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Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives have been on quite a rollercoaster ride in recent years. Organizations find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to DEIB goals. So, should they retain these initiatives as standalone directives? Or should they integrate them into the broader organizational narrative?
Groups have spoken out regarding the former, with claims that DEIB has distracted decision-makers from core company objectives. Also, it doesn’t help that legal authorities have pushed back DEIB initiatives in the academic world. An example of this is the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action in college admissions. So, these legal decisions could have trickle-down effects on other societal areas, such as hiring and employment.
DEIB leaders are working hard to make workplaces more inclusive and diverse. The good news is that companies can increase the chances of DEIB success by showing how it helps the company perform better. So, it’s time to demonstrate DEIB’s impact instead of just talking about it.
DEIB Goals Defined
An organization’s DEIB practices affect its social corporate responsibility. Your company’s DEIB roadmap should help align stakeholder expectations while fulfilling the latest industry compliances. DEIB functions as a collective initiative. So, it combines environmental/sustainability efforts with the social aspect of corporate ethics and accountability.
Companies with good DEIB standards are seen as great places to work. So, this helps them attract top talent, gain customer trust, and possibly make more money. DEIB also helps diverse team members understand each other better, leading to more innovation and success.
DEIB efforts should ideally make organizations better. But not every company is embracing them fully. A big problem is that some DEIB initiatives aren’t working well. Even though leaders are spending more on them, employees still feel their needs aren’t being met.
A Gallup survey revealed that only 31% of employees share that their organization has remained committed to improving racial justice or equality within the company. The same report also showed that a mere 25% of employees could openly discuss DEIB topics at work.
Looking at how employees and talent managers see things differently shows a key way to improve DEIB. Decision-makers need to turn their DEIB goals into actions that can be measured. So, this means considering how these goals affect stakeholders, like employees.
Tips For Finetuning Your DEIB Goals
To make DEIB efforts successful, your company needs a consistent plan. Setting clear goals backed by metrics helps show progress and gives confidence to investors and team members about budgeting.
In addition, showing why DEIB matters is crucial during tough times when resources are limited and risks are high. So, strengthen your DEIB plans with these steps to gain trust and support for your ongoing efforts.
1. Set Your DEIB Goals Baseline
Before starting any DEIB efforts, it’s important to know where you’re starting from. So, evaluate your current DEIB situation to plan for the short and long term.
The DEIB baseline should also include metrics that reveal the resources and talent needed to achieve your diversity and inclusivity goals. DEIB baselines should include comprehensive data for accurate assessment.
For instance, it’s important to get feedback from employees of all backgrounds to help them feel included and engaged. So, if surveys only include opinions from certain groups, it won’t give a true picture of DEIB.
Start by measuring DEIB with both numbers and employee feedback. Look at how diverse your team is compared to others in your industry. Also, talk to employees to see how they feel about their work environment through interviews and group discussions.
You can also review pay equity in detail, breaking down wages for different groups like gender and race. This can help you make better decisions about managing talent with DEIB in mind.
For instance, the US Government Accountability Office shared that Hispanic or Latina women earned about $.58, while Black women earned about $.63 for every dollar White men earned. These figures revealed further racial concerns beyond gender inequities. Your company could openly address these disparities by reassessing existing remuneration policies.
2. Find The Most Widespread DEIB Problems
To improve your DEIB efforts, it’s helpful to understand the problems other companies have faced. So, knowing these gaps and pitfalls can guide your company to do better.
For instance, conflicting perspectives may occur within the workforce. According to the Harvard Business Review, 97% of business leaders reportedly made changes to boost their diversity and inclusion strategies, yet only 34% of employees agreed on the improvements.
Understanding the general “mood in the room” can help your company address various concerns from different groups (e.g., employees and decision-makers) to arrive at the most suitable DEIB strategy that accommodates different parties. Other widespread employee concerns regarding DEIB include:
- 30% of employees identify their workplace as fair.
- 44% of employees feel respected despite DEIB implementations.
- 35% of employees believe their company would do the right thing in response to ethical conflicts.
- 24% of employees think that their employers care for their well-being.
As such, acquiring consistent feedback from team members and integrating them into broader DEIB strategies could help steer the success of a diverse workplace.
3. Set Timelines For Your DEIB Goals
Setting timelines is crucial for making DEIB efforts cost-effective. So, plan a realistic timeline based on your starting point to steer your efforts and tackle any issues you’ve identified.
When planning your DEIB timeline, it’s better to aim for bigger goals instead of lots of smaller ones. So, this way, you avoid spreading your focus too thin and competing for resources and support.
An effective DEIB timeline should include a commitment to specific goals that foster cultural diversity. We see this in practice by industry leaders, including McDonald’s and Mattel.
McDonald’s works to break down barriers to economic opportunities, promote inclusion, and reflect the diversity of the communities it serves. Similarly, Mattel aims to ensure equal base pay for all employees and boost the representation of women and people of all backgrounds in all roles
Goalsetting with DEIB timelines should also be based closely on observed industry gaps and standards. Doing so helps with accounting for the latest investor expectations and legal compliances while establishing an inclusive culture.
You could further streamline the management of your timelines by implementing proven industry goalsetting frameworks. These frameworks, such as key performance indicators (KPIs), objectives, SMART goals, and key results (OKRs), offer a transparent approach to meeting and reporting DEIB goals.
4. Optimize Recruiting and Hiring Practices to Align With Your DEIB Goals
DEIB success hinges on your workplace culture. A safe and open environment encourages diversity, which is key for effective DEIB efforts. So, it’s crucial to choose the right hires from the start, using effective recruiting and hiring practices.
Inclusive job descriptions (JDs) help attract diverse talent by focusing on skills rather than background. So, improve your JDs with Ongig’s Text Analyzer platform, which spots biases that might deter qualified candidates.
It is also important to streamline your interviewing processes to offer every applicant a fair opportunity to present themselves. For example, you should check that interview questions follow the same structure and order for every candidate.
In addition, it is best to have interviewers with various organizational roles sit in for the job interview. Doing so provides different perspectives in the candidate review, preventing unconscious bias assessments.
Optimized recruiting and hiring prevent candidate background discrimination, including sexual orientation and age. These measures also secure racial justice, resulting in a workplace where every contributor can succeed based on merit.
5. Prioritize DEIB Training
Getting team members on board the DEIB narrative is critical to driving your initiatives. These training sessions should impart practical skills that participants can apply in an inclusive environment. For instance, a DEIB training workshop could include modules on microaggression, a phenomenon associated with stereotyping.
Attendees can learn to spot microaggressions and make changes to improve team dynamics across cultures. This promotes accepting people with diverse talents. DEIB workshops could also help talent managers create fair pay policies.
These expert-instructed lessons are also a great way to help talent managers distinguish between equality and equity within their policies, which is often a complicated and sensitive subject.
While equal opportunities at work provide everyone with the same resources out of fairness, equity recognizes that some individuals (e.g., individuals with physical disabilities) may require extra support delivered in the most diplomatic approach. DEIB training can help decision-makers plan the most equitable practices for employee engagement on a deeper and more personal level.
A good DEIB training program should give you data to see how ready your team is. For instance, you could track how many employees and leaders have been trained, how often training happens, and how many courses are available. This data helps show if the training is worth the budget by checking how it affects performance.
6. Develop Your ERGs to Support DEIB Goals
Your ERGs are major allies in the ongoing journey toward DEIB success as they offer precious support and encouragement to team members. Allocating the necessary budget and promoting involvement with various ERGs helps further your company’s overall DEIB goals by blending collective and specialized initiatives to fulfill various community objectives.
Think about making your ERGs more diverse to include everyone, no matter their background or department. In an inclusive workplace, ERGs can boost morale and keep employees engaged. For example, they can offer learning sessions and networking events to help people grow and reduce tension.
The most common types of ERGs include the ones catered to Veterans, LGBTQIA+, women, Black, Latinx, African American (BLMA), multi-generational, and disabilities. With these groups in place, your company can foster a work culture where every team member feels accepted and supported. And this also helps employees to perform at their best without discrimination. Thus, boosting DEIB practices.
Also, it is important to note that employees should typically lead ERGs. Leadership control and management could defeat the purpose of ERGs and restrict the freedom of solidarity among members. While organizational leaders should play an active role in engaging ERGs, it is essential to leave it to ERGs to decide on their best practices and operational structures.
7. Measure And Monitor the Progress of DEIB Goals
Accountability is crucial for keeping DEIB practices effective in an inclusive workplace. So, it’s important to track DEIB milestones and decide on the best ways to promote diversity and inclusion to match your goals.
On that note, your company may consider implementing a system that connects DEIB goals with clearly outlined organizational progress. Therefore, to back up DEIB practices, your company can compare itself with industry standards in leadership, marketing, pay, and communication.
For instance, sportswear giant Nike linked its DEIB efforts with 29 targets for 2025. These initiatives include 50% representation of women in the global corporate workforce and 35% representation of US racial and ethnic minorities in our US corporate workforce.
Setting detailed goals and making progress measurable presents DEIB as a practical and transparent cause. Company leaders can report these targets at board meetings or town halls to showcase the lasting impact of their DEIB directives, which can help win the support of investors, industry leaders, partners, and customers.
8. Link DEIB Goals With Talent Strategy
The best way to handle DEIB goals is to connect them with your talent strategy. Your employees are key to the success of DEIB efforts. So, keeping them motivated with training and an inclusive workplace is important.
Decision-makers must recognize the interdependence between DEIB, diversity and inclusion, and talent management. For example, one industry survey established that a company culture with effectively inclusive policies has multifold employee satisfaction and performance benefits.
Findings from the report showed that employees in DEIB-focused workplaces are 9.8 times more likely to look forward to going to work. Similarly, these positively inspired team members are 5.4 times more likely to stay in their positions long-term, which can significantly boost a company’s retention rate.
As such, it is practical and advantageous to consider DEIB as an integral aspect of the workforce rather than evaluating it as an option. People managers should consider presenting these benefits to top management, corporate boards, and investors to show the positive impact of an inclusive hiring and talent management approach at every stage.
Requesting feedback and suggestions from team members helps to improve existing talent strategies via a comprehensive assessment of the situation while eliminating the risks of differing leadership and employee views.
Ultimately, an inclusive talent strategy should go beyond the implementation of standard DEIB programs. These efforts should also proactively involve employees through an open, positive/safe workplace. In other words, companies should recognize DEIB as a workplace norm rather than an isolated objective to achieve the most substantial and lasting impact.
Recognizing DEIB’s Success in the Organization
It is important to consult qualitative and quantitative indicators based on your inclusion goals when validating a successful DEIB campaign. A systematic assessment of your campaign progress helps refine your strategies, strengthen positive company culture, and build investor confidence for long-term support.
While DEIB success can take varied forms according to company and industry goals, the following observations are general signs of positive impact within the workplace:
- Fewer reports of discrimination – Workplaces with positive DEIB practices feature teams with generally improved moods and workplace satisfaction when collaborating with diverse employees. These improved dynamics could lead to better collaborations and individual performances, resulting in fewer reported discrimination cases.
- An increase in positive feedback – You could infer positive DEIB progress from largely positive responses via 360-degree feedback surveys and other employee input channels. Workleap is a great tool that you can use to seamlessly facilitate these surveys.
- Metrics that reveal a positive trend – DEIB success requires measurable proof based on inclusion performance goals. These would include a close look at the quality of hire, retention/attrition scores (your company should engage in breakdowns based on demography), candidate demographics, and the participation of employee resource groups (ERGs).
- Affirmed metrics with AI capabilities – Advanced AI software makes it easy to gather DEIB data for fast analysis. These programs use dependable algorithms to provide consistent information, track progress in real-time, and quickly address issues in your DEIB efforts. Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions automate tracking pay fairness, ensuring equal chances for promotion, and reducing hiring biases. But, it’s crucial to regularly check and update these systems to prevent AI discrimination risks, which can cause inaccuracies due to biased training data.
Why I Wrote This:
DEIB initiatives are critical to maintaining an inclusive work environment and achieving meaningful change. At Ongig, we believe in equipping employers with powerful AI technology to streamline their inclusive hiring process to fulfill DEIB goals. Text Analyzer software uses a responsive algorithm that identifies and eliminates dull and biased content so that you can reach the most qualified talent, fast. Request a demo, today!
Shout-Outs:
- By Shaun Harper, Forbes – Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action In College Admissions — Here’s What Will Happen On Campuses
- By Jeremie Brecheisen, Harvard Business Review – Research: Where Employees Think Companies’ DEIB Efforts Are Failing
- Collective Health – What is DEIB: a short guide to diversity & belonging for employers
- By Izabelle Hundrev, InStride – 7 Exceptional Examples of Equity at The Workplace
- By Becca Carnahan, Harvard Business Review – 6 BEST PRACTICES FOR CREATING AN INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE INTERVIEW PROCESS
- 2022–2023 Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report McDonald’s Corporation
- Mattel – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Goals
- Atlassian – OKR vs KPI: What’s the difference?
- By Kat Boogard, Culture Amp – 9 metrics to help you understand (and prioritize) DEI
- By Ishreen Bradley, LinkedIn – How do I know that my DEIB strategies are working? | 6 ways to recognise DEIB success in your workplace
- Nike 2025 Targets Summary
- Women in the Workforce: The Gender Pay Gap Is Greater for Certain Racial and Ethnic Groups and Varies by Education Level
- By Matt Bush, Great Place to Work – Why Is Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Important?
- By A.W. Ohlweiser, Vox – AI automated discrimination. Here’s how to spot it.
