The Why: In an ever-changing landscape, Palaniappan and his team stay a step ahead of the curve to make sure Charter’s customer service platforms are best fit for agents to reach all customers. His team has helped Charter shift to digital self-service while continuing to innovate call centers. Palaniappan is also a step ahead when it comes to mentoring and developing diverse employees into leadership positions within the company.
He Says… “As leaders we need to double down and ensure our hiring managers have the tools and support they need to avoid unconscious bias in job candidates.”
How has advocating for DEI benefited your company or department? First, I didn’t know what to expect when I came to this country 20 years ago, but people were very open and willing to accept diversity and gave me chances, which has really helped me. Second, with the diverse teams I have been part of, the quality of discussions and ideas are better.
Place I would love to retire to: San Diego because it’s an all-weather city.
What practices should be adopted to make the hiring process more inclusive? Unfortunately, there is still some unconscious bias in hiring in workplaces. For example, people sometimes have the preconceived notion that people of a certain ethnicity are good at technology or not good at management. Whether someone is good at technology or management not does not have anything to do with their ethnicity. As leaders we need to double down and ensure our hiring managers have the tools and support they need to avoid unconscious bias in job candidates.
