The Penny Dropping Moment

I have had a hard time figuring out what to write about this week. Who had the idea that we should do a weekly newsletter? Besides the KPI pressure of a weekly newsletter, we have also been crazy busy hosting our D&I Lab meeting this Thursday focusing on recruitment and having several client meetings. We can’t really complain.

The penny dropping moment
So as I sit here staring at my keyboard and try to force the words to dance on the screen, the main take-away from this week, seems to be that I shouldn’t complain - which is a bit counterintuitive, when you work with D&I. However, it seems like something is moving in the market and talking to our competitors/colleagues, we are not the only ones who are experiencing this.

The penny has finally dropped for many. They are starting the work. Yes, the prime focus is still gender diversity, however, things are moving. We know that gender diversity often works as an accelerator for other diversity parameters and more importantly what we are hearing in the market, is that it is not about fixing the women anymore (looking at you, female leadership programme). 

On the contrary, when we talk to clients and different stakeholders, what we hear is that they want to know whether or not they have an inclusive environment with equal opportunities for all genders - and if not, how they create it.

The inclusion level
The funny thing is that when you start measuring the inclusion level in an organisation - also even if you just segregate in gender data - you will naturally find the pain points and pockets of success. And often, the heat map of an organisation’s inclusion level will tell secrets about other minorities' perceptions. Of course, we can’t prove it without data, however, we will get hints.

From there, the road has been paved. Because once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And if women are experiencing lack of equal opportunity and feeling excluded when it comes to e.g. succession planning and promotions, the chances that the real minorities are feeling this too are pretty big. In the end, a company’s struggle with diversity cannot be blamed on the pipeline or women, who “don’t want to be leaders”. It all comes down to the inclusion (and equity) level in the company.

I will at some point write more about the equity level. However, for now I will rejoice in the fact that the weekend is almost here. Should you want to know more about our inclusion surveys, and how we dive into your organisation and learn how the workforce perceives your equity and inclusion efforts, you know where to find us.