The Pitfalls of a Chief Diversity Officer

The corporate world is full of acronyms. However, one that has become more common throughout the last few years is?DEI, which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Because of the changing cultural climate and key social movements such as Black Lives Matter,?DEI seems to be having more attention than before.?

A second parallel acronym is currently rising in popularity:?CDO, or Chief Diversity Officer. The increasing interest in DEI—whether real or performative—has led to a proliferation of new positions and roles to steer companies in the right DEI direction.?

This sounds great, doesn’t it? Hiring Chief Diversity Officers to help companies be more inclusive and diverse—it’s a good thing. And yet,?

Why are there so many?Chief Diversity Officer?job postings?

Why is there such high turnover amongst CDO's??

In my work as an Inclusive Workplace Wellness Advocate, I like to follow the HR trends in the DEI space. I’ve noticed a trend in Europe and the United States that CDO's are either leaving their jobs after a short time or facing significant challenges. And I’m not the only one noticing this.?

This column?piece by Nadia Owusu shares some of the conversations and experiences of women of color CDO's that she spoke to. In addition, this article?discusses the problems of a “revolving CDO door.”

I want to look deeper at why something with a positive intention—to actively combat isms like racism and discrimination in companies—seems to be failing miserably. I believe that the?pitfalls of a Chief Diversity Officer?are twofold. First, DEI is not a checkbox, and second, a CDO is not Olivia Pope (from Scandal) or Harry Potter, who magically removes all the challenges companies face. So let’s dig deeper into both.

DEI is not a checkbox

The business case for diversity is clear. McKinsey has?multiple reports?(2015, 2018, 2020) with powerful statistics on the business case for diversity, such as the fact that ethnically diverse companies financially outperform their competitors by 36%.

But, business case aside, DEI is important because?people are essential.?Therefore, my mission through my work is to?amplify DEI?to humanize the workplace and make it a safe and welcoming place for all people. This is how each person can show up as their true self and, therefore, their best self.

Whether companies only care about the business case or honestly care about the people, there is a reason to care about DEI. Thus, hiring a Chief Diversity Officer checks that box, right??

The thing is this: DEI is not a checkbox.

It is a movement, a way of living, a heartbeat of humanity. It’s about people, and it’s always been about people. For this reason,?DEI has to be a holistic mindset shift, deep within the heart and culture of an organization.?

DEI is not a checkbox, so hiring a Chief Diversity Officer is not going to “check” the box. We need to have a mindset shift away from this if anything is going to change.

A CDO is not Olivia Pope, Harry Potter, or Annelise Keating!

Just as DEI is not a checkbox, a CDO is not a fixer like Olivia Pope (Scandal), Annelise Keating (HTGAWM), or a magician like Harry Potter. Even the best Chief Diversity Officer in the world cannot shift an entire company by themselves. In her?column, Nadia Owusu recalls a conversation with another woman of color, CDO, who shared that the company hired her to “solve their racism problem.”

This attitude—that one person alone can solve everything—is na?ve thinking at best and malicious at worst, setting up a CDO to be the “scapegoat” for any failed DEI initiative, as expressed in?this?Forbes article.

A CDO is not a unicorn or a magician but a professional. And like any professional, they need certain things to do their job adequately. There are three main reasons why CDOs are finding it hard to do their job:

1.Budget constraints

While we want to make DEI conversation much broader than finances, money is essential to getting things done. It funds initiatives and projects and allows CDOs to do their job.?

Many CDOs are not even granted a full-time position to dedicate to DEI initiatives. Toby Egbuna mentions a study in?this article?that found that 53% of the participants held?additional roles or responsibilities?that were unrelated to DEI.?

If companies cannot even devote funds to a full-time role, how can a CDO focus on the work at hand? Budgets need to reflect the importance of the CDO role and work to be successful.

2. Lack of buy-in

Since CDO's are not magicians, they cannot do everything on their own. There absolutely needs to be buy-in from the rest of the leadership and colleagues to do the work. Nadia Owusu?reflects?on how her early days as a CDO were marked by leaders telling her to “tone down incendiary language” and avoid topics that were “divisive.” She writes about how other women of color CDO's also encountered this same problem.

But if frank conversations cannot be held, how can real change ever happen? A CDO is hired for a reason. They need to be respected in their role to do the work with the support of leadership and buy-in from the company. Diversity does not belong to just one role but should be embraced by all people in the organization.?

3. Poor resources

Many CDO's are not set up for success because they don’t have the resources they need for success. Many of the current CDO's are new to their role since, and overall, it’s a relatively new field. Therefore, they are often not given the power and authority to make decisions and changes in their role.?

A report by Russell Reynolds showed that CDO's are lacking more than just financial resources—they also lack?data. The?study?indicated that only 45% of CDO's had employee demographic information to help them in their work.?

Conclusion

Diversity matters. Inclusion matters. Equity matters. And, it matters that companies are finally stepping up and making changes in their companies. Hiring Chief Diversity Officers is a good first step and a signal of the desire to change. And yet, as it stands now, the CDO position is full of pitfalls and challenges.

The attitude that DEI is a box to check and a singular CDO can come in and perform a magic trick just doesn’t work. And then, there are the real, tangible challenges of lack of resources, buy-in, and budget that constrain the positive work a CDO could do.?

But here’s the thing:?once we know better, we can do better.?So, by looking at the pitfalls of the CDO position, we can start to make a real and lasting change towards improving workplaces and truly embracing and activating DEI.