Diversity is not philanthropy, but business sustainability, says Nubank executive

Since Nubank’s co-founder, Cristina Junqueira, declared on national television that she could not “level down” fintech recruitment criteria to increase the entry of minority groups, the theme of diversity has gained more and more space at the bank.

“Today, we have numbers to show: we hired 1,230 black people in the last year, which corresponds to 48% of the total number of people hired, and in year 1 we hit a goal of 5 years”, celebrates Helena Bertho, 41, global director of Nubank’s diversity and inclusion.

“We cannot accept that, in Brazil, only 6% of managerial positions are occupied by black professionals. There are 56% of self-declared black people in the country”, says she, who coordinates a team with professionals focused on topics such as racial diversity. and gender, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities and parenting.

“The pandemic’s home office has created very different conditions between parental figures, with children at home, and people who do not have this context. What is the impact of this on people and on their work? So, we created a parenting group with a framework that addresses these issues.”

For her, diversity has a direct impact on the operating result and concerns the sustainability of the business. “It’s about a diverse team and an inclusive environment, but also about innovation and development of products and services”, she evaluates.

Helena counts facing diversity and inclusion not as an area, but as a perspective. “It guides our decision-making and innovation processes, in addition to the positive impact we will have on society. It is a business perspective that will even guarantee their sustainability.”

Is diversity today fashionable? Diversity is a much more heated topic, the consolidation of discussions that started back there. You can’t even say it’s a trend. Due to the democratization of networks and important debates that have taken place in society, diversity has gained the spotlight. I can’t see it as fashion because diversity is about people. And people are not in fashion. People exist. What we need is to address your questions.

Is there a positive relationship between diversity and financial performance? I think it has an impact on people, on their performance, on innovation strategies, on the value chain and on profit. Research, such as Diversity Matters, from [consultoria internacional] McKinsey, show correlation between different teams, whether from the perspective of gender, race, etc., and better performance. And this is very natural because a more plural environment becomes more creative and innovative, and the result comes.

So diversity brings profit, but it’s not just about that. And it is very important that companies put into perspective that we are not discussing philanthropy, but the sustainability of a business, a positive impact on society and also the well-being and development of people.

If diversity has such a positive impact, why has it gained more relevance only recently? I evaluate it as a process. Diversity was not discussed more widely because we didn’t have people represented there, making the necessary notes, saying that there are other ways to do something, to invest, to rethink the company’s relationship with society.

And where does this process begin? In the US, for example, there have been areas of diversity in companies for 20 years. In Brazil, both the discussion of diversity and the structuring of areas and programs aimed at it are much more recent. For seven years now, academic production on the subject has grown and, at some point, guided the market and companies. The arrival of new people, new bodies and new possibilities of existence in these environments makes companies more multiple, plural and open to this discussion.

Why is the financial market still so masculine and white? For a historical heritage. From a racial perspective, this has to do with lack of access to university. From the gender perspective, there was a focus on the positions that women could occupy and the areas where they should work: pedagogy, social assistance and activities related to care. Intellectual production and negotiation activities were associated with men. What we perceive is a migration. Today, at Nubank, a financial and technology company, I have 43% of women.

It takes intentionality and effort to recognize a problem and address it. When companies do not recognize that there is a historical gap, we make very little progress. It is important to intend to promote changes in the scenario that presents itself.

Did you join Nubank to contain the damage caused by Cristina Junqueira’s statement? Do not. Even because the company, at the time, recognized that it was wrong, which is pedagogical. It’s an exercise in transparency because this is a journey. And having diversity and inclusion as its value does not guarantee that the company is doing everything right.

Nubank already had diversity and inclusion programs, but we understood that we needed to do more and with more intentionality, which involves hiring but also internal literacy. Prepare our teams and leaders, build conditions so that people can arrive and feel part of.

I don’t come to fill this gap, but to add a team that has been working on it and well, as the numbers show.

An internal debate ensued, of making a note and noting that it was necessary to speed up. How to learn from a mistake and do differently. And, above all, how to do it legitimately. How to bring in the right people.

Junqueira said that the company’s level of demand could not be leveled down in search of diversity. Why was this premise wrong? The premise is wrong, and that’s in the letter made by the company, because it’s not a race to the bottom. When I talk about bringing women, people of color and LGBTQIA+, I think about the skills these teams need to have to build the company of the future. Diversity brings plurality, in having teams with different repertoires, which will make notes of different solutions. Diversity goes beyond demography, it includes life stories, it includes repertoire. At the moment, our mission is to reflect the society we serve. Brazil has 220 million inhabitants. Do the teams that are making the decisions understand all these people? It’s not just Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, for example, that have the capacity to make all the decisions about a country as plural as ours.

There seems to be an idea that companies want to be more diverse but cannot find the professionals to fill these vacancies. How to change it? Companies have the opportunity to ask themselves where and how they are looking. No need for English or previous experience and accept professionals from any area of ​​training because here we will train within our business model. We set up programs to bring women into the programming area. And we have been building programs and platforms where people can make the journey and feel more empowered for the selection processes.

What is the result of this at Nubank? We set very audacious goals in 2021 for 2025. If diversity is a business area, it needs to have goals. We can’t navigate the stars. For women, by 2025, we want to have 50%. Black professionals, 30%, being 22% in leadership positions. We set goals for LGBTQIA+ people and people with disabilities, for which we are addressing a matter of legal compliance, at the very least. The plan goes through several fronts. The first is hiring: how do I intentionally do affirmative programs so I can bring people in. If I don’t do that, naturally, according to research by the Ethos Institute, it will take 120 years for black people to equal white people.

I need to define that, if I’m going to hire a thousand people, how many will be black, women and self-declared LGBTQIA+. We ended 2021 with 33% of black professionals, that is, we exceeded the goal. And that gave us consistency so that, in 2022, we projected the focus on leadership positions, in which we reached 20% and we want 22%.

x-ray | Helena Bertho, 41

She is Nubank’s global director of diversity and inclusion. Advertising and with an MBA in marketing, she worked in the communication areas of companies such as Coca-Cola and L’Oreal. In 2021, she won the Golden Lion at Cannes with the Christmas special “Together Magic Happens”.