Measure the change you want to see in your work. And other steps to consider before setting up your DEI initiatives.
Konstantin Koukos, DEI and Change Consultant
A lot of our clients are lost when it comes to DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) work. Sure, they might have "seen" something worrying in their engagement surveys or the latest pay analysis might have revealed gaps between women and men. Yet, they are lost about where to start. It's alright to be lost and it's definitely alright to admit that you are lost. After all, DEI as a business discipline in its current form, has only been around (and is evolving continuously) during the past ten years. However, what is not alright is to interpret situations, inequalities and gaps in your organisation just from your perspective and what you think that it might be happening in your organisation. This is where data and metrics should come in. As it should in every business discipline and every change process within organisations.
Start by accepting that you don't know everything
If you think you might know why there are less than 10% female employees in top leadership positions, then you might probably be... wrong. First of all, the fact that you feel confident and fully knowledgeable of what is going on (at least to me) is worrying. Feeling that you know everything, 95% of the cases, guarantees some sort of failure along the way.
We know only what our perspective lets us see. Meaning, that we interpret our world mainly through our personal lived experiences, our biases and our social roles. Especially in DEI work, that you have to deal with lived experiences of others, more than one single perspective is necessary.
Start with data by asking your employees directly
I cannot stress enough how important it is to start with your employee's perceptions. I also cannot stop getting mad when I hear "We do have data, as in our latest engagement survey we asked two questions on DEI". (Deep breath)
Identify your inclusion level with an inclusion survey that focuses on experiences and perceptions. Find out about how your employees are feeling, if and what kind of experiences of discrimination, equal opportunities and belonging they might have. Launch an inclusion survey (ideally with space to co-create solutions with them) and commit to gathering data every quarter or six months (depending on FTEs and other parameters). On top of that, be aware that once the survey is out there, not only is your DEI commitment to your workforce but also your commitment that will use data to design changes.
Look for data collection points (apart from those 2 questions in your engagement survey)
If you don't have the "luxury" to launch an inclusion survey in your organisation, then find ways to go beyond the 2 (usually) questions you might have in your engagement survey with regards to inclusion, equal opportunities and lived experiences. Do you have exit interviews? Awesome. Use them to collect data around DEI. Do you have quick polls on your intranet? Great! What about your feedback sessions with managers? How can you adapt them to collect how your employees are experiencing your inclusion efforts? Be creative and use any data point available or create them, when there are none.
Analyse. Segregate but look for patterns across sections
You collected data. Now what? What are the success points? What are the pain points? Are there patterns in how your employees reply depending where they are sitting in your organisation and where they are "coming from", meaning their different backgrounds ?
Don't just analyse but also segregate on basis of gender, race, sexual orientation or any other available data, to find patterns. But while doing so, go a step further. When you are segregating (i.e. on the basis of gender) you are still thinking in silos. And this will most probably do more harm than good because you are simply generalising. The problem with silo thinking (thinking based on one diversity parameter), is that you automatically and unintentionally claim that a specific gender has the same perceptions/needs/experiences just because is a part of a group. This is never the case. To give an example, not all men have the same needs because not all men might be fathers or heterosexuals. What do those men having 2 kids answer? What do those with different ethnic backgrounds and age say? Once you start applying this intersectional lens, you will be hugely surprised and better equipped to design initiatives and your strategy.
Be open to try what you haven't tried so far and engage again and again
A key characteristic in identifying change agents is their willingness to try new things. A change agent that is not comfortable to try new things will probably create change resistance that is hard to tackle long-term. If you also, as me, see DEI as a change journey, then move on with the change agents that are open to try new things.
On top of that, accept that DEI work is a relatively new field and use this as an opportunity to try new processes and tactics. What works for your organisation and your industry might not work for everyone. DEI is not a software where you can roll-out easily and this of outmost importance to know in order to set expectations right. Instead, DEI is a business discipline that deals with the complexities of folks' identities and experiences. So, start by accepting that you might need to try new strategies and tactics and implement and measure their impact on the way.
While doing so, engage others in that work. We can all be blind to what data is trying to uncover to us. Or, to positively phrase it, we all need to look into and analyse data from different viewpoints. And by viewpoints I mean having a person of colour, a person from a different gender and sexual orientation than yours analysing and explaining what they understand and how a specific strategy could potentially impact them.
Set KPIs but be don't fall in the traps of silos
If you are in the process of designing a DEI strategy, you should probably set your KPIs. If that's where you are, don't fall in the trap of having x% of women in z management positions by 2025. Instead tackle homogeneity in your organisation and set maximum homogeneity targets. Lisa Kepinski & Tinna C. Nielsen marvellously explain this here.
Stop looking for quick fixes and instead invest in a long-term change
This is not a one-size-fit all kind of guide when it comes to incorporating data and change tools in your DEI approaches. There are also a lot of elements that were simply left out of this guide. You can consider using some recommendations but you need of course to align keeping in mind your specific context and unique parameters of your organisation and industry. This can work as inspiration to your DEI work but will definitely not offer you a quick fix to your issues as (hopefully you are aware of by now) there are no quick fixes in DEI work.
Keen on learning more about how we can help you with your initiatives? Book a free consultation with me.