The Building Blocks of a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Before you can move forward with a comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategy, you’ll need to know the current state of your organization.

It’s important to consider quantitative data first. At a minimum, you’ll want to know your diversity levels across age, gender, race, disability, veteran status, and sexual orientation. And you’ll want to study those levels across your workforce as well as in management and leadership. (If you don’t have that data to mine, you’ll have to start by inviting employees to complete a diversity profile.)

For a more complete picture, you’ll also need to consider qualitative data. Through surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews, you can gather insight into your current culture. Is your environment welcoming? Is it safe? Are employees invited to share their unique perspectives? Are they respected for sharing dissenting opinions?

Studying your current diversity and inclusion stats and environment is a critical first step. Once you know where you’re at, you can set and track diversity targets. The targets should specifically address areas of concern – areas where your organization is far less diverse than expected. You’ll be amazed by how much more progress you’ll see when you’ve set real targets and invited people inside and outside your organization to hold you accountable to them.

There are thousands of companies working hard on their diversity and inclusion strategies and practices. Many have been extremely successful at attracting and retaining a diverse employee population and have created safe, respectful, and welcoming environments for all employees. There’s a lot to learn from these companies and wherever you are on your diversity and inclusion journey, it can help to talk and share your challenges.

One good way to find companies to reach out to is the Great Place to Work® Best Workplaces for Diversity™ list, which includes companies like Cisco and AbbVie. If you’d like help getting in touch with other companies who have succeeded in this area, just let us know. PartnerComm can connect you with our contacts or put together a round table discussion for you with relevant companies.

Knowing that others have faced — and overcome — similar challenges can empower you to tackle your company’s diversity and inclusion strategy.

Now that you know the lay of the land and you’ve got great ideas from other successful companies, it’s time to document your plan. Start with easy wins and then move to medium- and long-term objectives and tactics. You’ll want your plan to address any barriers that might keep diverse employees from joining or staying at your company. You can look at:

• Hiring practices: Do your hiring policies support diverse hiring practices? Are your current employees referring diverse candidates? If you’ve been using the same recruiting approaches for a long time, it might be time to look at new ones — like advertising in online forums where diverse candidates spend time or offering internships to targeted groups. You may also want to scrutinize your hiring process and consider blind resumes and interviews.
• Management practices: Are some of your departments or locations significantly less diverse or inclusive than others? It’s important to hold managers and leaders accountable for the environment they create for their individual teams and departments. Managers can play a huge role in creating and reinforcing diversity and inclusion by leading with sensitivity and by helping others appreciate the value of diverse teams. (If you’ve identified an issue and are looking for manager training ideas, PartnerComm can help.)
• Cultural practices: If your culture has a clear preference for certain religious and/or political beliefs, it can deter some candidates and employees. It may be time to turn your annual Christmas party into a holiday party or make your PTO policies more flexible so they can accommodate religious and community events.

Once you’ve made a plan, don’t forget to estimate costs and set dollars aside. You may not be able to get all the funding you need in year one, but there is a strong business case for improving diversity and inclusion. State it clearly and build your stats and arguments over time. If your organization is truly committed to diversity and inclusion, you’ll need a budget to back your plan.