All in the family, all in the workplace
As Lululemon strives to be 'a women's company,' it sidesteps its founder's
fascination for the P-word
TAVIA GRANT WORKPLACE REPORTER; WITH FILES FROM REPORTER MARINA STRAUSS
APRIL 4, 2008
Chip Wilson has dared to ask the question most human resources departments
wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.
Any HR expert knows that in a job interview, you need to forget that a female candidate may also be a potential mom. In off-the-cuff comments that are still making waves months later, Mr. Wilson said it's
useful, for planning purposes, to know whether a candidate is planning on
starting a family. "When I'm interviewing women, I'm quite interested about when are you going to have babies," the Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder and chairman Chip Wilson told a conference in February. "I personally
feel that I want well-adjusted people working at Lululemon. It allows the
company to plan for when women want to get pregnant ... You can't plan totally but you can plan within a certain range."
The comments, unguarded though they were, highlight the challenges at a
place that wants to become, in Mr. Wilson's words, "truly a women's company." The firm is now juggling aggressive expansion plans with the
fact that many of its employees are at a child-bearing age.
It's not just talking the talk: On Wednesday, Lululemon named Christine Day
as its next chief executive officer, just a few months after luring her away from coffee chain StarbucksCorp. She's one of just 32
women holding the highest-paid executive jobs in Canada's 100 largest
publicly traded companies.Asking about the P-word in an interview can boomerang, leaving employers vulnerable to discrimination
lawsuits if an interviewee doesn't get the job, and prospective employees
sour because of the prying, career experts say.
"We tell employers not to ask," said Janice Rubin, an employment lawyer at
Toronto-based Rubin Thomlinson LLP. "The question itself triggers the gathering of information that can become problematic."
A candidate who is asked about baby plans, and then doesn't get a job, may
feel she was at a disadvantage to others who didn't mention such plans, she says. "Realistically, employers still really struggle with pregnancy and parental
leave," Ms. Rubin said. "And, realistically, most candidates do not want to volunteer information because they're aware that it does make them less competitive."
About 95 per cent of Lululemon's employees are women, although Mr. Wilson
has said only about half of the company's top executives are female. Many of its staff, hired years ago, are now starting to go on maternity leaves.
Mr. Wilson's comments raised some eyebrows, but they "come from an authentic
place, as I read them ... so maybe in that setting, it won't be problematic," Ms. Rubin said adding that "it's a line of question you want to stay away from."It's not just women; men who are taking parental leave are also uncomfortable about disclosing such details. Lululemon declined requests for interviews on how it will shift to a female-oriented company and manage issues such as maternity leaves, perhaps because of the stir Mr. Wilson's unscripted remarks made in
February. "That isn't something that we're in the position to talk about," said
spokesman Evan Goetz, as the company is focusing on its recent financial statements and management shuffle. "We're
still working out those [maternity leave] policies."
Mr. Wilson, for his part, fully supports year-long maternity leave, saying
well-adjusted families are "critical." "But I sense ... the world's changing so fast where Lululemon is looking at quarterly budgets, quarterly
strategies and quarterly changes in people, a year off is very, very
arduous," he said at the conference. In the long run, though, companies that treat parents fairly through their leaves see better retention and
loyalty, said Deborah Gillis vice-president for Canada at Catalyst Inc., a
research group for women in business.
She stressed that "the statistics really point to women with children
continue to be committed to their careers and to the contributions they'll make to the organizations they work for," she said.
Recent comments reveal that Lululemon genuinely wants its management to
reflect its client base, which is 90-per-cent female - and that there's a business case to do so. "In a retail industry, a lot of the people that work for you are women, in your stores, and so having a woman
leader I think is a big advantage," Ms. Day said on BNN News this week. She
has three children of her own, aged 22, 19 and 8.
Her promotion sparked cheers through the company's stores. Christine Sharpe,
manager at Lululemon's Toronto store on Queen Street West, called Ms. Day's appointment "amazing. "Still in her twenties, Ms.Sharpe feels the company is "definitely a place I would stay at," because it matches her own values so
closely - "health, balance, integrity - and fun."
