According to a poll by Gartner, Inc., nearly 90 percent of HR leaders believe their firm has been unsuccessful or stagnant at boosting diversity representation.

Gartner said in April 2020, based on a survey of 113 HR leaders, that there are three organizational hurdles to the progression of underrepresented talent: Uncertain career routes and promotion milestones, insufficient exposure to senior leaders, absence of mentors, and professional assistance.

A survey of leaders of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) found that 69 percent prioritize the advancement of minority talent. While the intention is admirable, there is no two-hour training solution for this difficulty. Instead, organizations must evaluate their current procedures and processes to reduce bias and address organizational obstacles that impede fair progression opportunities.

To truly enhance the diversity of their managerial and leadership benches, HR and DEI executives must confront the systemic prejudice ingrained in their systems, procedures, and stakeholders. Gartner has outlined three activities that HR professionals should do to reset their approach to advancing underrepresented talent:

Restore the Manager-Worker Relationship

To achieve headway in improving diversity representation, businesses must develop manager-employee relationships that lay the groundwork for advocacy and promotion.

Conversations with HR and DEI leaders indicate that managers are powerless to execute vital activism and advancement-related activities if they fail to have a solid relationship with their employees. This can be more challenging when managers and employees have different experiences.

HR should undertake the following to improve the manager-employee relationship:

• Teach managers how to provide individualized assistance to subordinates and equip them to be great talent coaches.

• Increase manager understanding of the employment experience of underrepresented talent.

• Build confidence between underrepresented talent and their respective managers

The most successful organizations go beyond outmoded leadership development programs that emphasize exclusively skill-building to develop women, LGBT+, or racially and ethnically diverse employees; they also target managers of program participants to raise awareness of the employee experience of their direct reports, cultivate trust, and facilitate more outstanding manager advocacy.

Enable Networks Focused on Growth

Intentional and self-sustaining, growth-focused networks provide a variety of individuals with varying roles, levels, talents, and experiences. In addition, they provide access to senior leaders who are in a position to foster growth and advancement.

When underrepresented employees have diverse networks, the organization is successful. Research by Gartner finds that firms that build networking programs for minority talent are twice as likely to state they are effective at promoting organizational inclusion and 1.3 times as likely to report they are effective at increasing varied employee engagement.

Key HR initiatives to allow growth-oriented networks include:

• Assist all employees in comprehending how networking can improve diversity and inclusion, especially for underrepresented talent.

• Permit underrepresented talent to actively network and instruct managers and leaders on how to construct and maintain networks to aid underrepresented talent's performance, development, and promotion.

• Create accountability for underrepresented talent by networking with managers and senior leaders.

Redesign Talent Procedures to Reduce Bias

Redesigning processes is frequently the least utilized bias mitigation strategy because DEI does not own talent procedures, requiring a substantial effort to modify. Nevertheless, it can be among the most effective.

Several talent processes can be changed to completely integrate inclusiveness and give marginalized talent equal consideration for growth, including:

• Challenging recruiting managers on essential versus desirable qualifications

• Expanding employment chances to incorporate adjacent and atypical talent pools

• Changing definitions of relevance potential as market conditions and corporate requirements evolve

• Exploring job design to accommodate different talents with varying preferences and needs.

• Rethinking performance review, including who provides input and how productivity is determined, and holding leaders accountable for a balanced appraisal of applicants and successors.

• Modifying internal hiring practices

COVID-19 and the transition to remote work have already brought about several modifications to talent management procedures. This is the opportunity to alter talent procedures to prevent non-compliance with D&I goals and ensure no potential for prejudice exists.

About Jim Woods

Jim has a passion for accelerating talent across organizations. While this passion has fueled his work in leadership assessment and development, it has crystallized in the area of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. 

Jim's experience spans a broad range of industries, including public, finance, consumer, retail, pharma, industrials, and technology. 'Organizational & people agility,' 'design thinking,' and 'digital transformation' are some of the critical themes Jim works with clients across the globe.

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His consulting experience includes assessing, training, coaching, and developing leaders. In addition, he has delivered work in defining competencies and success profiles, designing and conducting assessment centers, integrating talent analytics, and designing and facilitating development roadmaps.

Jim is a certified coach and facilitator for Woods Kovalova Group's virtual leadership assessment and development tools, including leadership accelerators, and WKG Potential. Jim holds an MS degree in organizational development and human resources. He served as an adjunct professor at Villanova University; taught fifth-grade math and science.