable hiccups along the way. The key to overcoming these hiccups is that we EXPECTED them to happen. You have to be prepared for and accept bumps in the road when you are trying to do something great. What’s great is that we always get back up, even if the fall was so hard it sometimes takes a second to heal.
Let’s now move to the central part of our interview. What systems do you have to ensure your workplace is as inclusive as possible?
My consulting company is remote by design, which allows me to hire the best employees. I know that effective internal communications are the foundation of a positive company culture. We encourage team members to take breaks and recharge and do not penalize or discourage them from using their entitled PTO.
Based on your experience and success, what are your top five tips for creating more inclusive workplaces? Please share a story or an example for each.
1 . Over the years, we’ve tried to build a positive workplace culture in our remote environment by embracing the fundamental do’s and don’ts of effective text-based workplace conversations.
2 . We remind our team about the pitfalls of misconstruing ambiguity and tone within emails and texting platforms.
3 . As leaders, we try to be up-front and transparent about what’s expected and frowned upon in the general chat — leadership should set the tone.
4 . We do our best to keep our communication channels organized and accessible to make messaging throughout the company as effortless as possible.
5 . While on-site organizations have in-person opportunities to build on those foundations, many remote companies are limited to conducting internal communications through long-distance text-based messaging platforms. These limitations make it all the more necessary for remote companies to implement guidelines and strategies to ensure text-based messaging contributes to an inclusive, healthy, and positive workplace culture amongst everyone on the team.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen businesses make while trying to become more inclusive? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
Stability, security & success. A recession is a time of anxiety for everyone, especially those who have lost their positions through the financial crises in 2007. When people hear the word ‘recession,’ it causes fear for their jobs, loss of income, and inability to find work. Considering that people work for most of their days, and their work impacts their non-work lives, having a stable and secure position is the bedrock for an individual’s success both in their career and their personal lives.
As an employer, it is critical to be transparent about the risk of losing or retaining a position through tough economic cycles. If you are able to grow during a recession, explain how and why to employees so they feel your confidence. If you are anticipating a negative impact on your business, work with your team to be aware of the challenges you are facing so you can all work together to overcome them. Either way, you’ll garner trust and confidence from your team when other employers may be holding back!
How do you measure the effectiveness of your DEI efforts?
We’ve hired single mothers who need to be able to be home with sick kids, parents who homeschool, and employees who are taking care of elderly relatives. By distributing the workload and responsibilities among team members and promoting a healthy work culture, my team benefits. The flexibility of remote work makes it easier for employees to prioritize their families. And ultimately, my company is able to benefit from a diverse pool of talent. We’re able to foster a more inclusive work environment because we prioritize a work/life balance. This is something other, more traditional companies just don’t always capitalize on.
Are there other organizations you admire for their approach to DEI? Can you please explain why?
A lot of people feel threatened by things like Chat GPT, but what I am more interested in is how people are using technology to supplement and support the human element — not replace it. I believe making things easy and accessible is opening up an entirely new world that will support human innovation and creativity. For example, we use Google products all the time, and we are currently exploring some cool ways to implement them through our newly launched software.
What do you do to address Proximity Bias? How do you ensure remote workers are treated the same as onsite workers and have equal access to opportunities?
We encourage knowledge-sharing and collaboration within our learning culture by removing knowledge silos. Using platforms like Slack, we to encourage open channels of communication. We also hold weekly calls to discuss collaborations, chat, and generally share what we know. As a 100% remote company, it’s important to us that we facilitate spaces and places where this knowledge-sharing can occur.
We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.
I’d love to meet Jeff Dean, the head of AI at Google. We use Google products all the time, and we are currently exploring some cool ways to implement AI through our newly launched software. He is brilliant and has been with Google since 1999.
Link to interview with Authority Magazine: Maurice Harary Of The Bid Lab On How To Create More Inclusive Workplaces
