Talent Management's Role in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: A Lever to Move the World

Like many of you, these past days and weeks have been for me a dizzying combination of confusion (at the distance that remains between our current state and ideal state as it relates to race relations in our world), frustration (as I've confronted my own biases on this topic), and hope (as we've seen many stand up and clearly state that the status quo on this subject is no longer acceptable.) It feels as if we are moving from a paradigm of talking to a paradigm of doing, and that is encouraging but scary - as many of us aren't entirely sure where to begin. At times the task of healing such a serious breach feels daunting, even impossible, and coming from a privileged background one can feel ill-equipped to take meaningful action. While the task before us collectively is enormous, we do have leverage points that we can utilize to make real change. I'm reminded of Greek mathematician Archimedes' famous observation, "Give me a lever long enough and fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Talent Management, while by no means the entire solution for the troubles that plague our society, does provide a way to take action that matters.

Talent Management Done Right

At its most basic, Talent Management (TM) is "the implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilizing people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs." (SHRM Glossary) I know, that's a pretty exciting definition. We tend to look at TM as the processes it generates; onboarding, performance management, succession planning, leadership development, etc. But done right, TM is the work of knowing, growing, and moving the uniquely right talent for your organization to achieve its strategic goals. A talent strategy should support your organizational strategy. And, as each organizational strategy is unique, the processes generated from your TM strategy must help you get and hold on to more of the people that are uniquely capable of helping you deliver on that strategy.

This idea of TM as a critical component of organizational strategy supports the work of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in two critical ways. First, the commitment to DE&I by an organization isn't just the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do for the success of the organization. Research determined the criticality of diversity as a component of organizational strategy long before our current societal awakening to the need for greater commitment to DE&I. Second, diversity is a predictor of leadership effectiveness, and Diversity Intelligence (DQ) a unique construct that can be assessed, developed, and leveraged in organizations. (Special shout-out to my friend and mentor Dr. Claretha Hughes who is nothing short of a pioneer in this arena.) Given these two facts, TM is uniquely positioned to create the processes and strategies to know, grow and move talent that is both diverse in and of itself and possesses the DQ necessary to help an organization thrive. There are two critical places to "cut in" on this work - the TM processes of Succession Planning and Performance Management, and Leadership Development content.

Hard-wiring Equity into Talent Management Practices

A couple of years ago I sat down with my CHRO to discuss what we wanted to accomplish in our DE&I strategy. While you would think this would be a pretty simple conversation, we found it vexing. Eventually we landed on a simple objective - to have diversity in leadership that reflected the diversity of our population. If diversity was a predictor of leadership effectiveness, we noted the very real risk our organization faced if we didn't meet that objective.

There are three key TM processes that support the goal of a more diverse leadership: Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, and Succession Planning. Talent Acquisition is a straightforward solution - bias in the screening and interviewing process will lead to less-diverse new hires and so taking steps to remove that bias will aid in increasing that diversity. This is a topic that has received robust discussion and there's good stuff out there to help in eliminating that bias. But, TM is ultimately a long game. And for an organization that wants more diversity in senior leadership it begins with promoting more diversity in its front-line management. That's where Performance Management and Succession Planning come into play.

At UCHealth we have been on a multi-year journey to completely re-envision our performance management and succession planning processes. These two elements are deeply inter-connected and ideally create a virtuous cycle. Supporting all individuals in their development, and then critically reviewing your talent pipelines to ensure diversity in those pipelines is critical. We have shifted performance management to a development-focused Career Conversations in which the objective isn't evaluation but calibration and development. Leaders become a catalyst for their employee's growth, and employees have the tools, resources, and specific role road maps to follow to grow their careers in the directions that inspire them. This approach ensures that any individual, regardless of background, has the freedom and support to chart their own course - including towards formal leadership. On the back-end, the organization can then monitor and report on interest in career growth and prevalence of professional development plans by key demographics, and investigate and take action when there is under-representation.

Performance management, as mentioned above, is most effective when coupled with purposeful succession planning. The same role road maps to success for employees can double as objective rubrics to determine readiness for a position - softening our natural bias to promote those who are like us. What is often lacking in successful succession planning is the common, calibrated standard for readiness. When you implement that unbiased standard, as we have done at UCHealth, you can then evaluate those in your pipeline more objectively. The work does not end there, however. Continual monitoring of the talent pipeline, and evaluation of potential inequities as it relates to access and opportunity, is critical. We work specifically with those in the talent pipeline to ensure purposeful development, providing the coaching and mentoring necessary to prepare for future roles within the organization. Combining Performance Management and Succession Planning as part of a virtuous cycle of diverse leadership development is a tangible, meaningful step that an organization can take to further its DE&I efforts.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training is Leadership Development Training

The other area in which TM can further DE&I strategy is Leadership Development. In conversation with my OD team over the past few weeks we have repeatedly noted that the same skills required to effectively build DQ were the same skills that made for good leadership in general. This isn't surprising when you think about it; good leadership involves listening to your people, successfully holding multiple points-of-view and considering multiple perspectives in order to make good decisions, and creating a space where people feel heard and appreciated. The typical response to a need for DE&I education is to produce content specific to the topic, e.g., unconscious bias or cultural sensitivity training. The challenge is that the track-record for the long-term effectiveness of this type of training in changing behavior is questionable.

I do believe that organizations are well-served in creating robust DE&I curricula as it clearly reinforces the organization's position on these critical issues. However, as my team have been discussing ways to drive actual behavior change and build needed DQ in our organization we have determined that a DE&I curriculum is necessary but not sufficient. We are now working on a comprehensive re-work of all of our leadership development content, and including action learning events that create opportunities for leaders to work through these critical leadership skills within a DE&I context. For example, every organization has a course on effective communication. Including a case study or action learning event that requires participants to practice effective communication skills within the context of DE&I reinforces the notion that DQ and good leadership are synonymous, and that being skilled at one means being skilled at both. Every exercise need not be one focused on DE&I, but a consistent weaving of DE&I examples into the larger leadership development curricula builds skill while also underlining the notion that leadership and DQ are indeed synonymous.

So, Now What?

It would be a monumental waste of a unique moment in history to not do something different or differently. Knowing what do to, or where to start, can be daunting. If you are a Talent Management or Human Resources professional, or have leadership influence over those who lead these strategies in your organization, the ideas above give a starting point for tangible change. Meaningful professional development, purposeful succession planning, and contextualized leadership development represent real steps your organization can take. It is not the full answer, but it's a start in an effort to move the world.