Why DE&I Programs fails in business

So, you can’t wait to start building your DE&I program? Neither could I when I was working for one of my previous employers, a technology consulting company I worked for several years ago!

We were having difficulties retaining female consultants, despite the fact that equality between men and women had been achieved among newly employed university graduates.

We thought and were convinced that our intense, 50-60-hour-a week culture was to blame, and we also thought that we could address this problem by implementing new work-life-balance policies at work. ?

And how did we know this? Well, it turned out we didn’t actually. We assumed.

Once we did a deep analysis of why so many talented women, especially women in a leadership position, were leaving the company after working 5 to 7 years, it turned out that these women were losing patience with their managers' poor people management skills.

Employees who excelled technically within the organization were rewarded with a promotion that required them to also handle people and leadership as well.

It turned out that very few of these tech professionals enjoyed their managerial responsibilities - and none of them were given any training or development to help them adapt to their new roles.

Of course, this applied to both women and men. But structural injustices caused women to be disproportionately affected, and many women chose to leave the company.

The solution to achieving gender equality and retaining female consultants was not to improve the balance between work and private life, but rather to focus on the root cause of the problem. The solution was to improve the way future managers were selected within the company, the way new managers were recruited, leadership development programs for managers, and improved rewarding systems - and as a red thread, ensure that unconscious bias and conscious inclusion education were integrated into the different processes and programs.

So, rushing into the task without first having an understanding of your organization's DE&I gap is a recipe for failure.

Companies that make this mistake - and unfortunately in my experience there are many who do, risk dealing with short-term symptoms, rather than dealing with the underlying root causes. This way of working creates lame initiatives that do not yield any tangible results.

So what are the most common mistakes companies do?

According to an article from Korn Ferry - the 3 most common mistakes companies do are:

1/ Going on assumptions:

DE&I often becomes an emotional issue with various groups of stakeholders engaged in a passionate debate on what to do. However, it’s critical to make DE&I decisions based on data and facts. If you deploy your DE&I initiatives based purely on assumptions or dominated opinions, the resulting efforts are likely to miss the mark. There is a high chance you may not address the root causes of underlying issues, weaken your internal alignment and undermine the long-term success of your DE&I efforts.

2/ Taking an overly programmatic approach.

DE&I needs to be approached as a joined-up strategic imperative and managed as a change effort—with clear priorities, governance, accountabilities, and markers of success. When organizations tackle DE&I as a series of standalone DE&I programs - it simply doesn’t stick. It is only when DE&I is integrated into the organization’s business and talent practices that it becomes a real lever for competitive advantage.

3/ Focusing exclusively on behavioral change.

Many organizations have been focusing on behavioral inclusion mostly through the deployment of unconscious bias training. However, to drive meaningful results, organizations must take a more comprehensive approach. In addition to behavioral transformation (behavioral inclusion), organizations need to transform themselves at a systemic level, re-examining and reshaping their talent and business processes to ensure they are fair and equitable (structural inclusion). Only by balancing both behavioral and structural inclusion can organizations achieve sustainable outcomes.

The solution, to avoid these pitfalls is, to begin with a data-driven DE&I gap analysis. This approach will provide a comprehensive picture of an organization's DE&I maturity and will reveal hidden shortcomings.

When done well, a deep diagnostic helps companies discover the true root causes of why they are not as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as they would like to be.

The insights you gain will help you:

• Understand where you need to focus to have the greatest impact so that you can create targeted activities that have a much greater chance of achieving the results you want.
• Identify which actions you need to prioritize and how you best implement them.

I would then, as a first step, recommend to establish a baseline for where you are on your DE&I journey, so you can build a roadmap for where you want to go next and track and measure your progress.

Secondly engage managers in solving the challenges you have in your organisation, increase their on-the-job contact with female and minority workers, and encourage and promote social accountability for change - the desire to be fair-minded.

Activities such as targeted university recruitment, mentoring programs, self-directed teams and working groups, are increasing diversity in companies. Some of the most effective solutions are not even designed with diversity in mind.

With this approach you will get consistently positive results with tactics that don’t focus on control, but instead behaviour.

What are your experience with DE&I programs? What works and what does not?

You are welcome to share what you have experienced!

Eva Vati is a Business Strategist who helps executives, businesses, and entrepreneurs future-proof their companies.

She is the CEO and founder of VATI of Sweden, which is the first company in the world to give certification on integrating sustainability into business strategy. She has a loyal community of over 25,000 people who are committed to creating a better world by running businesses that promote sustainability, equality, and diversity.

PS.

If you are interested to create lasting change in your organization, then take a look at the DE&I Change Leader - program I've created for Leaders, Managers, Entrepreneurs who wants to create lasting and sustainable change in their organizations!

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