Survey: CHRO leads DEI efforts at more than half of employers
Wondering how your DEI planning compares to other companies? Here are a few insights.
The chief human resources officer is responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at more than half of employers.
Related: 6 factors to include on your DEI checklist
XpertHR recently surveyed DEI trends at nearly 400 U.S. companies. When asked who in the organization is responsible for these efforts (and allowed to choose more than one option), they also responded:
- CEO, president or owner, 36%
- Volunteer groups (such as employee resource groups), 15%
- Chief DEI officer, 11%
- COO, 7%
- CFO, 5%
- General counsel, 4%
- Outside consultants, 2%
About two in 10 respondents wrote in some sort of “other” option, such as “social justice work group,” “director of community services” or “board of directors.” At 17% of responding organizations, no one is officially responsible for DEI.
“The survey results show that chief DEI officer positions are uncommon and that instead, organizations prefer to entrust diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to their chief human resources officer,” said Andrew Hellwege, surveys editor for XpertHR.
The most common DEI-related training is for anti-harassment and is conducted at 70% of responding companies. Anti-discrimination training (56%) and unconscious bias training (48%) are the second and third most-common trainings, respectively. Aside from the top three trainings, other options are uncommon, such as training on microaggressions (21%), psychological safety (11%) and allyship (10%).
Few organizations provide DEI training that is specifically geared toward executives (11%), managers (20%) or non-managers (15%).
The survey also found that fewer than one in five responding organizations have conducted a DEI audit, compared with 29% that have not conducted one but are planning to conduct one in the near future. Nearly 40% have not conducted one and have no immediate plans to do so, and 17% were not sure.
“While few responding employers have conducted a diversity equity and inclusion audit, about three in 10 are planning to do so in the near future, indicating that there is some potential for the growth in popularity of DEI audits,” Hellwege said.
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