Here's what separates the best from the rest

It boils down to two key factors - a culture of transparency and leadership accountability.

When I started Moving Beyond in 2020, I had already been tracking the good folks at JUST Capital for a few years. JUST ranks Fortune 1000 companies based on employee polling, supplier perceptions, ESG reports - all backed by independent research.

Overtime, they've seen some clear indicators of companies leading on equity and inclusion, building and retaining a diverse workforce. Companies on the leading edge:

• Include DEI goals in as part of senior leader and people manager performance evaluations.
• Perform pay gap analyses and reports specific pay gap ratio(s) by race/ethnicity and gender (at a minimum - they may also report by other demographic identities).
• Disclose detailed workforce diversity data by race/ethnicity and gender (e.g. EEO-1 report or equivalent).
• Disclose specific diversity and opportunity targets by race/ethnicity and gender.
• Offer paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers, and paid leave for other issues such as mental health, illness, and more.
• Disclose a fair chance policy eliminating barriers for those with a criminal record, and other challenging life circumstances.
• Enforce clear and consistent policies on workplace discrimination.
• Offer flexible workplace policies such as remote, hybrid, and flex hours.
• Build the capacity of people managers and individual contributors through strong learning and development programs.

What separates the best from the rest is not unconscious bias training. It's not buzzword DEI topics, nor an investment in ERGs and celebration of various awareness months. It's strong people and culture practices, applied consistently, for all employees.

Companies on the leading edge understand the culture change happens through intentional shifts in how we work, how we relate with one another, and the ways in which we build a climate that values fairness, belonging, and transparency.?