How crisis impacts the inclusion and diversity agenda

Earlier this week I joined the CEO panel at the DIAL Global Virtual Summit to discuss how crisis impacts the inclusion and diversity agenda of businesses and how we can take positive action to change lives. The first thing I noticed was that the panel was made up of white, middle-aged men. This caused initial awkwardness and embarrassment, but over the course of our conversation I realised that we’re all on a mission to drive structural change within our businesses and beyond.

My own stance is that inclusion and diversity must be leadership priorities. I’m not alone. In recent years, many businesses have become responsible and stakeholder-focused organisations with inclusion and diversity firmly on the board agenda.  And there’s no going back now.

But what impact has Covid-19 had? Here are the changing dynamics I’ve seen since the start of the pandemic:

Businesses are now health and wellbeing companies for employees:  In March 2020 when the first lockdown began, many businesses transitioned to remote working almost overnight. Home and work life blurred as a result, and the health and wellbeing of our people came to the fore. At Accenture, we put partnerships in place to provide additional support to those with family and caring responsibilities. We talk regularly about mental health. We run shorter meetings to allow breaks during the day. We check in on colleagues and teams more regularly. How business leaders ‘show up’ when communicating about these topics really matters to employees, and a continued focus on health and wellbeing will continue to be important as we move to hybrid working models.

There has been a large-scale awakening around race: The pandemic coincided with one of the biggest awakenings about the deep-rooted race issues within society following the murder of George Floyd. I recently came back to the UK after living in Atlanta, Georgia - the home of Martin Luther King - where I experienced the community’s response first-hand. I had my own awakening when I read The Underground Railroad and started to comprehend the depth of the structural issues associated with race. Accenture has already committed to a representation goal around Black employees – for our UK business it’s 7 per cent across all levels of the company. Many business leaders are only just beginning to get their minds around the equity implications associated with this.  

We’re embedding inclusion in its broadest sense: Accenture was recently voted number two in Diversity Inc’s ranking of diverse businesses for 2021, we feature in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2021report, and two of our UK leaders have been named in the annual EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model List. While I’m proud to be part of a global business that’s obsessive about inclusion and diversity, there’s always more to do. In addition to supporting our excellent employee-led diversity networks, we want to enable everyone to share their own unique story, so earlier this year we launched ID, Empowered by Accenture - a new inclusion hub and our commitment to equality. I can’t wait to see where this goes next.

There is a new societal dimension for business: Businesses stepped up during Covid to help those most adversely effected. During lockdown, we worked with FutureDotNow to provide devices to the digitally excluded. And more recently we’ve launched an initiative to support colleagues in India, where 25,000 of our people who directly support UK clients are currently experiencing bereavement. 

Empathetic leadership is here to stay: It’s one of the most complex times to be a business leader. The modern CEO needs to be both commercially rigorous and ethically responsible. Being an empathetic leader means a shift to being human-centric in your approach. The tone of communications is more important than ever, and the message you send needs to be inclusive. Communicating early and imperfectly is better than the alternative.  Keep asking for feedback from your people - and keep going!

Digital transformation is nothing without human ingenuity: It’s arguable that following the rapid digital transformation all businesses have undergone, we’re all technology businesses now. But technology shouldn’t replace humans – it’s there to empower our creativity and ingenuity. Our employees need the right skills to utilise the amazing technology tools at their fingertips. And we have a broader role to help our communities thrive in the digital economy too. This is about delivering value to all our stakeholders. In the UK we’re helping to bridge the digital divide through partnerships like Movement to Work and through our apprenticeship scheme.

As business leaders, we have a responsibility to keep the momentum around inclusion and diversity going. Stand with me, take action and let’s be judged by the progress we make. It’s going to be challenging, but wow – what an opportunity!

If you missed the DIAL Global Virtual Summit panel, you can watch the replay here.