Keep Your Eye on DE&I

Oct 13th, 2022

Welcome to Q4, the official beginning to one of the busiest times of year - a blur of performance reviews, compensation evaluation, setting budgets, and compliance tasks (see our previous post) mixed with travel and celebrations both personal and professional. Though it is a challenge to complete all of our “to-dos” during this sprint to the end of the year, I urge you to add one more to your list – evaluating your organization’s progress towards your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals, or, if these goals do not yet exist at your organization, create them for next year.

It has been well-documented that successful DE&I initiatives positively affect the bottom line and the well-being of employees. Despite these facts, and the surge of corporate commitments to implementing DE&I initiatives after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, much work (and some resistance) remains. Diversity Crew’s State of DEI Report found that while global DEI spend continues to grow (projected to increase from $9.3 billion in 2022 to $15.4 billion in 2026), progress has been slow regarding leadership representation. “Diverse leaders tend to hold less influence, have lower salaries and are less likely to be on track to C-suite roles.”

There is also the barrier of DEI or diversity “fatigue,” a term originally coined in the 1990s. In a two year study of interviews with Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs), Harvard Business Review found that “mounting expectations of CDOs and outward promises [that] failed to be met with real internal accountability or strategic commitments” has left DEI leaders mentally and emotionally exhausted.

While significant, these challenges are not insurmountable and this time of organizational goal-setting and budget planning for 2023 is a perfect opportunity to ensure DEI strategies are aligned with business goals and processes. Below are best practices for successful DEI initiatives and ways that leadership can rally around their DEI practitioners:

• Empower DEI leaders with time, resources, and power to affect change
• Incorporate DEI strategy into all workflows
• Make DEI part of everyone’s goals and hold leaders accountable for meeting them
• Provide personal and professional support for DEI practitioners by encouraging them to connect with a network of DEI professionals to share ideas and offer support
• Define metrics and other key data points to measure success and identify areas that need more focus

This list is not exhaustive and certainly not one that can be accomplished overnight. However, it is crucial to keep DEI at the forefront of leaders’ minds and as a critical piece of an organization’s strategy and goals if we are to successfully move the needle towards increasing diversity at all levels, achieving true equity among all people, and fostering a genuine sense of belonging for all employees. I think we all would agree these are goals that are certainly worth our time and attention, even during the busiest times of year.