Building a sustainable DEI program: How to get started
As HR professionals, diversity, equity and inclusion should be a top priority in how we help run our businesses and serve our colleagues.
Describing 2020 as “turbulent” may be an accurate description, but some would argue it’s a bit of an understatement. All parts of our society were turned upside down – from how individuals prioritize their health and wellness to how companies run their offices. While the COVID-19 pandemic erupted all sense of normalcy, the chaos also contributed to elevated conversations of topics that matter, such as the awareness of social equality and justice in our country, specifically in the workplace.
A startling statistic from McKinsey in 2020 highlighted that only a third of businesses are making real movement in diversity efforts, which means “the majority are remaining static or declining—even where their leaders have articulated noble aspirations for inclusion and diversity.” Translating the conversations we are seeing on TV and social media into action in our workplaces is what will ignite change, ensure progress and enable fairness across the board for every employee.
Related: 3 practices to sustain your DEI strategy in 2021
As HR professionals, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) should be a top priority in how we help run our businesses and serve our colleagues. In my capacity as president of HR Florida State Council, I’m honored to be a resource for our 16,000 members on this topic, and hope to offer different ways to implement DEI into your organization.
Be intentional about your planning
Rome wasn’t built overnight, and neither will integrating policies and procedures that enact diversity in your workplace. If real change is what your team is looking for, then be thoughtful in your efforts to draft and carry out your strategy.
Representation during planning matters
As your team discusses how DEI can look in your company, be sure there is a diverse set of voices that make up these conversations. Equal representation ensures that each perspective is heard and challenges that may affect one group of employees but not others are addressed. Having diverse perspectives during the planning stage will also help generate more creative action plans.
Craft your vision and make the day-to-day reflect it
In this situation, start with the bigger picture. As a whole, what tone should your DEI programming set? How do your current corporate policies look in terms of diversity and what needs to change? Once the overarching framework is established, begin to dive into the details and look at all the possibilities to weave the larger narrative into the daily culture of the organization.
DEI at every stage of the employment lifecycle
No matter how you intend your DEI strategy to look, it is necessary to consider and account for every stage of the employment lifecycle. To get you started, I outlined a few questions that can get the wheels turning on how to ensure each phase plays a role in high-level strategy:
- Applicants: Who are you targeting for your recruitment efforts? How can your company branch out to be more inclusive?
- New employees: During the onboarding process, how are new team members being educated on your corporate culture and DEI policies? What level of training on the subject is currently implemented and how can that be adjusted, if needed?
- Current employees: Are teams and projects staffed with diverse perspectives? Are growth opportunities fairly accessible to all employees? During everyday internal discussions and annual reviews, what questions account for correcting issues or perceptions that may adversely impact your colleagues?
- Former employees: During exit interviews, how is your team addressing negative trends and implementing positive change?
Track your progress
In theory, your plan may work wonders; however, it is essential to evaluate actual results in an easily accessible way. Notably, Forbes Insights has found that only 60% of companies have metrics in place to track DEI goal performance. In addition to outlining concise, trackable goals, I recommend creating a dashboard that answers how you are doing and the ways your organization can improve.
Use your best resource – your employees
There is not a simple cookie-cutter way to prepare your organization’s DEI policies, but neglecting feedback from your employees won’t set you on the path to success. As a valued checkpoint, engage with your staff through surveys and other tactics to obtain their take on how your company is achieving the intended results and ways to constantly be improving.
It’s important to adapt our workplaces to reflect monumental changes in our society, but it’s far more necessary to empower employees and our colleagues to ensure a safe and equitable professional experience, and prioritizing DEI efforts helps us get there. As a society, we will continue to receive further education on how we can adapt corporate HR practices to be more inclusive and accessible, so as a profession, we must continue to listen, practice empathy and be flexible to quickly make changes and take necessary actions to better the workforce around us.
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