An essential step in creating your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic plan is to choose and work out the right actions to help you reach your goals.
DEI actions are often a mix of quick wins to help keep the momentum going and more complex actions that facilitate a long-term change process.
Which actions make the most sense to your organization depends on how far you have already come in your DEI journey. Most organizations must work on all four pillars with a mix of actions.
PILLAR 1: Groundwork.
To successfully work on diversity, equity, and inclusion, you first need to create a framework and the conditions to set actions up for success.
Actions to create these conditions are related to:
Leadership alignment and buy-in.
Let’s explore two actions you can take with top leaders to help establish the commitment you are looking for: building awareness and setting up a workshop to create buy-in.
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DEI lead and team.
Who should you engage in DEI work? And how should you divide responsibilities? Learn how you go about appointing a DEI lead. How to compose a core team of voluntary DEI ambassadors. And how to map all stakeholders.
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DEI policies and practices.
Many organizations consider DEI a mindset, a way of looking at organization, collaboration, and getting things done. Learn about DEI policies. How to take it from policies to practices. And how to set up communication.
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PILLAR 2: Talent acquisition.
When organizations are looking to increase employee diversity, the first step is to look at talent acquisition practices. For example, how can you attract and hire employees with backgrounds and experiences that differ from those you already have?
We have gathered a selection of actions in two domains:
Increase talent pool diversity
Increase talent pool diversity. Many organizations’ employee referrals feed their talent pools. That is a recruiting strategy in which employers encourage current employees to refer qualified candidates for jobs in their organizations.
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Decrease bias in recruitment.
Decrease bias in recruitment. Bias has been a DEI buzzword for many years, and rightfully so. It significantly impacts how we interact with colleagues and leaders and influences the fairness of organizational processes and practices.
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Pillar 3: Talent Development.
Diving into DEI and talent development provides chances to highlight human potential, the core of each organization’s success.
‘Majority employees’ are unconsciously privileged in talent development practices. Fairness in talent management is quickly forgotten when business thrives but becomes essential when struggles appear.
Working on equal professional development chances and removing barriers for underrepresented employees creates an environment where everyone can grow and thrive. Every employee is supported to further their career.
Let’s look into:
Equality in learning and development.
Equality in learning and development. Learning & Development (L&D) practices significantly impact employees’ personal and professional development. With a workforce that is becoming more diverse, an inclusive approach to learning is critical.
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Equality in compensation and benefits.
A final important element in the development and retention of talent is offering fair and equal compensation to all your employees. In many industries worldwide, not all employees get equal compensation.
If you want to work on DEI, it’s essential to implement an inclusive and consistently applied compensation & benefits policy.
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Mentoring and sponsorship.
Mentoring and sponsorship. One way to actively enhance the career development of underrepresented groups in your organization is to introduce mentoring and sponsorship programs. Let’s first examine what mentorship and sponsorship are and how they differ.
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Equality in career development.
Equality in career development. Have you ever heard of a leaky pipeline? That signals a loss of talented employees from one level to another. Employees fail to progress past a certain level.
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Pillar 4: Building an Inclusive Culture.
Get DEI principles integrated into the mindset and behavior of employees and leaders to create and carry a culture of inclusion and become active DEI champions.
We have gathered best practices for:
Inclusive behaviors.
Inclusive behaviors. Employees play an essential role in advancing inclusion. Let’s dive into three ways they can make their behaviors more inclusive and contribute to an inclusive culture: Mindset & role. Make communication inclusive. Make meetings inclusive.
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Inclusive leadership.
Inclusive leadership. Inclusive leadership shows when leaders in the organization commit to creating and supporting an inclusive culture where all employees feel like they belong, they are welcome, accepted, and valued—especially those from underrepresented groups.
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DEI community.
DEI community. Build a community to bring DEI to life and create enthusiasm for it throughout your organization. From creating ambassador teams, networks, or ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) to learning circles and buddy projects, there are many ways.
