DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
THE 4 KEY STAGES TO BUILDING IT INTO YOUR BUSINESS The tiles below span the four key stages of effectively building D&I into your business.
Click on this image to download the the full guide now! UNDERSTANDING • Identify your D&I Issues • Gain leadership buy-in • Establish values • Set Objectives
IMPLEMENTING
• Roll out D&I Training for Staff • Create an Employee Network or D&I Forums • Create Partnerships • Set up a Sponsorship/Mentorship Program • Refresh Your Recruitment Practices
MEASURING & MONITORING • Monitor employee diversity • Agree a KPI Review Cycle • Add D&I questions to your exit interview
CELEBRATING & EXTENDING • Share your results • Award Your D&I Champions • Extend your learnings to others
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
THE 4 KEY STAGES TO BUILDING IT INTO YOUR BUSINESS Are you taking all the steps you can to do embed D&I into your organization? Here is your complete guide, with easy actions to get you started today.
UNDERSTANDING • Identify your D&I Issues • Gain leadership buy-in • Establish values • Set Objectives
IMPLEMENTING
• Roll out D&I Training for Staff • Create an Employee Network or D&I Forums • Create Partnerships • Set up a Sponsorship/Mentorship Program • Refresh Your Recruitment Practices
MEASURING & MONITORING • Monitor employee diversity • Agree a KPI Review Cycle • Add D&I questions to your exit interview
CELEBRATING & EXTENDING • Share your results • Award Your D&I Champions • Extend your learnings to others
UNDERSTANDING
Identifying your D&I issues, gaining leadership buy-in, establishing values, and setting objectives.
IDENTIFY YOUR D&I ISSUES The starting point for any D&I activity is to first understand how your company is currently performing across the key areas (gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, age, and religion). Only from this point of understanding, can you affect change. Suggested action: Conduct a thorough, quantitative D&I audit of existing levels of diversity, as well as interviewing a sample of staff for some qualitative feedback. From there, trace your results back to any possible root issues. Do you have a disproportionate number of male employees in senior management for example? Can you run a comparison with the number of junior female employees and pin point where the number starts declining?
ENSURE SENIOR LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT Having someone take responsibility for D&I at the very top of your organization is of paramount importance. It is critical that leadership is involved from the outset and demonstrates ongoing commitment to the D&I strategies that are implemented. If not, there’s a risk that D&I will fail to become part of your organization’s DNA. Suggested action: A growing trend amongst businesses is to appoint an official “Diversity Manager” from the leadership level and a team of local “Diversity Champions” to sit under them and represent the workforce. If your organization is too small for a dedicated Diversity Manager you could consider nominating a go-to person instead, who should be the first port of call for any D&I issues and be able to assess any initiatives employees would like to trial. The most important thing is that people know they have someone to go to with issues and suggestions for improvement without fear of negative consequences.
ESTABLISH A SET OF CORE D&I VALUES Delivering and setting the right tone for D&I in your organization rests not only on senior leaders but with everyone from all levels of management to individual employees. Everyone needs to understand the common goal or mission the company is working towards, as well as what will, and will not, be accepted. Suggested action: Many workplaces will already have a core set of established business values or principles. If you are one of those who do, you should ensure that these will work in support of D&I, or create new values that address D&I as a priority. P&G’s D&I mission, for example is: “Everyone valued. Everyone included. Everyone performing at their peak(TM).” Once created, consider where best to publish/communicate these values to ensure everyone in your workplace is aware of them and knows how to act in accordance.
SET D&I OBJECTIVES AND KPI’S Setting objectives for D&I-related activities can be useful for getting everyone on the same page, ensuring your efforts have continued momentum and most importantly, proving that they are working. Suggested action: Consider setting diversity objectives with timescales supported by appropriate strategies. Start small with incremental objectives for improving D&I that can give your business a realistic target to aim for. For each objective create a strategy to ensure you can drive the organization to achieve it. If you want to achieve a percentage of women in senior roles for example, your strategy may be to provide mentoring and personal development training. You might also decide to identify areas where female employees may not perform as well as their male counterparts and from this, introduce appropriate corrective initiatives. Many established firms publish their D&I objectives on their corporate website, and while this may be something to explore in the future, it’s useful to look around and see what others might be doing. Take these for inspiration: Novartis Pharmaceuticals, EY, and Johnson & Johnson.
IMPLEMENTING
Rolling out D&I training, encouraging employee sharing, and setting up a mentorship program.
ROLL OUT D&I TRAINING FOR STAFF There are a number of training types that you can use to equip your staff to help you meet your D&I objectives. Most relate, in some form or other, to negating the effect of unconscious bias. Unconscious bias refers to thought patterns and personal interpretations we do not consciously control. Suggested action: Seek training that will help people recognize their own unconscious biases and how they affect their everyday assumptions and decisions - whether by adding a bias awareness module to your recruitment and manager training program, if you have them. Or holding regular topical workshops for all employees. Service providers such as Work Place Answers offers a wide range of Diversity courses, including Uncovering Unconscious Bias, Managing the Multigenerational Workforce and Transgender Anti-Discrimination Training . PRISM is another great option, with Diversity & Inclusion training for different levels of seniority and different industries. Introducing training to your workplace can be the catalyst that fosters a more creative, inclusive, respectful and productive workforce.
CREATE AN EMPLOYEE NETWORK OR D&I FORUM Employee engagement is critical to ensure that a diverse and inclusive culture is successfully established and maintained in your organizations. There are many ways in which employees can engage with D&I objectives and these can be effective for businesses of all sizes. Suggested action: How you go about employee engagement will depend a lot upon your business size and needs. Employee networks, for instance, are aimed at connecting people who share affinity indicators. The networks may run events, provide guidance and even mentoring to their members. While they are a proven way of enabling employees to connect with role models and mentors, and share best practice ideas, they do require significant organizational investment. (Take a look at how PwC and Deloitte are already reaping the benefits.) Then there are forums, which provide a practical way of promoting and openly discussing relevant D&I topics and issues, allowing employees at all levels to have their views and voices heard. Or, finally, you could establish a D&I Council where strategy can be debated, developed and driven. Council members could include a Board member and senior partners from all parts of the organization - or, in the case of a small business, be just a few people or indeed the entire employee base. Whatever its size, it is important that the Council is empowered to deliver the initiatives it decides upon.
PARTNER WITH OTHERS A simple way to increase D&I in your organization is through partnerships. There are many membership organization which can provide support, guidance, advice or training on diversity issues including National Diversity Council, National Women’s Council, Out and Equal, and National Organization on Disability . Suggested action: Partner with diverse organizations to learn and share knowledge, views and best practices. The valuable and rewarding relationships you will develop with your partnering institutions will advance your D&I agenda rapidly and effectively. There are also a number of existing initiatives you can sign up to in order to kick-start your own D&I activity. The United States Department of Labor hosts a multitude of outreach programs and initiatives that include the professional advancement of the disabled, minorities, LGBT individuals, and women.
SET UP A SPONSORSHIP/MENTORSHIP PROGRAM If initial research into your company’s diversity has identified an under-represented group which might struggle to reach its full potential, then a mentorship or sponsorship program is a great way to provide the extra support that might be needed. Suggested action: Identify people who would benefit from a mentor or sponsorship program and a corresponding pool of suitable mentors or sponsors. Note: involvement in a mentoring program should always be voluntary. In a typical mentoring program, mentees and mentors would meet quarterly. For a mentee, simply having someone to talk to about career aspirations or how to approach a challenging work situation can be invaluable - but the mentor can also benefit from a new perspective. Remember too that a mentoring program doesn’t need to be purely internal - external mentors can work just as effectively. It is essential that both parties understand the obligations and boundaries that will make the partnership successful and productive so give clear guidance on your expectations - such as advice on how often to meet and when an issue might need to be escalated.
REFRESH YOUR RECRUITMENT PRACTICES D&I best practice can be woven throughout your whole recruitment ecosystem, from the materials you distribute to showcase the company, to your screening process for candidates. Suggested action: Consider taking some of the following steps to help ensure your recruitment process attracts diverse candidates: 1) Strip any incoming resume of candidates’ names and any other details relating to the characteristics that are protected under equality legislation. 2) Target diverse candidates through corporate literature, advertising and at events including recruitment fairs, community activities and graduate events. 3) Investigate partnering with diversity organizations and student societies to widen your candidate pool and promote a career within your organization. You should also consider other LGBT, disabled and faith groups.
MEASURING & MONITORING Measuring and monitoring diversity and employee engagement effectively.
CONDUCT REGULAR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEYS Consider regularly surveying and consulting with employees to seek their feedback on the inclusivity of the working environment and their engagement with your organization. The frequency is up to you - some businesses conduct surveys annually, others bi-annually. All employees should be encouraged to participate in such surveys, with the important proviso that their feedback will be treated anonymously. Suggested action: Regular consultations with employees about their experience of working in your organization will help you understand the perception of the workplace and subsequently allow you to make appropriate changes.
AGREE A KPI REVIEW CYCLE You should already have agreed a set of timeframes in which to achieve your objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) - but are you keeping an eye on them? Just as you would with a client project, as a business you need to formalize some key points throughout the year that you will review and measure progress against your D&I goals, and then adjust your activity or course correct if necessary. This should also save any scramble at the end of the agreed timeframe as everyone rushes to collect the necessary KPI evidence. Suggested action: Sit down with those in your business involved in D&I - your Diversity Manager, recruitment team or simply your designated go-to person, and agree a clearly set out review cycle for the time period you are working within. Assign ownership of tracking progress and collecting evidence. Define what the review will look like and who it will involve.
ADD D&I QUESTIONS TO YOUR EXIT INTERVIEWS Exit interviews are a necessary evil - offering organizations a chance to dig into why an employee is leaving, and gain useful insight into their perceptions of where the business might be falling down. Though people may be unwilling to bring it up, D&I could have an important part to play in the decision process so organizations should ensure they ask direct questions around the topic. The type of honest feedback received in an exit interview could prove extremely valuable. Suggested action: If it doesn’t do so already, brief your HR team (or relevant team member) to include some specific D&I questions in the exit interview process and give them guidance on how this should be fed back to the business. If you don’t currently have an exit interview process in place, start here and work to embed these D&I questions from the beginning.
CELEBRATING & EXTENDING
Sharing and championing your D&I achievements within and outside your organization.
SHOUT ABOUT YOUR RESULTS No effective D&I program can operate in a vacuum. In order for your D&I efforts to be successful, you need to find ways to continually reinforce your messages/values with both leadership and employees - to explain what you are doing and why. It is also important that you celebrate your successes, reporting back on metrics achieved and progress made. Suggested action: Make sure the team, or employee, responsible for internal communications is kept fully up-todate on your organizations D&I efforts and regularly shares news with the wider staff. Consider the most appropriate place to publish the results of your program - whether in a report, on your website or through some form of newsletter. Remember, committing to publishing the results is a good motivator for you to keep the momentum up throughout the year.
AWARD YOUR D&I CHAMPIONS For many people, D&I will not be part of their main job but instead something they do on top. It is important that you acknowledge and reward their efforts in order to maintain their commitment. Suggested action: Many organizations already run awards programs as part of their annual cycle. Adding a new D&I category is a powerful way of demonstrating the importance of the initiative to the business, and allows you to celebrate those who have gone above and beyond that year. There are also a number of external awards that you could investigate, including “Working Mother’s Best Companies for Working Mothers Awards or DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity. On a smaller scale, this may involve simply acknowledging relevant employees and their efforts in a company-wide email.
EXTEND YOUR D&I LEARNINGS TO OTHERS When focusing so much on numbers, and quantifying D&I, it can be easy to forget the true motivation behind these activities: ensuring your company is inclusive, fair and representative of the real world. So, if your D&I program is already a marker of success in your company, it’s important to share these successes outside of your organization with the future workforce. Suggested action: Consider arranging a visit to local schools to help breakdown stereotypes and ingrained understandings of certain sectors at a young age. The Points of Light Corporate Institute gets local business people around the world - from apprentices to CEOs- to mobilize young entrepreneurs and students to drive positive change. It’s a great way to share what you’ve learned and give back.