How can you bridge Employee Engagement and diversity gaps?

I think it's also helpful to clearly define what diversity means for your company and your employees. Every business and industry is different, and it ultimately comes down to what your staff believes is actually important when it comes to having a diverse team to work with. Take the time to have these conversations with your staff - not only will you get clear answers to come up with the right goals, but it will prevent your diversity efforts from appearing performative and disingenuous.

Conduct an analysis of your workforce demographics, engagement levels, and diversity metrics to identify disparities and areas for improvement. Use employee surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews to gather insights into how different groups perceive their inclusion, representation, and opportunities within the company. If survey results reveal that certain demographics feel underrepresented in leadership roles or less satisfied with their career development opportunities, these findings pinpoint specific diversity and engagement gaps that need to be addressed. Analyzing enables you to develop strategies that foster a more inclusive workplace where every employee feels valued, engaged, and empowered to contribute.

Move past reporting on only legislated designated groups (Four groups based on the Canada employment equity act), and allow people to self-identify across a variety of spectrums. This can include gender identity, sexual identity, single-parent, veteran, etc. Be sure to consult with experts on the best way to do this, as you do not want to accidentally alienate the groups you are trying to help. By doing this, it will allow you to slice and dice your data in different ways to understand how you’re performing broadly in these groups, and whether there are any departments that are more or less problematic for particular groups. This will help you prioritize where to focus your efforts.

Getting an initial 'line in the sand' is helpful. Running a broad organisational health audit (perhaps in the form of a survey) can allow you to tap into the employee voice, to get a quantitative readout on both employee engagement and peoples' experience and perceptions of inclusion & diversity within your organisation. From here, analysis of insights could yield a very clear signal on where you have gaps or potential issues, or you may need further investigation, to get to the root causes behind diversity or engagement gaps that seem to exist. Either way, don't take shortcuts on this diagnostic exercise as you cannot hope to take any effective actions without being super-clear on what the problems are first.

It is important to assess your current situation, however, it is easy to fall into the trap of relying only on data and numbers rather than human experience. The data may give you engagement, but if you want to go deeper (and ultimately make a more meaningful impact), then you must include the voices of the organization at all levels. That will help you to know where your strengths and weaknesses lie in the realm of employee satisfaction, well-being, workplace safety and overall fulfillment and alignment with company values and goals.

Identify specific areas of improvement based on your initial assessment. If the assessment highlights a lack of diversity in leadership positions, set a goal to increase representation of underrepresented groups in these roles by a certain percentage within a defined timeframe. If engagement scores are lower among certain demographics, target improvements in these areas with tailored initiatives. Ensure these goals are SMART to facilitate effective tracking and adjustment. Communicate these objectives transparently across the organization to foster a collective commitment to diversity and engagement. Establishing clear targets, provides a focused direction for efforts to enhance diversity and engagement.

There must be a balance between long term goals (ex: increasing representation on the board, c-suite, etc. takes time) and shorter term goals that help you achieve your longer term vision. Representation goals are important, but they are also uninspiring - you need to build goals around how you are going to get there, with specific milestones that you will report back on, etc. Consider that there has been gender equity goals for Boards for decades, and this continues to be a major issue, so you need to be explicit in how you are going to achieve the representation you are looking for.

When setting goals it is extremely important to include the perspectives of those who are the least engaged to help set goals. Top down goal setting without inclusion of diverse voices will only further alienate those underrepresented voices and lead to potentially wasted efforts on initiatives due to low trust and sense inclusion, value, and belonging.

Communicate frequently and openly on how you are progressing relative to your long term and short term goals. This is an important way to build trust with your teams that you are indeed moving the dial on your inclusion & diversity goals.

At the start of any employee engagement campaign, looking through a diverse and inclusive lens is crucial. One way to do that is to utilize a small group of diverse employee advisors to provide feedback before moving forward with initiatives or changes.

Track progress to show how diversity benefits the company. Keeping tabs on how we're doing with diversity is more than just about proving that a more diverse team is good for business. For example, by looking at numbers like the number of women and minorities in leadership roles, along with how well we make decisions because of diversity in background and culture, can help you establish a clear connection. This information will show your employees the benefits and help them engage more effectively.

When evaluating results be sure to create a safe space for employees to be honest about what is working and what is not working. Cultivating this aspect of psychological safety in your organization will increase engagement and help you to retrieve the data to know if your efforts need adjusting or are effective as they are.

Implement a structured process for tracking the progress of your initiatives against the clear and realistic goals you've set. Use a combination of quantitative data, such as diversity metrics and engagement survey scores, and qualitative feedback, such as employee testimonials and participation rates in diversity and inclusion programs, to assess impact. If your goal was to increase representation of underrepresented groups in leadership roles, analyze hiring and promotion data over time to measure progress. Conduct follow-up surveys and focus groups to understand the qualitative effects of your initiatives on company culture and employee sentiment. Adjust your strategies based on these findings to continuously improve.

There's research that shows how DEI impacts engagement and performance in a positive way. Feeling you can be yourself matters for belonging. Feeling you can put your ideas forward is important for innovation. A diversity of experiences builds more effective teams. Being aware of the links between diversity and engagement is key.

Engagement should be desired from all employees. In addressing diversity related issues, don't forget to create an inclusive environment for everyone.