The (not so) secret behind successful DEI programs: build in diversity, equity and belonging, don't bolt it on

Why do organizations launch diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs? Simple: It's the right thing to do. Equity and inclusion are basic human rights. DEI is also better business. Multiple studies show companies highly rated for DEI enjoy superior employee engagement and belonging, EBIT margins, total shareholder return, revenue growth, and change agility.

DEI is clearly a slam-dunk must-have. In an HR context, DEI is the philosophical core of building and creating equal career development opportunities for all employees.

Nevertheless, we're in the middle of a DEI backlash, not only by cynical culture-war politicians but by well-intentioned business leaders and their employees who fear DEI programs exacerbate problems they're supposed to solve, making lack of true diversity, equity, and inclusion worse, not better. The Supreme Court's June 29 decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions turned up the fire under an already-boiling pot.

In my HR Tech practice, I've found successful DEI programs share two main features:

• They include non-marginalized groups that hold the bulk of corporate power. The people with the greatest power to change things are too-often alienated from DEI programs.
• They are actions, not reactions -- fundamental elements of the organization's DNA.

DEI must be a mainstream mindset, not a bolt-on afterthought

Successful DEI programs are the result of a design approach that views DEI as a prime organizing principle. DEI can’t be an afterthought. It can't be a separate initiative. It must be the main circuit through which all talent programs and policy flow. Anything else creates division, not unity.
The same is true for HR Tech products that address such DEI-sensitive issues as pay equity, succession planning, and career development. To be effective, these products must be designed with DEI at the center. Added-on DEI 'modules' aren't effective.

Let me illustrate how a bolt-on concept just doesn't work. When companies started to see their futures would be digital some years ago, leaders' first instinct was to minimize risk by creating a bolt-on: appointing a Chief Digital Officer to build a migration ramp to eventual digitalization. The future digital organization was over there, the mainstream non-digital organization over here. CDOs were tasked with systematically transforming the entire organization into a digital organization. But that's not what happened.

In company after company, bolted-on 'digital' people and 'mainstream' non-digital people divided into competing silos and exhausted themselves battling each other instead of business competitors. The eventual cure for this fragmentation was to evolve from bolting-on digital to adopting a total, company-wide digital-first mindset.

It's the same with DEI.

DEI is too often a bolted-on afterthought or separate initiative because DEI’s historical roots lie in panicked, reactive risk mitigation, not proactive strategy. Early DEI programs began after Wall Street institutions were forced to pay large settlements for equal employment violations. The latest wave of DEI began in the summer of 2020 after the killing of George Floyd threw racial inequities into undeniable relief. The first wave of DEI programs was intended to avoid lawsuits; more recently, DEI programs were often designed to signal virtue.

DEI simply won't work if organizational commitment waxes and wanes with cyclical risk. DEI works when organizations commit to it from the ground up. DEI should never be a divisive sideshow. DEI must be the main show.

HR Tech's role in doing DEI right

AI-augmented digital technology plays a key role in helping organizations establish DEI as the central engine of their people programs. In career development, for example, HR Tech creates a truly level playing field that grants everyone open and equal access to knowing what new career-ladder opportunities exist and how to go after them. Anyone in the organization can upskill and reskill themselves to work toward those opportunities.

It’s long been a truism in HR that men apply for new positions if they meet 60 percent of the qualifications, but women apply only when they meet 100 percent. DEI-centered AI/digital HR Tech demolishes that unfair gender imbalance by ignoring women’s internal self-bias and reaching out to anyone who has sufficient achievements and qualifications and encouraging them to apply.

A mindset of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is crucial for organizational success. Bolt-on initiatives, advocacy support groups, and Chief Diversity Officers won't get us there because they are reactions, not actions, extrinsic to organizational identity.

Successful DEI is a collective responsibility, a proactive core tenet that says everything this organization does is an outgrowth of the DEI mind. Technology can play a major role in establishing DEI at the very heart of organizations, a major reason I'm proud to be part of the HR Tech industry.

Purbita Banerjee is senior vice president at Korn Ferry Digital. She manages Korn Ferry's learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training. She has successfully launched innovative solutions in the Talent management space, solving critical challenges faced by Fortune 1000 companies.

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