The Inclusion Race
Trends to consider as you prepare your organization for the future of inclusivity
We can all agree that the famous adage, “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” has served us well when considering long term goals and developing new initiatives to support, maintain, and retain human capital. However, an unprecedented year for race relations, socioeconomic pitfalls, and a sobering health crisis have all given way to a metaphoric 100-meter dash-like race to inclusivity. By sharing this, I hope to help you understand emerging trends so you can help your organization qualify for the inclusion marathon.
Trend 1: Higher education’s investment in certification curriculums
School is cool! Prominent educational institutions have already begun to embrace the imminent future of inclusion. Leading universities such as Stanford, Northwestern, Yale, and Cornell seem to be on the forefront of adopting this generational trend through certification programs. At the moment, formal inclusion-based colleges and bachelor’s degrees have yet to emerge but watch out anthropology, you may have some competition! This trend is important for several reasons, but the underlying impact will be in the areas of campus recruiting and hiring for inclusion-based roles.
Although the inclusion space is rapidly becoming a legitimate and accredited field, do not make a certification a mandatory requirement. Universities have taken a monumental step toward making these opportunities available; however, they still have work to do to make their programs more inclusive in the pocketbook department. An inclusion certification can cost upwards of $4,000 which is a lot of money for most members of underrepresented communities; communities that will be most attracted to an accreditation of this nature. (1) The last thing you want is for a job description to highlight a potential wealth gap scenario.
Trend 2: New Priorities for College Graduates
When I graduated in 2012, my only concern was how much my starting salary would be, and whether it would be enough to move out of my parents’ basement. Nowadays, students evaluate both traditional perks and new priorities like DEI initiatives, community outreach and volunteering when accepting or rejecting a job. I am not saying that one generation is more woke than the other, but the main focus for new college graduates is now, more than ever, equality: Will I be treated fairly? Do you have a female on your board or in the C-suite? Do you invest in philanthropic initiatives for underrepresented communities? Hopefully, the answers to these questions have been ingrained in your campus recruiting pitches.
Organizations are approaching this in two ways, with visibility and with policy. First, there has been an obvious increase in public statements and press releases related to inclusion-based hiring: “Hey look at us! We care about diversity!” Second, organizations are taking the diversity quotas out of the closet and are building headcount-oriented policies around the type of talent the organization wants to attract.
Both tactics are necessary, and although inclusion is an extremely broad landscape, there is a natural order of things that supersedes goal setting and planning. If we go back to our marathon analogy, in this case visibility is the marathon and policy is the sprint, a sprint that must be championed at the highest level of your organization. If you succeed in policy, your public efforts will have teeth and more importantly, they will be supported and shared by your employee population.
If your organization is embracing a policy of hiring and attracting more diverse talent by recruiting for an Inclusion Director, then policy is the construct in which the D&I professional will truly reside. Before you post a role for a D&I professional, make sure the description is reflective of the policy that you want this hire to build on, rather than a laundry list of skill-based requirements. Start them off on the right foot.
Trend 3 - Government Influence
Joe Biden and company have yet to take office, but one thing should be clear, this administration will be heavily involved in mapping out a route for the inclusion marathon. Regardless of your political affiliations, we can all agree that the new administration is on track to be the most diverse cabinet in modern history. Biden has tapped several people from diverse backgrounds to hold prominent roles in his cabinet. If confirmed by the Senate, Gen. Lloyd Austin will become the first African American to head the Department of Defense, in addition to people of color nominated to head departments in Commerce, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Veteran Affairs. (2)
Before we look at what’s to come, let’s travel back in time to see how government policy has influenced hiring practices in the past. In 2016, Massachusetts made it illegal for employers to ask about salary history; salary history could be confirmed only after an offer was made. This was a giant leap forward in addressing the wealth gap for minorities and women especially. Since then, 27 states including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia passed similar legislation. (3) With 13 of the 18 nominated cabinet members being lawyers, it is safe to assume that legally charged initiatives with potentially punitive methods of enforcement will be on the horizon.
Fast forward a couple of years to 2018. California, conceivably the most liberal and progressive state in the Union, has already begun to put these policies into place. Last year, Gavin Newsom signed AB 979 (Corporations: boards of directors: underrepresented communities), a bill reinforcing the 2018 bill SB 826. Both bills require publicly traded companies to increase the number of females on the board of directors by the end of 2021. Violators of this bill could face fines upward of $300,000. (4)
California companies are still hustling to meet these requirements by the end of ’21, but according to KPMG, in 2019 alone the number of all-male boards went from 29% to a resounding 4% (5). This is progress in its purest form, but the thing inclusion will not allow you to do is relax within the context of one inclusion subcategory. The difference between bills is that SB 826 covered women, but did not broaden to those identifying as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native American. (5) Long story short, don’t get too happy if you feel that your organization is ready for the marathon, you might have to requalify in an area that you otherwise thought had been addressed.
Trend 3 - Request for Proposal
Perhaps the lifeblood of the services industry, the RFP reigns supreme. The emerging trends here are numerous and will vary based on a plethora of factors. If your organization is using the RFP process to win new business, the preliminaries that you need to be aware of are highly research and discovery based. Your potential clients want to know how white your organization is! There’s no shame in saying it, or making a public effort to find out what can be done differently. There is no telling how much money will be spent in the next 4 years to answer this simple question, but rest assured, if your clients are trying to figure this out, they want their partners to be able to answer the question honestly.
Inclusion-based RFPs are rapidly increasing with no end in sight. Everyone from Fortune 500 giants to nonprofits are reaching out for help to make sure they can win with talent and if we’re being blunt, they don’t want to be a focal point of public shame for not making an effort to diversify. (6) Any reason is a good one to become more diverse and if yours is in fear of shaming, just own it. Especially if you are willing to spend money to resolve it, the inclusion consulting space wants your business!
Inclusion-based RFPs will resemble an audit starting with discovery, then leading to a define and design-like approach to help an organization become more imaginative and collaborative. In this example, the RFP is the sprint and the service is a marathon. The most important aspect of the RFP will be its selection criteria. (7) You would think that in responding to an RFP you would customize your service offering to best adhere to what it is that an organization is looking to accomplish. However, diversity of thought is no longer a simple point of discussion. Having the ability to point to tangible data supporting thought diversity in response to an RFP is going to be crucial in securing new streams of revenue.
Conclusion
The route the inclusion marathon runs will be long and undefined. If you take anything from this read, latch on to something that we know will never go away and use it to help guide your organization. To ensure permanence, leverage permanent institutions and ideals; education, government, and commerce are the preliminary waypoints to qualify. Do not take it easy! Train, train, and train some more until you are ready for a long-distance commitment to inclusion.
Sources
- https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/07/12/income-inequality-in-the-u-s-is-rising-most-rapidly-among-asians/
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/11/opinions/joe-biden-cabinet-picks-diversity-begala/index.html
- https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/states-with-salary-history-bans
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB979
- https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/Pages/California-Law-Aims-to-Add-More-Minorities-to-Corporate-Boards.aspx
- https://www.kornferry.com/insights/articles/diversity-in-2021-this-time-were-serious?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_term=link&utm_content=none&utm_campaign=briefings-issue46&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWm1JM1pqZzVOVGcwT0RsaSIsInQiOiJ6Rng3bEdqMXBQN2JObTd6RnZVcllFVGFEdlpFNmJzSStSSGFnT2dKYUpmQlBZanJZbGZOQVpSWTlqTDVyYktkRDZoXC9cLzAzcGdaZnFUaWszR0ZGXC92VzNkS0FsWDFDdE9EOHhVQUFxbGlaN1BBVW5PckpxSElkZHhmM1RXZ200NCJ9
- https://500womenscientists.org/rfpjeditraining