How to get serious about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Recently, I spoke with a good friend about the current landscape of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. She told me something sobering; she knows five or six women who moved into DEI leadership positions over the past two years. Every single one of them has since left their company, due to frustration and disappointment.
The conversation stuck with me; why, after so many apparently sincere DEI declarations back in summer 2020, are companies failing to deliver on their promises? If we can’t even hold onto our DEI leaders - who act as cultural evangelists, both internally & externally - then what does that say about how seriously our organisations are taking this work?
The reality is we have a long way to go. DEI leaders are being appointed into seemingly influential roles, but not being given the autonomy or budget to get the job done. As your organisation embarks on its DEI journey, there are a few key things to consider…
Without the genuine backing of the CEO & board, systemic change is going to be tough -
Now on paper, sure - of course they back this work. It’s all ‘very important’ and ‘we care deeply’. But in practice, meaningful DEI is knotty and complex and challenging. It means changing processes, re-training, facing biases & changing priorities. Are your company’s executives willing to sacrifice the current status quo? Are they willing to slow down (in the short term) in order to speed up? Will they back challenges to existing practices and get behind bold proposals for change? As an organisation, it’s important to get clear on this, from the get-go. If you don’t, your Head of DEI is going to get confused and frustrated pretty quickly.
Be willing to put your money where your mouth is -
Senior DEI leaders should be given a good degree of autonomy, as the experts in your organisation, on deciding how - and in what ways - to invest in DEI strategies. Some of those strategies will involve bringing in external expertise - and expertise costs money - whether you need external consultants to, for example, advise on strategy, deliver workshops, or speak at events. And when you do engage DEI experts, don’t penny-pinch, try to negotiate their fees, or worse; expect them to give away their time for free. People from marginalised groups often have a long history of being underpaid and undervalued for their work - if you’re serious about the value they can bring to your organisation, you need to be more than willing to pay them what they’re asking.
This isn’t a People Team problem -
DEI leaders often sit within the People Team, and the People Team can be a place with lots of passionate advocates for employee experience, culture, and inclusion. But responsibility & accountability for living by your DEI principles needs to reside, first and foremost, with senior leaders across all functions. That means every functional head needs to be accountable for building and retaining diverse teams. It also means that promotions should not be given to leaders who ‘deliver great results’ but who perform badly on your key DEI metrics. If there’s no imperative for leaders to live by your DEI pledge, then frankly - they won’t, and DEI will forever remain a People Team project, rather than a company-wide change programme.
The pattern of DEI leaders quitting their roles seems, in large part, linked to whether or not their employer understands DEI as business-critical, vs simply extra-curricular project work. If we want to change this, then we need to start getting clear about whether we are serious about systemic change, or whether we would just like to get a few branded Pride t-shirts made this year.
