DEI & Leaders Stepping Up

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are once again at the forefront of discussions, with critical voices gaining momentum.

The ongoing conversation around DEI is reaching a boiling point, pushing the discussion towards answering tough questions and challenging assumptions.

As the conversation approaches equilibrium, it's crucial to consider the practical aspects of DEI and value in practice.

Insight

How I see it, DEI is not about creating obstacles but rather expanding the talent pool within an organization, positively impacting talent density and quality.

Beyond demographics, diversity brings a broader skill set and diversity of thought, countering and balancing the potential for homogeneity of ideas.

Equity emphasizes equal opportunities by addressing challenges individuals face due to bias, economic factors, or social barriers. It aims to enable everyone to contribute their best.

Inclusion, where opinions may differ, is not about discrimination but acknowledging gaps, including disparate promotion rates and demoralizing experiences. It's about recognizing untapped potential that benefits the entire group—a true value, in my view.

Journey to Value

To explain the journey getting to that value, I'll provide context on how I approach the DEI numbers journey within an organization, specifically focusing on talent acquisition, engagement, and retention.

At the highest level, I visualize a shift from current state to a future state, all while being mindful of numbers throughout that journey. Here’s what that looks like.

Strategy and Recommendations

My DEI strategy is simple: improve inclusion by focusing on addressing exclusion.

This approach, without imposing quotas, leads to better business outcomes. The candidate pool mix, a leading indicator, highlights the importance of a diverse candidate pool and verifying bias in the hiring process. Lagging indicators, like turnover, offer insights into potential culture and organizational dynamics issues.

Understanding Systemic Issues

The candidate pool mix that we see throughout our recruitment process serves as a Leading indicator, emphasizing the importance of a diverse candidate pool and verifying for bias in the hiring process.

Lagging indicators, such as turnover, provide valuable insights; identifying trends allows for a targeted approach to understanding and rectifying potential culture and organizational dynamics issues.

In my example diagram above, I want to understand what systemic issues are contributing to:

Candidate pool mix that doesn’t match my target audience mix.

• Systemic culture issues can become part of your brand

Demographic mix of individuals exiting the organization skewing in one direction

• Is this people, process, or systems related
• Exit interview data is a good starting point
• Map out departmental trends
• Zero in and focus on areas with ratios that stand out i.e. Sales is 40% Female 58% male & 2% Non-Binary; exiting population is 100% Female, trends like this indicate a problem

Leading Indicators: Consider meaningful actions impacting leading indicators:

• Messaging: What you don’t say matters. Understand the impact of what your employer brand language says and doesn’t say.
• Metrics: Pay attention, to key metrics around demographic mixes. Managing to metrics is not recommended, you will end up using blunt instrument measures such as quotas.
• Multiplier effect: Understand the magnitude of the impact creating a negative multiplier effect. This is key with your employer brand, every 1 candidate who chooses to opt out is likely a detractor influencing others within their network to do the same. When headhunting, for candidates who engage to say no, I try to get any feedback around why they chose not to engage, which can be super insightful.

Conclusion

As business leaders, our DEI approach should go beyond numbers and quotas. Emphasizing practical strategies, asking tough questions, and changing our approach can create inclusive environments addressing underlying issues.

Navigating the DEI discourse requires open dialogue, recognition of differences, and a commitment to fostering diversity for sustained success.