Binghui Huang, Indianapolis Star
Mon, January 9, 2023
Everly Coleman is the exact type of person that Indiana is looking for — an entrepreneur who started her own data analytics company and bought a house to settle down in Indianapolis for more than a decade.
But she moved out of Indianapolis with her wife last year, as state legislators were getting ready to pass a near total-abortion ban. They now live in Santa Fe, N.M.
"We both believe reproductive rights are very important," said Coleman, who is a trans woman. But it wasn't just about abortion. They were worried that the state would follow Florida in passing a law restricting discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. And, in fact, a leading Republican has since signaled Indiana lawmakers will consider a so-called "don't say gay" law.
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The disconnect is growing between Indiana's mounting socially conservative policies, which includes not only the near-total abortion ban currently stalled in court, but also a ban on trans girls playing school sports, and the tech industry's increasingly vocal progressive workforce.
The tension is brewing as major employers struggle to recruit and keep employees in the state, a problem that is snowballing into a crisis for Indiana.
But pro-choice advocates, in or out of the tech industry, faced pressure to move away from Indiana for years before the Supreme Court's Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade's protection of a woman's right to have an abortion. South Bend area resident Karen Nemes made that point when she talked to The Tribune on June 24 at a Pro Choice South Bend rally following the release of the Dobbs decision.
"Friends have urged me to leave the area for years," she said then, adding she stays in Indiana because of the community. "We need people working at the state level pressuring state legislatures because that's where a lot of these draconian laws are coming through."
Increasing STEM workers in Indiana
In November, the governor's workforce cabinet rolled out a long list of recommendations to increase the number of STEM — for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — workers, in the state, including increasing education funding and incentives for colleges to graduate STEM students who stay in Indiana.
That same month, CEO David Ricks of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., a bio-tech company and drug maker, was quoted in a financial magazine saying that he's getting requests from employees to transfer out of Indiana.
He's declined to speak to IndyStar further about those requests.
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After Indiana passed a near-total ban on abortion, one of the most severe of such restrictions across the country, employees in tech and science industries put pressure on CEOs to warn Indiana that its conservative social policies will turn off the highly-sought-after STEM workers that it needs to sustain the economy.
Since then, tech workers from startups to global software companies told the IndyStar that the abortion ban has prompted coworkers to leave or start looking for other jobs. Some tech workers said the abortion ban would make it scary for them to start families because of concern that they couldn't get the health care if they developed complications during pregnancies.
The abortion ban that went into effect Sept. 15 has been temporarily blocked by an ACLU lawsuit, but Indiana's attorney general is appealing the decision.
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But for others, it's not just the ban, but what it signals for the future for other social issues, such as LGBTQ rights.
Tech industry growing political power
Progressive tech workers are reshaping the way companies address political issues. They can leverage political power because they are some of the most in-demand applicants across the country. Many can pit multiple job offers against each other.
Attendees hold signs during a rally opposing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022, at the Jon R. Hunt Plaza in downtown South Bend.
Media analysis of tech workers' political donations showed that employees overwhelmingly donated to Democratic candidates. About 89% of the money donated by Salesforce employees went to Democrats, according to CNBC analysis of the 2020 election cycle. That percentage is even higher in companies like Netflix, Adobe and IBM.
And they're doing more than just donating to political causes.
In the past few years, employees at the country's most prominent companies staged walkouts after clashing with their more conservative leadership on political issues.
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Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms Inc., employees staged a virtual walkout in 2020 to force the company to better regulate and control then-President Donald Trump's inflammatory posts. Netflix workers walked out in 2021 in protest of David Chappelle's new special for jokes mocking trans people.
While many of these walkouts are in the tech-heavy and Democratically-controlled California, the expansion of remote work means that these companies have employees joining virtual protests across the country.
That dynamic is alive and well in Indiana, albeit more privately and more timid in the Republican-controlled state.
Jordan Thayer, a trans woman working as a consultant in automation for a software development company in Carmel, said she's worried that she soon won't be free to live her life as she wants and her family won't be safe if they needs pregnancy care.
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She sees states like Tennessee proposing to ban drag performances in public and worries those laws will come to Indiana and make it hard for her to be out in public, she said.
So, long term, her family won't stay.
"I don't want to have to jump employers and change states in a hurry," she said. "So we're looking now."
People hold signs at an abortion rights rally Wednesday, June 29, 2022, at the Robert A. Grant Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse in South Bend.
Indiana tech companies may have to offer remote work
Companies have to show applicants that they share their values in order to be compete in the cutthroat fight for tech and science workers, said Jim Stroud, a recruitment consultant who's worked with companies like Microsoft and Google.
"Salary and employer brand are neck in neck," Stroud said.
Tech companies in states where abortion access and LGBTQ rights are restricted will need to offer remote work to attract some applicants, Stroud said.
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"The issues come to play when they physically have to be there," he said.
In fact, some tech workers will forego a higher salary and opt for a company they believe shares their values, he said.
One telling example, he said, happened at a software company called Basecamp.
When the company banned "societal and political discussions" at work, its employees were so outraged that a third of them quit. Recruiters wasted no time in swarming in and showing them that their company shares their values, Stroud said.
"So any kind of company controversy is going to be like blood in the water," he said. "All these other recruiters are gonna converge on them like no tomorrow and be emailing everybody."
Attendees hold signs during a rally opposing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022, at the Jon R. Hunt Plaza in downtown South Bend.
That puts companies in a bind when issues elicit strong support and opposition, such as abortion, Stroud said. And they're scared that they may upset employees, applicants and customers if they take strong stances. In those cases, he advises companies to support employees internally, through benefits or matching their donations to political causes.
In Indiana, major companies carefully treaded the issue.
Many of Indianapolis's largest companies declined to participate in several public advocacy letters supporting abortion rights last summer. Lilly and Cummins released statements against the ban only after it was passed.
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Several announced they would pay for employees to seek abortion care in other states.
Mike Murphy, a former Republican state legislator who also served in executive roles at Simon Property Group and Elevance Health, which was previously known as Anthem, said these companies could have done more if they were seriously concerned about retention or recruitment.
"I don't doubt they may be reflecting some honestly held beliefs," he said. "But I would say they're unique in the state, because they have the economic power and thought leadership to change all that."
Indiana has struggled to recruit talent
Long before the Supreme Court became a super conservative majority that would reshape federal and state policies, Indiana struggled with attracting top talent. Economists have pointed to a mix of reasons, including lack of good schools, flat and largely landlocked landscape, poor infrastructure, and sparse attractions and amenities compared to other states.
And so even when everything is equal — company brand, salary to cost of living ratio, amenities in the city — the social laws of the state is a tie-breaker, several tech workers said.
Same goes with those who are living in Indiana.
Kristen Cooper, the founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based Startup Ladies, said she knows people in the industry who have moved out of Indiana because of abortion ban and anti-LGBTQ bills.
"You want to live in a community that supports your values and your lifestyle," she said. "If you're a woman and you have a choice between living in a state that provides you a great job and your reproductive rights versus a state with a great job and no reproductive rights, it's easily a tie-breaker."
Binghui Huang / Bhuang@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana politics around abortion, social issues stifle tech recruiting
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