How to Plan your 2022 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Strategy (Event Recap)
A comprehensive DEI strategy helps ensure time, budget and resources are moving in the same direction to create the greatest impact. As companies build and scale their teams, it’s imperative to have a clear roadmap, defined objectives and measures of success so that DEI is embedded throughout the business.
This month, ModelExpand’s Culture and Diversity Series hosted a panel of industry leaders from UPS, Robinhood, and Blend to discuss this very topic. You can find the recording below as well as resources and key takeaways for your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies.
Resources:
Dr. Kimberly Harden’s book “The Allyship Challenge: How to Move Beyond Performative Allyship and Become a Genuine Accomplice”
Melinda Briana Epler’s book “How to be an Ally”
Measuring Inclusion – Implicit Association Test
Tools to help you measure DEI metrics – Gem, Momentive, CultureAmp
Key Takeaways on how to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in your business strategies:
Build a framework for your DEI strategy: assess your organization now, understand business priorities, gather resources, inspire and communicate to build momentum and get buy-in from key stakeholders.
Look inward: identify composition goals and areas of representation that needs work to be done, look at promotion rates of folks from diverse backgrounds,
What is your why? It is important for leaders to know that DEI is imperative to the business. Have alliances from the highest levels, get support with resources, and ensure there is engagement - this all brings value to teams. Gather data of what you want to do, where there are gaps, and work collaboratively to achieve a common goal.
Start with your own education and awareness: double down on the why - the why has to start personally - with each individual. Think about how you connect into this work, relevancy to your own goals. Ask if you are educated and aware enough about issues to do this in a way that is meaningful and will really drive change. Get to the deeper level of commitment, which requires changes and behaviors at an individual level.
Get stakeholder buy-in: candidates care about the mission-driven value of your company. Have department-level goals - set goals that teams feel confident and passionate about. Share values of psychological safety, feeling of value, and development in career. Have a diverse workforce to achieve results that are sustainable.
Build DEI into your business and operating processes: have DEI a recurring topic in meetings, bring in task forces to meetings with senior leaders to talk about progress, plans, and roadblocks.
Provide psychological safety: build a culture where folks can ask questions in meetings or all-hands, start conversations about ways to engage and get involved as it pertains to DEI. Promote and encourage allyship - it’s for everyone.
Model equity daily: equity drives engagement around maintaining, attracting, and retaining top talent - know your employees. Address all ideas and have them heard and valued. Check if there are pay gaps, measure participation in events and programs.
Measure DEI: check if there is representation at all levels of the hiring process, review employment engagement through surveys and feelings of belonging. To be sustainable, it is about people being held accountable to actions and achieving goals - have consequences and rewards to incentivize behaviors you want to see in your organization.
ModelExpand is a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm focused on radically accelerating the presence of historically underrepresented people in the workforce. ModelExpand’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes and CultureAmp. Need support building and implementing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within your organization? Contact us below.
