Diversity and Inclusion are not initiatives…
One of the things that I realized pretty early in life was that getting away from ‘what we’ve always done’ meant discovery, adventure and embracing new possibilities. I think back to one of our first family trips, where my mother packed us up into a minivan to drive down to Orlando to visit Disney World. It was a long trip and I remember arguing with my sisters over who would ride in the middle and asking a million times, ‘are we there yet?’ But the trip itself was amazing and for that week, my sisters and I created a lifetime of memories and left all of our cares behind.
Although It was early in my life, I credit the trip with later sparking the curiosity to live abroad, where I had the privilege of studying in Paris, Rome and Tokyo during college. Each time I experienced another culture, not only did I grow to appreciate my own more, but I could literally feel my life expanding into something richer and more dynamic.
Once I joined the workforce I realized how well those experiences served me. Sitting side by side in the workplace with different cultures, I learned of our cultural differences as well as the things that bring us together. I started to have true, lasting friendships with people who didn’t look like me, and culturally, couldn’t be more different.
I have been fortunate to have mentors and friends from all walks of life and through these relationships, I’ve had the benefit of growing through all types of experiences. Arguably, I’ve learned more from having diversity in my relationships than I have in my graduate studies. After all, experience really is the best teacher.
This is one of the reasons why Diversity and Inclusion is so important to me and so vital to the culture of any organization. I know firsthand that it benefits all members of the organization because it renews a sense that we are all connected. When done right, employees are more open to embrace different perspectives and organizations learn how to create environments where everyone is more engaged and invested. Having served as a senior leader for organizations over the last 14 years and also being a person of color, I have benefited from companies that had a vested interest in diversity and inclusion. I have also seen organizations get it completely wrong.
A lot of organizations start off on the wrong foot because of how the need for diversity and inclusion originates. Maybe it’s an audit of recent hires, financial incentives, or maybe it’s just a PR move. While these are all sound business reasons to focus on and/or improve your company’s diversity and inclusion, they certainly don’t indicate lasting success or a changed cultural environment.
Diversity and Inclusion are not initiatives. And by that, I mean it is not something that you do for a short time to check the box and move on. There is no project manager or point person for it, where you can look down the boardroom table and say “how do our numbers look now?” It’s not a bullet point on the opening slide for your annual plan deck, and it’s not a footnote on an employee’s assessment or personnel profile.
Diversity and Inclusion is the acknowledgment that the organization has failed to incorporate other voices into their strategy or decision making, and as a consequence has missed out on a multitude of deeper, more meaningful connections to the communities they serve. It’s a commitment that the organization not only values diversity on the client side of business, but internally as well. Diversity and Inclusion is the aspiration to connect with untapped potential and reach new heights through authenticity and in collaboration with communities that historically have been ignored.
So, what’s in it for organizations that adopt thorough, comprehensive diversity and inclusion practices?
Well, for starters, the organization will quickly add new prospectives and ideas. They will inherit new ways of doing business and obtain clarity on how they are perceived within these diverse communities. There will be fresh eyes to old problems and usher in new ways to solve those problems. There will be a deeper understanding of the company’s strengths as well as its blindspots. The company grows in knowledge and experience, and when done right, EARNS a seat at new tables. The organization becomes more nuanced and sophisticated. And when supported, the new members of the organization will have the confidence to guide you to the business improvements many organizations desperately seek. In essence, all employees will have a new sense of empowerment.
What can be done to make D&I more effective?
Commitment and presence at all levels: Diversity and Inclusion can’t just be about the front line. It needs to permeate the higher levels of the company. This is critical because oftentimes, a diversity hire will join the company without relationships, organizational knowledge or internal coaches. These roles are important for any hire, and certainly true for diversity hires. They need people to be a resource, sounding board and co-pilot of their career flight. When D&I is a focus throughout the organization, it becomes a commitment and not an initiative. If D&I does not exist at the senior and executive levels of the organization, there should be a steering committee to help executives authentically navigate the journey to becoming a more diverse organization.
Assess the D&I candidate/employee experience during pre-hire, active employment and exit interviews. It’s important to find out how diversity candidates are treated by your organization throughout the employment process.
In the hiring process, do they receive appropriate feedback along the way. If they are not selected, do they clearly understand why? What skills should they work on to be reconsidered? Is there another role to which they would be better suited? All of these answers go a long way in helping diversity candidates understand the value your organization places on diversity and inclusion
Once they are employees, what is their experience like? Are they given opportunities for growth? Are they embraced by the rest of the organization? Do they have a platform to communicate their challenges, obstacles and successes?
After they leave the organization, what would they change? Did they feel respected and appreciated? Did they feel heard or were they walking on eggshells and afraid to call out experiences that made them want to leave?
Answering any of these questions is a step in the right direction to making diversity and inclusion a priority throughout the employee experience, not just during the talent acquisition phase.
Work with talent acquisition to think creatively regarding candidate sourcing and honor their candidate choices: In one of the leadership positions that I held, I served as the diversity and inclusion lead for sales within our organization. It was a great experience but one of the glaring takeaways was the significantly lower volume of diversity candidates that made it from applicant to pre-screen, to phone interview and eventually for an in-person meeting. The pool of diversity candidates started small and that trend continued throughout the process. In conversation with some of the talent acquisition team members, they mentioned that they often felt their hands were tied by the sources from where they can recruit and the background that the candidates must have. For example, say the candidates needed to have a certain type of media experience but if that experience is not historically diverse, then the hiring process will birth automatic exclusions from consideration.
One of the things we did to combat this was focus attributes and competencies, rather than experience and previous employers. It opened up a world of candidates that were being ignored by the process. These candidates included military veterans that demonstrated a strong ability to follow a game plan and execute a mission. It also included hiring folks that had no industry experience but demonstrated a proficiency in overcoming obstacles in life. It got us away from just focusing on radio, broadcast or digital experience and shifted us toward execution, discipline and resilience experience. All of which were key markers of organizational success.
Lastly, give talent acquisition an equal voice in the interviewing process. Sourcing candidates is a tough job. TA has to stay close to the desires of the hiring manager while at the same time, pushing them out of their ‘hiring comfort zone.’ If they’ve done the heavy lifting to identify people who they believe are quality candidates, give them the respect to take the candidate seriously throughout the process. Yes, most successful hiring managers keep a finger on the pulse of the talent within their respective marketplaces, but the hiring manager’s talent bench not an exhaustive list and being overly committed to hiring manager sourced candidates may illuminate the unconscious bias in the hiring process.
Make Inclusion a reality of their experience
Inclusion can mean many things to an employee. Often organizations focus on what makes them different or the diverse side of their experience, but I would argue that inclusion is just as important. Hiring diversity candidates and then not giving them the support they need to feel included defeats the purpose of the hiring them in the first place. Meaningful inclusion can look like additional responsibilities outside of their day to day, seeking out their voice for strategy development, providing mentorship and cross-functional projects and giving them access to senior leadership. All of these steps show the investment your organization is willing to make in them which is all any employee can ask for.
These are just a few steps to improve your organization’s focus on Diversity and Inclusion. Challenge your company’s leadership to make the commitment because solid diversity and inclusion practices can position your organization for success for years to come. I challenge you to continue this conversation internally and if you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out.