Culture Fail of the Month: PIMCO
The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on bond giant Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) and their attempts to change their culture. Some recent lawsuits have renewed scrutiny on the company: over the last three years seven current or former female employees have sued the company, alleging discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. In January, 21 women, including six of the plaintiffs, signed a letter imploring the firm to improve its treatment of women.
“We are calling on you to step in and rectify these longstanding issues and create a company that provides equal opportunity and treatment to everyone regardless of their race, gender, or disability,” the women wrote in the letter. The women also asked PIMCO’s leaders to identify and correct disparities in pay and promotions, develop a five-year plan to diversify its senior staff and set up a complaint hotline run by an independent party.
PIMCO says they have already addressed much of what was in the letter, but also initiated an investigation by an independent third party who found no evidence of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, and wrote that the firm’s handling of those complaints was appropriate, according to the WSJ article.
But, the data reported in the article doesn’t favor the company. Women reportedly comprise only 19% of PIMCO’s 77 managing directors—its top management rank that annually shares handsomely in the company’s profits. Among executive vice presidents, 21% are women. Overall, 39% of the company’s employees are women. And in its 50-year history, the firm had never had a Black managing director until recently when two were appointed this year.
To the company’s credit, there is some progress. In 2020, 29% of the firm’s senior U.S. staff identified as an underrepresented minority according to PIMCO, where a decade ago it was 18%. Despite the progress, it’s clear the company still has a lot of room for growth. And, as more companies publicly report human capital metrics as part of the SEC’s new rules on disclosure, we’ll see more articles on gender and racial disparities that uncoincidentally correlate with reportedly toxic cultures.
This article was originally published on CultureRenovation.com. Visit the website for additional resources, solutions, and information about the bestselling book.
Kevin is CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), the world’s leading human capital research firm focusing on people practices that drive high performance. i4cp conducts more research in the field of HR than any other organization on the planet, highlighting next practices that organizations and HR executives should consider adopting.
Kevin is also the author of Culture Renovation®, an Amazon bestseller which debuted as the #1 new release in a dozen Amazon book categories. Drawing on data from one of the largest studies ever conducted on corporate culture, Culture Renovation™ details how high-performance organizations such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, 3M, AbbVie, Mastercard and many more have successfully changed organizational culture.
Kevin is currently on the board of Performitiv, and on the advisory boards of Guild Education and Sanctuary. Kevin was previously on the board of directors of KnowledgeAdvisors, a provider of human capital analytics software, which was purchased by Corporate Executive Board in March of 2014. Kevin was also the Chairman of Jambok, a social learning start-up company which was founded at Sun Microsystems and was purchased by SuccessFactors in March 2011. Additionally, Kevin served on the boards of Workforce Insight and Koru prior to their sales.
Kevin is on the board of Best Buddies Washington and helped establish the first office for Best Buddies in the state in 2019. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Kevin was previously the Founder and the President of SumTotal Systems (NASDAQ: SUMT) which he helped create in 2003 by merging Click2learn (NASDAQ: CLKS) with Docent (NASDAQ: DCNT). The merger won Frost & Sullivan's Competitive Strategy Award in 2004.
Prior to the formation of SumTotal, Kevin was the Chairman & CEO of Click2learn, which was founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Kevin helped take Click2learn public and engineered over a dozen acquisitions post-IPO. Prior to joining Click2learn, Kevin was president and founder of Oakes Interactive in Needham, MA. Oakes Interactive was purchased by Click2learn (then called Asymetrix) in 1997, prior to going public a year later.