Add CategoryIn 2021, an IGA store in Australia was publicly called out for racial profiling. The store, in Melbourne’s west, had posted a sign on the cash register mentioning the need for “extra assistance” if an African customer were to walk into the store. A photo of the racist sign went viral on social media and was picked up by news outlets like SBS. For Black, Brown and Indigenous People of Colour, this was not new news, but something that has been a perpetual issue and conversation in their co
communities. What is racial profiling? For the purposes of this article, let’s clarify what racial profiling is: a belief that someone has committed an offence (or will do so) because of their race or ethnicity. These biases are often created by organisational culture, policies, media influence and sociocultural conditioning. As a result of these biases, when we suspect that someone has or will commit an offence such as shoplifting because of their race or ethnicity, we can behave in ways that are discriminatory, exclusionary and racist. It’s almost like a switch in our brain is flicked on; our conditioning tells us to judge and impulsively react to these stimuli without a second thought or feeling. This makes racial profiling a challenge to stamp out in stores – but not impossible. Here’s a closer look at the key ways leaders can do this, and the risks they face if they ignore the issue. The answer lies between stimulus and response For brands, the challenge is in supporting team members in developing the skill to pause between stimulus (ingrained biases and beliefs wired into our neural pathways) and response (behaviour) to create a more inclusive in-store experience for all customers. The opportunity is in creating a new neural pathway; by practising new inclusive behaviours repeatedly, we create new inclusive beliefs. We can help team members turn down the volume on their biases and turn up the volume on inclusion. A single public incident can break entire communities’ trust in a brand for years and mar the brand as racist. Having the organisational commitment to practising and instilling inclusive behaviour promotes allyship and inclusion as part of your brand identity, building consumer trust, engagement and interaction. The juggle for leaders As a diversity and inclusion consultant, I deeply understand the complexity for leaders in managing numerous stores that are often spread nationally and internationally, as well as the challenge of externally managing an in-store workforce where there is minimal visibility across the day-to-day interactions, behaviours and communications between store members and customers. In addition to this, we are working in a volatile time and often in fast-paced, rapidly evolving and highly competitive industries. To proactively create inclusive in-store experiences for all customers, leaders must navigate business as usual while also committing themselves to understanding what is really going on in stores for all consumers, including those who may not be your customers, and why. Just because you have received only one formal complaint of racial profiling or discrimination in a year does not mean that it is not happening on a regular basis. Most experiences go unreported because of the constant fatigue for customers who are racially profiled and discriminated against in stores, as well as the fear they hold of being retaliated against, treated unfairly or re-traumatised when reporting incidents. Based on my observations, I would estimate that 90-95 per cent of racist incidents go unreported to brands. But we are very slowly starting to see that this may be shifting as more and more consumers take to social media to speak up. You can’t outsource listening as a leader In the innovation and start-up space, there is a phrase that goes, ‘get out of the building’. This is the key to leaders understanding how we can create and integrate inclusion into our brand identity by proactively generating inclusive in-store experiences. Great leaders spend more time in stores than in the office, listening and observing. In shop talk, some of us may call it ‘walking the shop floor’. When listening to a podcast recently, I heard that we can’t ‘outsource listening to pulse (people) surveys’. The same is true of the customer experience. You. can’t outsource listening to customers Although the topic of racial profiling in stores may be ‘heavy’ for leaders, what we know for sure is that consumer behaviour is on a rapid trend towards consciousness. Inclusion, ethics and sustainability are high on the shopping list for customers. To not pay attention is detrimental for brands and leaders. If you want to minimise racial profiling and create a more inclusive in-store experience, you must develop a solid and consistent practice of listening and observing.