As a result of the various crises, uncertainties and market developments, there is a great shortage of talent after a year in which most organizations expressed their commitment to diversity. However, little progress has been made and 76% of organizations have not yet set diversity targets for 2022.
Over the past few years, studying the hiring practices of hundreds of companies has revealed a consistent pattern across the board: Organizations focus on insignificant indicators around diversity that don't influence any change.
What DEI metrics are needed
Organizations have traditionally focused their DEI efforts, including goals and measures, on increasing diversity and ownership of their teams.
The challenge? Both of these metrics focus entirely on end results without taking into account the actual activities required to achieve them. Organizations lack a diversity effort theory of change to explain what actions need to happen to promote meaningful transformation. This can be seen by answering two new questions:
- ¿Are our systems equitable? To what degree our processes are fair, consistent and accessible to all, have a direct impact on the advancement of people.
- Are people committed to and accountable for the DEI? This is the collective awareness, commitment and responsibility of DEI in all our teams.
Putting the new metrics into practice
It is clear that the challenges are significant and create obstacles to change, but for those who want to be part of the 24% that set diversity goals there are three key areas that can help transform the landscape for DEI:
Measure the current state to decide the focus
Organizations often set unrealistic DEI targets, either over or under. Examples of these objectives can be seen in all companies: promotion is prioritized based on gender, grouping, ethnicity, etc.
This causes exhaustion in the teams and a lack of commitment in other professionals, who, by the mere fact of not belonging to one of these groups, see their professional development opportunities have a ceiling, which causes talent to flee. This lack of talent does not only occur in this generalist group, but also in the other groups, since they do not want to be confused in their promotion because of their belonging to a group, but because of their own qualities.
This causes mediocre organizations.
Before creating DEI goals, find out where gaps exist and what should be prioritized.
Evaluate existing organizational policies and practices to determine where you have gaps or potential biases when analyzing the candidate and employee journey. Creating a Fair Hiring Index can help you get a complete picture in these areas.
Also examine the current diversity representation of the team and the degree to which it is engaged in DEI's efforts through anonymous surveys.
Use all of the above knowledge combined to determine up to five areas where there is the greatest opportunity for improvement.
Comprehensive vision of the DEI
Since companies typically only focus their DEI goals on increasing representation, make sure the goals are holistic to also consider their teams, processes, and representation.
Identifying the biggest gaps and opportunities to improve fairness and accessibility in your hiring and talent process is key. This indicates a critical path in the team's involvement in this effort, beginning with awareness and then being equipped, committed, and accountable.
Know where you have the greatest opportunity to increase representation – you can choose to address this goal with a framework or a process-based goal.
Involve the team from the beginning
In the spirit of truly including your team in the goals, they should be part of the build from the start. This is how you create enthusiasm, responsibility and traction to achieve these goals. Some good practices can be the following:
- Build commitment by including the team in goal-setting meetings and conversations, through direct participation or breakout groups.
- Listen to the vision of the DEI team and ensure the involvement of your existing groups or diversity councils, if you have them, learning where their motivations lie.
- A system to track and report DEI progress.
- Make reports and targets available to employees and stakeholders.
- If possible, share data externally in society.
- Distribute DEI responsibility throughout the organization.
- Reward the team for achieving DEI milestones.
You can't manage what you can't measure. Putting diversity efforts in perspective, it is clear that measuring results alone does not guarantee progress. Instead, we must focus on the real activities needed to drive the change we want to see: the equity of our systems and the inclusion of our people.
