Diversity vs Inclusion | Does your Company know the Difference?

Last year I attended a Diversity & Inclusion forum with some of Europe’s top management executives. The idea was to discover what leading European companies were doing to address D&I, and what we could learn as future leaders likely to face the same challenges at the companies that we’d manage in the near future. During the forum, I asked the following question to an executive at the world’s biggest player in beauty & cosmetics. 

I come from a multicultural country called South Africa. In my country, we celebrate 11 national languages and far more ethnicities. We’re about as diverse as a country comes. However, we have significant inequality gaps, racism, and a growing sense of resentment about the idea of reconciling either one of these. So, while we’re diverse, we’re far from inclusive. Tell me how these two topics, Diversity and Inclusion are similar, different, and how you’re addressing them at your company.

The executive tried to explain using an example. She said that 50 years ago, the fashion models they employed to advertise their products were all young and all white. Today, she said, they had all kinds of models. Black, mixed race, even middle-aged models showcasing products for older women to enjoy. She passed the microphone on, as I nervously sat down.

I realised that she did not see a difference between Diversity & Inclusion. And I wondered if other global executives shared this blind spot.

Several months later I chaired a fireside discussion between D&I executives from some similarly prominent global organisations, hosted by EDHEC Business School. 

These were the world’s most prestigious companies, and we’d specifically selected Diversity & Inclusion officers serving at these companies to push on the subject. These execs talked proudly about the initiatives that their companies had set up to address gaps in race, gender and disability-based diversity. And I must admit, some of these initiatives were encouraging.

The What vs the How

However, the group struggled to decrypt the key differences between Diversity and Inclusion, despite Amadeus’s Christine Manglano quite succinctly labelling Diversity the “What” and Inclusion the “How” to be addressed by organisations - which was a nice touch that I'll use in my own breakdown. So naturally I thought that if the world’s most reputable organisations continued to grapple with the these two terms, maybe I'd give them a shot.

DIVERSITY: YOUR COMPANY’S WHAT

In addressing the Diversity & Inclusion challenge, most companies prefer to tackle Diversity. It’s the easier topic to solve, and initiatives here can be showcased with figures. Most companies demonstrate this by publishing the progress they’ve made in diverse hiring practices. In fact, one executive at the initial D&I forum answered a question about the D&I steps his company had taken, by simply calling out the percentage of his workforce that happened to be female (which still represented less than a quarter of his workforce). 

Companies might also publish stories about carefully selected employees whose successes represent the kind of diverse transformation the company is looking to advertise. And other organisations might even employ a Transformation Officer in the C-Suite to dispel any accusations of diversity neglect now or in the future.

Diversity is great. Besides it being the right thing to do, studies show that diverse teams achieve far better results than teams without a diverse composition. But how diverse teams are treated and made to feel within an organisation is just as important. If individuals feel that they’ve reached a position in order to prop up an organisation’s diversity quota, they’re likely to feel alienated or ostracised – even if they’re qualified for the role! So, Diversity is only one part of the puzzle. It’s the first step, a passport of sorts to transformation. But without Inclusion in toe, it’s little more than an invite to the party.

INCLUSION: YOUR COMPANY’S HOW

If Diversity is what your organisation looks like, Inclusion is how it feels. While it’s great to have a diverse organisational makeup, the way that the organisation operates within this context is just as important. Here are 5 ways to identify whether your organisation is demonstrating Inclusive behaviours or not. 

1.    Is the workplace visibly diverse?

Is the work environment proportionally mixed and representative? Or does diversity only take place in certain departments, regions or at specific levels? If so, then your company might be more interested in its diversity quota than providing a truly inclusive environment for its employees.

2.    Do employees have a voice?

Does your organisation have active platforms for feedback, in addition to the resources in place at a human resources level. For instance, are line managers being trained as coaches, encouraged to set up dialogue with more junior team members on non-business issues, and available to direct reports as well as other junior employees on a mentor-mentee basis?

3.    Is Learning & Development a way of life?

Employees who have access to learning and development opportunities know that their company cares — about their ideas, their aspirations and their growth. It’s important that these development opportunities are both present and encouraged. But it’s also important that these opportunities are relevant to individuals, not necessarily to the job function currently being performed.

4.    Are Opinions and Ideas valued?

Are there opportunities for employees at all levels to offer their opinions and their ideas? And if so, are these taken seriously by those in positions of power? Company hackathons, idea submission platforms or a general culture of rotating employees to grant exposure are all good places to start.

5.    Are employees Celebrated?

Although most companies have some form of rewards and recognition process in place, these are usually focused on business performance. It’s important to celebrate people for who they are, rather than for what they’ve done to improve the company’s bottom line. And this recognition need not be extrinsic in its reward structure. Often a simple mention by name during the Monday ‘pitstop’ meeting can go a long way, either from top management or via an informal peer-recognition model. It costs the company nothing but can be a powerful way to acknowledge individuals going above and beyond.