Stories & insights
Adopt a More Systematic Approach to D&I
Diversity and inclusion have become key priorities for many organisations in recent years and the benefits of engaging with systemic D&I programs have been self-evident, particularly with regards to growth potential. That being said, many companies are still experiencing frustration in the timeline of these results and are seeking ways to accelerate the process. Achieving this means ascertaining a deeper understanding of D&I as well as how to effectively disseminate its principles across entire organisations. Here are four strategies that can help you see real outcomes.
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Ed Chamberlain
Tips 1
1. Culture begins with leadership and so your CEO and other executives must champion a D&I agenda and make themselves personally accountable for its success.
Tips 2
2. Ensure that your hiring process, and those leading it, are instilled with similar goals and the tools to achieve them. Consider current policy within your company and actively seek ways to mitigate both covert and overt biases. Positive examples to follow include:
a) Establish a diverse hiring team and aim for equal representation within interview panels. Utilise internal expertise and experience to plan an actively non-discriminatory hiring process
b) Vet the information contained in CVs before they reach hiring managers to prevent and mitigate conscious, implicit, or unconscious biases. Such information might include names or gender identities.
c) Always provide impartial and constructive feedback
d) Regardless of their success in obtaining the role, celebrate individual backgrounds, and keep in touch with them in the future.
e) Send out surveys to understand how individuals first engaged in your hiring process and how you could improve your reach within marginalised groups
Tips 3
3. Understand and embody that diversity and inclusion is as much a cultural process as it is about individual learning and that, as such, D&I training must be an ongoing, enterprise-wide initiative. Education should also begin at the top and then trickle down since leadership will dictate company culture and so D&I should be considered as essential to executives as any other form of professional development.
4. Track your progress and hold leadership figures accountable when defined goals are not met. Establish KPIs around diversity results with a particular focus on representation (hiring, promotion, and upward mobility) and have a system of reporting those numbers back.
Business leaders that embrace a structured approach to D&I will not only reap the benefits of productivity, innovation, and company cohesion that diversity has been proven to provide but will also maintain effective control over the process, thereby minimising any unforeseen risk or inefficiency.
Stryve can help guide this process and we encourage you to get in touch.
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