DEI and racial equity after 2020: A year of change opens new opportunities
As we progress deeper into a new year, where do American workers and employers find themselves as they seek racial equity in the workplace?
2020 was a year that saw a remarkable discussion about racial equity, both in society as a whole and specifically in the workplace. The protests that took place in the name of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others drew the nation’s attention, but part of what made the year unusual is that the business community, after years of halting progress in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), also engaged in the racial equity discussion, to a degree that it had not after other racial incidents in past years.
“Apple’s $100 Million Racial Justice Initiative,” “Corporate Leaders Aim to Address Racial Equity,” “Google Commits $175 Million to Racial Equity,” … the headlines were splashy, but the stories also noted that plenty of skepticism remained about the commitment to racial equity. Companies have talked about addressing racial issues for years, and yet clear inequities remained in the workplace.
At the beginning of 2021, where do American workers and employers find themselves, as they seek racial equity in the workplace?
2020 and the “pandemic pause”—did it allow a reset?
Kareim Cade is the founder and president of the Great Lakes Benefit Group, in Royal Oak, Mich., one of a small number of African American-led insurance brokerages around the country. Cade said the events of 2020 opened a door to have more meaningful discussions about racial equity—a topic that he said his industry has not taken very seriously. “What it has done is at least put people in a position to have a needed conversation,” he said. “It’s saying, ‘let’s sit down and understand that these are really systemic issues.’ If we are going to be serious about DEI and not just check a box but really make some impact, then we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.
“Now, what happens after those conversations, that’s a different story,” Cade added. “But at least we’re starting to have those conversations that we often didn’t have before, and I think they’re more meaningful.”
Cade said last year’s COVID-19 pandemic may have played a role in bringing attention to racial issues after the George Floyd murder. He noted that in an environment where nothing was “business as usual,” people were less distracted and more focused on current events. “This was nothing new, but now it was in everybody’s face. Kids were home and asking questions, and how do you explain [the George Floyd murder] to your kids?”
Lauren Romansky, managing vice president for Gartner Research’s HR division, also saw the pandemic as making a difference. She noted that racial equity issues were already bubbling under the surface—but the protests of last year led to many more personal conversations about the topic. “We’ve been seeing a trend in the past five years, but COVID really accelerated that, as many organizations were moving to remote work—all of the sudden you’re in somebody’s room, you see their family, you see their house—that human element was right on the surface,” she said. “The second part was that people saw this wasn’t a one-off thing; it was systemic.”
Change in a political season
For Tony Lee, managing partner of Dickerson Insurance Services in Los Angeles, Calif., the change in the conversation had less to do with the pandemic and more to do with last year’s presidential election. “I really do think the driving force was the hyper-charged and hyper-partisan political environment that we’ve been living in,” he said.
Lee also sees more a more intentional approach to the issue in the corporate world. He noted that companies like Cigna Health Care and AON have committed money and resources to addressing equity, including investment in minority businesses and a commitment to more diversity in corporate leadership.
“There are a lot of quality things that have begun to happen,” he said. “There has been an acknowledgment that something has to be done around racial and gender equity.”
Lee added that the corporate world needs to continue to build on these efforts. “There are going to be bumps in the road; some of these investments aren’t going to work, but we’ve got to make sure we continue to challenge the status quo and keep this conversation front and center,” he said. “If we don’t keep it front and center and we don’t make it part of our DNA, we’ll be back in the same place in five years.”
How brokers can address racial equity in concrete ways
Cade said that equitable representation has been a problem specifically for the brokerage industry, where the average broker is a 57-year-old white male. He noted that he has attended panel discussions about diversity where no African Americans sat at the table.
“I may know five to seven African-American agencies across the country—that’s it,” Cade said. “When I walk into a client’s office, I’m the only professional in this space that they’ve seen who looks like me.”
Cade strongly believes in internships and mentoring as a way to address the shortage of opportunities for under-represented groups.
“You’ve got to look at the internship process,” Cade said. “When you start talking about giving these opportunities to folks who don’t all look the same—if they’ve got the skill set, maybe they’ve never thought about the insurance business, because no one ever offered it to them,” he said. “It becomes a matter of, how do you open yourself up to bringing those folks into the fold. One of the major places companies can focus in on is the historical black colleges and universities. I think there are opportunities out there, but you’ve got to get to those students early on.”
Lee said there are a number of ways for companies to address inequities through recruitment and professional relationships. “There are really three areas: the staffing area, the C-suite area, and the supplier diversity channel as well. All three of those areas need to be addressed,” he said. “If there’s not a deliberate strategy to address this, it’s never going to change.”
Working with minority-owned companies in the supply chain is an important way to tackle inequities in the business world, Lee noted. “When you’re engaging the supply chain, you get more bang for your buck—you can have a huge economic impact in those communities. Because those people are hiring people of color, they’re hiring women,” he said.
Romansky agreed that a broader approach to diversity can be fruitful. “Any time we’ve seen DEI go into not just talent processes but business processes, it begins to catch momentum,” she said. “We’re encouraging clients to think through where in their business cycle and strategy are there opportunities to include that commitment to DEI that you’ve made internally.”
Cade noted that with the country’s changing demographics, more diversity in the workplace—and in leadership—is something that makes sense financially. “From an economic standpoint, I’m saying, if I’m a capitalist, I don’t plan on stopping making money,” he said. “So if the country is changing, it makes sense for me to be the first to get after it. Diversity makes great business sense.”
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