Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Bell.
Hi Kristin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My passion and purpose surround increasing access to life-changing opportunities for systemically excluded, underserved, and underestimated communities via deploying systemic solutions that aim to push the boundaries of excellence and innovation. I have always been passionate about advocating for others and empowering people to find their voice. I’m a firm believer that if more people knew the power they possessed, the world we live in would be a different place; in this case, the workplace.
As a DEI practitioner (HR professional by trade), I know that many loop holes exist within people processes in the HR function that result in inconsistencies and subjectivity, many times at the detriment to people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and women.
In 2020, I joined a Facebook group for Black women in tech with the intention of sourcing for talent and sharing opportunities. In the midst of joining and sharing, I observed the stories and requests for support from many of the 10K+ fellow Black women. One thing that has remained true since the first day I joined is that Black women were having similar experiences around discrimination, harassment, bullying, and retaliation in the workplace, many times impacting their employment, work environment, and advancement opportunities. In December of 2020, I experienced this first had when my VP described me as defensive and aggressive, and even included this language in my performance review. While the rating was a standard “meets expectations”, she intentionally included harmful language that would follow me throughout my career. This is following the “interaction” we had earlier in the year with me educating her on why the term ‘aggressive’ was biased against women of color, specifically Black women. When the language revealed itself in my performance review, that was the moment I decided to act and file my first EEOC claim. I learned a lot about the process and it piqued my interest of what needs to happen for people to be successful in holding their employer accountable.
In 2022, I was assigned three mentees through my company mentoring program, with two of the mentees being teammates in HR (one Hispanic woman and one Black woman). They were early in the HR career, and I was excited to pour into them from my experiences while helping to guide their development journey. In August of 2022, both began experiencing challenges with their manager around expectations and performance. The Hispanic woman kept receiving vague feedback about her communication without specific examples. The Black woman kept receiving feedback about her personality and needing to speak up on topics outside the scope of her role. It’s important to note that their manager was a white woman who was a new manager. In fact, majority of the HR team is white women.
Ultimately, they both received PIPs (performance improvement plans) and were given 30 days to improve. The problem with both of their PIPs was that they were subjective, unclear on what needed to be done, lacked resources, didn’t define the manager’s responsibility, and were poorly delivered. I was even more shocked by the fact that my fellow HR counterpart reviewed the PIPs and supported them being issued (hence the subjective loopholes mentioned earlier). In response, I supported my mentees by coaching them on writing 15-page addendums to challenge their PIPs (something that the HR team at this organization was not used to. This was an important moment for my mentees to learn how to advocate for themselves and to dig deeper to find the loopholes that would discredit actions created by flawed people processes within HR for accountability. While both employees were let go during a layoff a few weeks later, it was a meaningful experience for them. It was a learning experience for the company as well to make sure they have better processes and policies in place that don’t create a risk for the organization.
After this experience and the continued stories of other Black women, I shared these stories with my co-founder, Laneisha Roberts. She challenged me to solve the problem (be the change I wished to see), and CultureCite was born. Laneisha has played an instrumental role in the technological design and testing of our platform. Her own set of shared experiences also helped to shape the user experience.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road thus far has been steady without many bumps along the way. The idea was conceptualized in November 2022. We partnered with developers from February – July 2023 to create the MVP and launched in beta to gather user feedback on August 1, 2023. Many of our learnings along the way have been with navigating the legal landscape, the importance of research, and how to connect with users.
As you know, we’re big fans of CultureCite. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
CultureCite is the only platform specifically designed for employees to navigate unfair and unlawful workplace experiences. We are focused on empowering and enabling employees to track their experiences and hold employers accountable.
Our platform is designed to help employees capture the necessary information needed to successfully act in filing a claim with the EEOC (according to federal guidelines) and/or work directly with an employment attorney. In addition to helping maintain proper documentation, we aim to be a premier hub for connecting employees with local employment attorneys, as employment laws can vary by state in addition to the federal standard.
We are on a mission to progress diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces one situation at a time through accountability.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
ReviewTailor – a performance management software that helps write equitable performance reviews in seconds; single user solution and business solution available
Contact Info:
- Website: www.culturecite.com
- Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/culturecite/ - Linkedin: https://www.
linkedin.com/company/ culturecite/
