Grant Will Support Equality Action Center’s Bias Interrupters Work with Private Sector

The Equality Action Center logo with EAC in multicolored letters above the words Research for Impact

UC Law San Francisco’s Equality Action Center will help 20 private-sector companies increase workers’ access to opportunities and improve performance evaluations thanks to a $200,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The new project will use EAC’s evidence-based Bias Interrupters model to help companies create a consistent employee experience and reduce systemic workplace bias.

Traditional workplace bias initiatives train individuals to recognize and self-correct their own biased behavior. But research shows that this approach has not noticeably improved outcomes – despite nearly $8 billion a year being spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

EAC’s Bias Interrupters model takes a different approach: fixing the work, not the worker.

Through the project, EAC will teach participating companies how to create a level playing field for all workers through research-based workshops and individualized attention via office hours. EAC also will engage in structured sustained partnerships with companies to improve workplace systems. There is no cost to the businesses, and EAC is seeking companies to participate.

The Bias Interrupters model has already produced measurable results at over a dozen organizations in a matter of months. For example:

  • An energy company working with EAC found that men and women did not have equal access to career-enhancing work, with 51% of men but only 38% of women being assigned career-enhancing core technical work. After implementing Bias Interrupters, the gap dropped to 0, as both men and women were assigned to core technical work evenly.
  • A consumer goods company found fewer than half of their employees received constructive feedback in their evaluations. After putting Bias Interrupters into place, the percentage of employees receiving evidence-based feedback increased by 52 percentage points.

EAC research has shown that creating a level playing field is good for business.

“It turns out that the most effective way to ensure a consistent employee experience is also the best way to control for legal and regulatory risk in an uncertain environment,” said Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law (Emerita) and Founding Director of Equality Action Center.

EAC is currently recruiting participating companies. For more information or to get involved, contact EAC Director of Research Rachel Korn at: kornrachel@uclawsf.edu

About Equality Action Center

Equality Action Center at UC Law SF seeks to advance racial, gender, and class equality in the workplace and in politics. Our initiatives address inequality at a structural level with concrete, evidence-based interventions. We lead programs that cultivate leadership and level the playing field for everyone. Our focus is pragmatic: our rigorous research is linked with practical steps to produce social or organizational change within a two- to five-year time frame.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.