2019 Predictions in Diversity & Inclusion

During my research for 2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report, I noticed 3 trends related to the focus areas of companies’ D&I efforts, the factors that predetermine their success with D&I, and the spectrum in their approaches.

Based on them and the interviews I did with 20+ Diversity and Inclusion champions, I built my predictions for D&I.

(This analysis originally appeared in “2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report”)

Focus areas

Most companies focus on Gender, Sexuality & Sexual Orientation, Race, Nationality, and Ethnicity. While there’s some conversation about People with Disabilities, there’s very little on Invisible Disabilities. Companies are actively pursuing racial diversity, but there’s rarely work done towards racial equality. Diversity based on gender, culture (religion, nationality, ethnicity) or sexual orientation is perceived as “easier”. The conversation around gender usually is in its binary sense, although more and more companies move towards inclusion of non-binary people.

Areas such as Contingent or gig worker diversity, Military/veteran people, Mental health, and People from Socio-economically Disadvantaged Areas are a low priority to the majority of companies.

Fifteen companies were asked what their focus areas in Diversity and Inclusion are. They are Marvel, Atlassian, SBTech, ThoughtWorks, Hire Space, TransferWise, Zoona, Hubble, Travis CI, LimeChain, Software Group, Swedbank, Techstars, Storyblaster.

Focus areas in D&I

Success factors

After 20+ interviews, I have identified the two biggest factors for success.

The most significant indicator is the values of the founders or leadership team. They have the biggest impact, as they shape the DNA of the company. The way children tend to copy the behavior of their parents, employees mimic the behavior of their leaders. In ThoughtWorks, for example, in 1993 its founder Neville Roy Singham started the company based on three equally important pillars, and one of them was to advocate passionately for social and economic justice. That shaped the active role of ThoughtWorks India to advocate for the human rights of LGBTQI+ people in the country. Another example is Travis CI who kicked off the company by crowdfunding in the open source community. That’s why part of their mission is giving back in a way that makes the open source community more diverse. To deliver on that promise, they created Travis Foundation.

The second factor for success is the authority and influence of each company’s D&I champion. The role can be occupied by different people as a full-time job or part-time when their main role is different. The D&I champion doesn’t have to be in a Talent or Operations related job. In the interviews, we see the D&I champions can be the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Vice President of D&I, D&I employee committee, Diversity Officer who’s not focused on this full-time (and is an Account Manager), and an Operations or Learning & Development employee whose passion project is D&I.

Organisations with leadership values strongly alinged with D&I efforts, and those organisations who grant authority and influence to their D&I champion, have a greater opportunity to embed D&I in every aspect of the culture of the company, which results in innovation and business success.

If a company is not sure why it is moving towards a diverse and inclusive workplace, it is unlikely that the efforts will have lasting results or impact on profitability. Such a company could stay “trendy” in the competition with its peer companies, even manage to attract the talent, but new hires would leave fairly quickly.

Atlassian is a great example of a company that has avoided this pitfall. It has a leadership team that strongly believes in D&I. Its Global Head of Diversity & Belonging is an influencer within the organization, as well as a global D&I thought leader. Their D&I strategy is based on empirical research, and data allows them to focus on the impact to drive the organization.

Approaches

D&I strategies based on deep employee insights, such as a combination of in-person or phone interviews and surveys with the employees, are the most successful. Many companies who are just becoming aware about the impact of diversity and inclusion start with a single initiative. Often that includes diversity training or policy changes. When a company advances in its D&I initiatives in a single area, such as hiring strategy, it builds confidence and starts to address the issue beyond hiring, but also strives for an inclusive workplace and then developing leadership.

The next step is creating a comprehensive strategy. The most mature in D&I are the companies that have such an integrated D&I strategy and report results to the board (sometimes publicly, too), evaluate existing practices through research and collaborate with several teams and departments.

Predictions for 2019: Afrophobia, Collaborations & “Fake” D&I

The predictions are based on interviews with 22 individuals from 19 companies.

Prejudice towards people of color requires active work inside and outside of the companies where D&I leads work. The US is dealing with institutionalized racism, and some European companies will have to address Afrophobia. Ireland, for example, deals with institutionalized discrimination. 2019 is a critical year for working on these issues. Why now? In the global political climate shaped by major events such as President Trump getting into office in January 2017 and Brexit becoming a reality in March 2019, far-right attitudes get a validation and become more pronounced and even more acceptable.

Companies won’t have lasting results with inclusion and belonging of people of color (and other underrepresented groups) without acting beyond the scope of their company or industry. D&I champions shouldn’t work in isolation. They will have to collaborate. Those will be complex collaborations that engage and activate the full range of stakeholders at all levels, private and public, regardless of the industry section within their country or countries of focus.

While D&I becomes more mainstream and a larger number of companies start investing in it, this also means there will be more noise in the field, and it will be harder to pick the right organizations to collaborate with. Many companies will continue to enter the space with the goal of not falling behind their peers and will copy-paste initiatives without really knowing why. We’ve observed that phenomenon in the past with pride sponsorships, where companies provide financing only because their competitors do it. In 2019, we have to learn how to differentiate the real champions from the “fake” D&I, so we know who to collaborate with and learn from.

?? See the full “2019 Diversity in the Workplace Report”

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Vessy.com: I help you engage the hearts and minds of your employees & leaders to create together a healthier and more inclusive culture where teams and individuals succeed

On Medium, I write articles with practical advice on how companies as small as 20 employees and as big as 16,000 employees approach Diversity & Inclusion across dozens of countries around the world.