Driving tangible change: Key elements at workplace

While many organizations have dedicated resources to drive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work, development of equitable processes that is accessible for everyone is an ongoing journey.

As our journey continues, here are some important lessons I can share to bring tangible changes.

Now, keep in mind I am still on the continuous learning journey, and on a very steep one, especially during the past 4+ years - I am sharing my personal insights here with the hope of inviting further thoughts on how we all can drive changes from where we sit in our organization.?

Center lived experiences of underrepresented communities

Generally speaking, people want to look into data to understand the current gap and face difficulty in accessing diversity data (DEI demographics). This is a common challenge.

At Google, we have an initiative called Self-ID, gathering intersectional data cutting across race, gender and other identities to help give us a more complete picture of our workforce.

While we worked on such an initiative, I found it quite challenging to find meaningful quantitative? data insights, particularly when the community is at a hyper-small stage. As I emerged myself to explore the ways to improve workplace experience of underrepresented communities, it hit me that the concept of “evidence based-practice” is a plausible approach.

I often referred to this term in a medical research field role I was in before moving to HR decades ago, and it is supported by a grounded theory, a qualitative research theory pioneered by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss.

It felt like my experience came to a full circle decades later when I saw Brene Brown's qualitative research work and her mention of grounded theory. I am no longer in my research career but felt blessed to see the blooming of qualitative research along with quantitative research to move the change forward in the world.?

Personally, I learned that our own unconscious bias impacts everything we do. I came to this realization almost 20 years ago when I was slicing data for my clients. I noticed myself unconsciously seeking for data to verify my hypothesis.?

This is quite similar to regulation for instance. They are designed by people. So the natural human tendencies and unconscious biases are likely to be weaved in when implementing laws, regulations and policies especially if the response teams are not inclusive of underrepresented minority groups.

That's where representation matters, and a brave space where diverse perspectives are celebrated and included at the discussion table.Having said that, we don’t need to wait until we have a perfect representation at the table - we need allies to lean in.?

When we practice allyship, “believing underrepresented people’s lived experience, listening, supporting, self-reflecting and changing” is the journey everyone can join, regardless of their data access level.?

Be intentional about measures to mitigate biases that show up in processes

While a multitude of steps can be taken to ensure DEI initiatives work, biases in the system are easily overlooked. Many don't get addressed if we don’t have a space to point out, discuss and resolve the bias. The system is also made by people.

Awareness building is the very first step in establishing inclusivity in workplaces while investing in building fair and consistent performance reviews, promotion and pay outcomes and other people's critical employee lifecycle.?

Set a vision of tangible change with a multi-year strategy and deliverables?

Setting a vision of what ‘great' looks like and working backwards - addressing gaps, has been helpful for me in delivering tangible perceived changes on DEI and Belonging. This is also possible when we ensure leaders and organizations are “walking the walk” - by setting foundations on relevant policies, data-informed strategies and equity and inclusion programs.?

With a focus on workforce experiences, I tend to be protective of underrepresented community members. I want them not to be burdened by multiple listening sessions to help education leaders and stakeholders. Of course, unless a committed plan can be made and communicated in response to their heavy lifting in sharing their lived experience. If they are hyper-underrepresented in the organization, it’s safe to assume that you are not the only one who reached out to them asking for their input.?

While systemic changes take time and may not be sharable to a wider audience, identifying programmatic opportunities that can be experienced by underrepresented community members for their healing and growth has been helpful. As well as this, helping all workforce including managers and leaders to build allyship perspectives and the capability to lean in critical moments is important.

As someone privileged to be able to spend 100% of my time on DEI, I serve allies as well to make their experience as meaningful and effective as possible through their learning journey.

Depending on the context, I identify myself as a member of underrepresented communities (e.g. women of a color, an immigrant with English as a non-native language) but I certainly have my privilege, able-bodied, cis-gendered, heterosexual person with a long tenure at my company) to contribute through my allyship practice. Because of where I sit compared to others, I found working on my emotional intelligence and emotional regulation has been helpful to continue the journey.?

Make DEI everyone’s responsibility

Talking about allyship, it's a common misconception that DEI programs are only the responsibility of the human resources department. Policies around DEI impact every employee, therefore, everyone is to be held accountable for the implementation, and it starts from leadership.

Additionally in any organization, the management plays a critical role in business decision-making including hiring, talent development and product development. It, therefore, makes sense to embed accountability within DEI goals in a leaders’ performance review.?

At Google, all VP’s are now evaluated on their leadership in support of diversity, equity and inclusion, which factors into their ratings and pay.

Not only is this making leaders accountable, but they also should be supported. Leaders including middle managers should be empowered with the necessary tools and training to expand their DEI capability, and that’s where DEI subject matter experts can support them.?

I also note, as I covered in my first blog , underrepresented workforce’s focus should be on self-awareness including self-healing, to become more aware rather than spending their already-depleted energy on educating the majority of folks.?

When everyone starts practicing allyship, underrepresented members can take more time to take care of themselves as well as focus on their core roles.?

On a final note...

Achieving DEI goals is not a feat that can be achieved in a short time. It is a continuous journey involving a series of improvements. All organizations including technology firms can start by building awareness about employees’ workplace experience gaps and believing in their perceived experience while providing a space for employees' self-care for sustainable performance.?

Fostering trust and open, psychologically safe communication channels helps the most for DEI programs to come forward.

In an inclusive corporate culture, all employees of the organization can come together to build solid frameworks that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion. Starting with setting a vision for a multi-year strategy, companies can leverage both quantitative and qualitative data to measure their progress on the real impact they are making.?

Real DEI effort is all about bridging the gap between intent and impact.

References:?

https://about.google/belonging/diversity-annual-report/2022/methodology/ ?

https://hockeystack.com/blog/data-driven-vs-data-informed/ ?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shereeatcheson/2018/11/30/allyship-the-key-to-unlocking-the-power-of-diversity/?sh=1bb8047549c6 ?

https://premium.hcamag.com/nz-exclusivefeature-howeffectiveareglobaldeiinitiatives-3/p/1 ?

https://www.cultureamp.com/workplace-dei-report-2022?utm_source=paid&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=AP%3AHRD%20NZ%20exclusive%20feature%20-%20DEI%20report%7CC%3A21q3dei%7CA%3Adei_report_2022%7CD%3A2022_03_01%7CPa%3Ahrd_nz%7CTe%3Afield_mkt_fmm%7CT%3Aemployee_experience%7CP%3Aengagement%7CR%3Aapac ?

https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/diversity/racial-equity-update-nov-2021/

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace