Leaders need a well-thought-out strategy for implementing DEI in their organization. You can get closer to your DEI goals by capturing metrics, following a proven process, and delivering on 1-percent solutions.
To ensure long-term progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), HR and Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) will play a pivotal role. It can take a decade for an organization to change, and CEOs come and go, but HR is a constant. Rather than relying on company-wide discussions about inclusion, the first step toward sustainable progress on DEI is to build bias interrupters into organizational systems. As a company, you can't just talk about diversity and inclusion; you have to take action. Metrics can help you establish baselines and track your progress.
For your DEI goals and the structural change required to achieve them, I will give you concrete advice on building an evidence-based case. First, create an issue with data, design evidence-based interventions, and repeat these steps.
Determine if there is a problem with the metrics you've collected.
Even if top management is on board, it's critical to gather metrics to determine whether or not a problem exists, its magnitude, and the locations in which it manifests. Without support from the middle, no diversity effort can succeed because mid-level managers typically have the power to open doors.
High-level jobs are essential for measuring because they tell you if your company has difficulty recruiting women and people of color. But that's all you get to hear from them. Based on these metrics, it's impossible to know the problem or how to fix it. Process metrics are required for this.
Using hiring as an example, it's easier to explain metrics in terms of hiring. Know who is in the group of applicants, who survives résumé reviews, who gets an interview and stays the interview, who accepts an offer, and (if the salary is negotiable) what their starting salaries are. If you have a nondiverse applicant pool, the fix is very different from the fix if no one of color makes it past the interview stage. e. To solve a problem, you need to know precisely what it is.
Another type of process metric can determine if a given system is biased in a certain way. For example, you can audit your performance evaluations to see if her or his "great smile" or her "sharp elbows" get equal airtime for different demographic groups. This will allow us to see if women and people of color are affected by tightrope bias. Studies have shown that this is the case.
The Workplace Experiences Survey provides a comprehensive picture of whether employees report experiencing bias, whether they feel various business systems are fair, and whether bias is affecting outcome measures such as belonging and intent to stay in the workplace. It's also possible to collect the data needed to determine if bias creeps into each business process. As a result, CDOs and HR can get buy-in for effective intervention by collecting the right metrics.
In one case, a resourceful human resources professional at a professional services firm was attempting to persuade her company to widen access to career advancement opportunities. As a result, she opted for a simple solution. In professional services, billable hours are the gold standard, and that firm has already kept track of them. It was found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, women billed about one hundred fewer hours than men, and people of color were charging two hundred to three hundred fewer hours than whites. Those who didn't bill enough hours at her firm didn't succeed, so her findings were convincing to the company's leadership.
A company where this seldom or never happens to women and minorities is one where white men are promoted to higher positions than women and minorities. Unfortunately, it's a common problem.
Keep a running tally of the number and identities of the magic jumpers you encounter. The power of a simple breakdown of a population can't be overstated.
In addition, metrics play a role in other aspects of a business. They are essential for setting benchmarks and determining whether or not your efforts are working. Your DEI efforts will gain momentum if you can find ways to recognize and celebrate your successes. To wrap things up, because eliminating bias isn't a one-and-done endeavor, they can continue to help you get there.
In-house lawyers may object to keeping metrics because they fear that doing so could put their clients at risk. To keep your clients safe while implementing bold DEI initiatives, you can introduce your legal department to some progressive outside counsel. If the outside counsel chosen by your legal team is more conservative, you might benefit from getting a second opinion.
Step 2: The costs of not neglecting to act
Maintaining a zero-tolerance for legal risk in the DEI context is an eloquent way of stating that the company doesn't place a high value on diversity. But on the other hand, neglecting to act can have severe consequences for DEI, such as bad press, lawsuits, and employee turnover, which outweigh the benefits of gathering some data.
Step 3: Make use of toolkits backed by research.
If the steps are evidence-based, they can have a significant impact. After collecting data in step one, this is where you experiment with various interventions to counteract the bias you've documented. In what ways does the data change?
To emphasize that you're not just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, social science can help you build a well-structured, strategic initiative in this step.
Step 4: Don't give up!
A single effort or a single year won't be enough to eliminate all of your company's biases—and that shouldn't be the goal. Consistently taking small steps should be the goal. It's better to incorporate these evidence-based tweaks into your fundamental business systems than to rely solely on a CEO-driven, conversation-based culture change. Methodically implement changes based on evidence, deep within daily plans, and educate managers at all levels, using metrics to track progress.
Rather than attempting to boil the ocean, start with small victories to build up the necessary support for long-term organizational change. Then, to pave the way for future steps, conduct a pilot with some receptive managers.
Percentage of the Problem Solved
Any HR or DEI professional worth their salt knows how many people are involved in deciding who gets hired, who gets valuable opportunities opened up to them, who gets promoted, and how much they get paid. You're well aware that any adjustments above will necessitate an extensive organizational change effort. You'll need to be persistent and innovative to affect organizational change, as you're well aware. My recommendation is to pursue the 1% relentlessly. To gain political support for further 1% improvements, you should work on improving organizational systems in ways that are politically feasible for the time being.
About Jim Woods
Jim has more than two decades of experience driving change around diversity, equity, inclusion, performance, growth, and innovation. He's designed and led complex transformation initiatives in companies linked to globalization, demographic changes, sustainability, shifting business models, and new technologies.
Earlier in his career, Jim served in the United States Navy, and taught fifth-grade math and science, including university human resources and leadership. Also, Jim has taught at Villanova University. He has authored six business books on DE&I, and leadership.
Education
Capella University, MS in Organizational Development and Human Resources