The most common pitfall for diversity initiatives

Good intentions are never enough: leadership needs to see diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging as strategic muscles rather than issues of compliance, branding or HR.

“Many managers and business leaders will tell me that they have no idea why they are doing this. “Honestly, we are basically doing it because some people asked for it back in 2020”, they will admit behind closed doors”.

Regardless of the context of their words, what Lily Zheng was alluding to during last month’s Women at Work Live online conference, organised by Harvard Business Review, sounds like the textbook definition of bad management and lack of rigour. Who, in their right business mind, would pursue something without knowing why they are actually doing it?

Unfortunately, what the US-based Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategist, organisational consultant, and author of the best-seller “DEI Deconstructed” was actually referring to is a common reality behind many of today’s DEIB initiatives. Even when equipped with the best intentions, dozens of efforts to create diverse, equitable and inclusive workforces end up feeling aimless and performative.

Paradoxical, isn’t it? For such a widely discussed field, that has seen a rapid expansion by some and an erratic rollback by others, all in the span of just 4 years, there is still a lack of understanding by corporate leadership on why DEIB policies are put in place to begin with. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, though DEIB is a complex and ongoing endeavour, it is far less controversial and far more rewarding than employers might initially think - if done right. 

Detached leaders: the most frequent pain point

But let’s start by recognising the problem: both data and empirical evidence suggest that one of the most universal pain points behind diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives is detachment by corporate leaders.

This was revealed in the recent “Inclusion at Work Panel” report, commissioned by the UK government to identify interventions that increase fairness, inclusion, and diversity, which aptly stated that, “people of all levels were concerned about D&I strategies becoming siloed in HR, with a lack of oversight and accountability from organisational leadership”.

A similar view was echoed in what Henrique Zanin -a Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Program Lead for a Fortune 500 company with a decade of experience in the field-, shared with REBORRN in a recent conversation. “One of the most important things that can make or break DEIB is making sure that your leadership is engaged, and fully understands what they're talking about,” he said.

“DEIB is not this fluffy thing that some companies are pushing, and it is not an agenda per se. It is literally about employee engagement, retention, and belonging. All those are things that actually drive success for the company, they bring innovation and more productivity”.

Τhe problem, therefore, is that a set of policies that in principle should aim to create a fair and thriving workforce, by transforming a company’s culture and processes horizontally, is very often pursued simply as a compliance obligation or a facade to be presented to the outside world. To that end, DEIB is simply delegated to HR or communications departments, or even worse to individuals who belong to minority groups and who are tasked to pursue it as a side project.

Needless to say, this mindset ends up failing organisations, both in the short-term and in the long-term. Your employees and your customers can actually detect when DEIB is just lip-service and will call you out, while you are also denying yourself the benefits of fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce that come with the long game approach.

A very brief history of DEIB policies and why they ended up with HR

The answer to why DEIB policies are often a part of HR’s long list of things-to-do is partly revealed by a quick look into their history and their most common drivers.

In the 60s it was landmark legislation like the Equal Pay Act of 1963 or Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that aimed to reverse decades of racial segregation and discrimination in the US. In the 70s it was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which could take action against individuals, employers, and labour unions that discriminated against minorities. In the 1980s, it was the momentum behind feminist and LGBTQI+ movements, and in the 1990s the booming research behind emotional intelligence. More recently, in 2020, it was the global outrage and re-emergence of interest sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Throughout the decades, the ebb and flow of DEIB strategies is mostly due to a combination of social movements, societal progress, and legislation that drives change. 

However, while social and legal pressures are necessary starting points, they almost always fail to convince organisational leaders to walk the extra mile. That is because when driven exclusively by an “obligation mindset”, leadership will have little reason to pursue the strategic shift required to fully incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion into a company’s culture and operations - even if it thinks it is the right thing to do. 

In fact, compliance and fear of social backlash are the most frequent reasons why leadership ends up being so detached from DEIB, preferring to delegate it to the HR department and to have few direct strings attached to it. 

“I call it FOFO, or fear of finding out”, said Zheng humorously, summarising their view on why companies rarely anchor their DEIB strategies in data and tangible goals that hold leadership accountable.

The “obligation mentality” that sometimes comes with compliance is the reason why many companies fixate exclusively on diversity, forgetting and sometimes even hampering equity, inclusion and belonging efforts in the process. An illuminating example that came up through several of our interviews is the situation in Germany, where companies are required by law to follow employment quotas for people with disabilities. What happens to multiple companies where leadership doesn’t go the extra mile with DEIB is a sole focus on bringing these employees on, with no tools and no practices to measure their satisfaction and enhance their inclusion and belonging. 

Unsurprisingly, very often these employees will end up leaving the organisation after just a few months.

Beyond good intentions: the business case for DEIB

Though DEIB advisors and supporters are quite often driven by idealism (and for a good reason) most of them will quickly tell you that they have discovered that good intentions are never enough when it comes to convincing leaders to walk the talk. 

Eleni Aktypi, the managing director of WE LEAD, an independent nonprofit organisation with the mission to create a pathway for women to reach leadership positions in business and technology, has reached this conclusion after countless meetings with corporate leaders. "I am tired of hearing people constantly saying how important DEIB is, without showing any of its practical impact”, she states.

“Business leaders don’t have the selflessness to pursue diversity or make their workforce and services more inclusive for the good of this world. Publicly they may say so at a conference, of course, but trust me when I say they will not make substantial changes unless they understand in practice how DEIB actually offers great value to companies”.

Henrique shares a similar view on the topic. “I really have this ick when a person says they are passionate for DEI because that's not exactly how it works”, he explains. “You cannot be a business leader just because you're passionate about business. And DEI is the same thing: it's very difficult to engage all of those folks in leadership, to have the right stakeholder management strategy or data in place, just by being passionate for it”.

The answer to moving past the trap of good intentions lies in the business case for DEIB. It turns out that being diverse, equitable and inclusive is not just the right thing to do: it is also a critical component of successful business management. Holistic DEIB initiatives, after all, are about creating environments where all employees feel valued, respected and empowered to contribute their best work - which unsurprisingly is key in driving innovation and success. Here’s just a few reasons why:

🧲 Attracting Top Talent: As an CHRO from a global company candidly shared with us, “when companies complain about not finding the skilled workers they need, most of the time it is probably because they are not looking at the right place”. Talent comes in all shapes and sizes, oftentimes escaping the narrow perceptions and unconscious biases behind the established hiring processes. So it should come as no surprise that companies with robust DEIB initiatives are better positioned to attract exceptional candidates from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences and will therefore most probably outperform their competitors. Plenty of data exist to back this claim up: according to a Gallup survey over 40 percent of U.S. employees consider whether a company is diverse and inclusive to all types of people to be an important factor when weighing a job offer, while DEIB is among the top things workers seek in their next job. As more Millenials and Gen Zers are entering the workforce, expect those numbers to rise even further.

👑Retention is King (and Queen): This is as much an argument for DEIB practices as it is for looking beyond the narrow check-list approach of diversity through numbers and quotas. Retaining talented employees is just as critical as attracting them, and few things foster loyalty, engagement, satisfaction and productivity more than a work environment where everyone feels like they belong and are recognized and treated with fairness - regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, age, education background or other variables. By embedding DEIB strategies into company culture, businesses can ensure their workforce remains stable and motivated, can heavily reduce the costly churn of valuable human capital and, as a Deloitte study recently found, will end up having 22% lower turnover rates.

🏎️A Drive of Innovation: If one thinks about it for a second, it really should come as no surprise that diverse teams are far more likely to lead a company to innovative products and solutions. After all, when a diverse set of people work together, they stimulate each other's minds in ways that are simply impossible to reproduce in homogeneous environments with institutionalised thinking. And when employees from different backgrounds and experiences collaborate, they are likely to challenge each other’s thinking and push the boundaries of conventional ideas, resulting in products and services that are more innovative, let alone more reflective of society’s needs (which -let’s admit it- is far more diverse than most corporate boards can reflect).

🚣A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: There is a common misconception that diversity is about installing reverse discrimination. In reality this is only true when it is pursued superficially. A truly robust DEIB strategy goes beyond mere compliance and tokenism, aiming for true inclusivity at all levels and appreciating the unique intersectionalities of employees' identities, from race and gender to education, age, neurodiversity and skillset. The ripple effect is undeniable: a more inclusive workplace culture for all enhances employee morale, reduces conflict, and increases overall productivity. ”Of course one should still focus on the specific marginalised groups, but what I am seeing today in companies where DEIB has matured is a very strong focus on an employee’s individual belonging, and all the things companies can do to enhance it”, as Henrique puts it. And ultimately, when companies commit to DEIB and challenge all sorts of biases and unfair processes, they are not just lifting marginalised groups but actually elevating the entire organisation.

There is a wealth of additional arguments and evidence on how DEIB can end up elevating business performance. The exact scope and strategy around them may depend on the tailored needs of each organisation, but as Zheng concludes, “at the end of the day DEIB is essentially good management”.

So as Pride month is commencing around the world, and as companies are decorating their logos in the colours of the rainbow, perhaps it’s a better time than ever to ponder: are their leaders aware of the true scope and potentially transformative impact of DEIB? Are they willing to challenge their own unconscious biases, and are they ready to go the extra mile with involved, data-driven and actionable policies?

If not, they better not blame HR when their DEIB policies underdeliver.

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Thank you for reading this week’s Uncensored article, the first of our Depolarizing Diversity series. Join us next week for a discussion of a crucial component that can make DEIB strategies thrive: the important but challenging path towards building allyship.