What does DE&I mean when it comes to the workplace?

 

 

There is an abundance of resources and materials available online about DE&I in the workplace as a result of the fact that many corporations are pursuing DE&I goals. But what is immediately apparent is that achieving DE&I goals and strategies in the workplace is far from easy or straightforward.

 

A 2020 PwC Benchmarking Survey states that although global DE&I is a priority area for 76% of the organisations surveyed, many are struggling to translate DE&I strategies into action. In fact, 33% of respondents still feel diversity is a barrier to employee progression and only 5% of surveyed global organisations’ DE&I programmes reach the highest level of maturity. Diversity data on corporate India, while limited, indicates that although organisations are beginning to accept the need for diversity and workplaces are striving to be inclusive, we are dealing with deep-rooted socio-cultural biases and inertia that impede successful DE&I practices. 

 

The question before us then is how we overcome these chokepoints? What tools, language, and value propositions do we need to successfully meet diversity and enable inclusion in the workplace and possibly larger communities we are part of. In this seven-part blog series on DE&I, I explore a range of questions around these issues in the workplace, whether we are asking the right questions around it, and reflect on where we stand (globally and within the context of India) and need to get to in terms of benchmarks and values. In this first blog post, I start with the basics –  What is diversity and equity? What do we mean by inclusion? More importantly, how do these concepts intersect?

 

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion?

 

Despite the renewed momentum around DE&I, there remains a visible lack of clarity around each of these terms. In some circles, we hear one or more of these terms used interchangeably. Elsewhere, we find DE&I used as a kind of non-specific catchall, when it might be more productive to zero in on a specific part of this concept for the purposes of identifying improvements and launching initiatives. It’s therefore helpful to define diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

 

Diversity refers to political beliefs, race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, class, age, and gender identity differences. In the workplace, diversity means your employees consist of individuals who bring new perspectives and backgrounds to the table. It’s important to remember that diversity is less about what makes people different—their race, socioeconomic status, and so on—and more about understanding, accepting, and valuing those differences.

 

Whereas diversity refers to all the many ways that people differ, equity is about creating fair access, opportunity, and advancement for all those different people. It’s about creating a fair playing field, to use a familiar metaphor. To use a common example, not everyone within an organization will own a car, or even be able to afford public transportation on a daily basis. An organization can create a more equitable environment by accommodating the full spectrum of transportation needs, from policies around start times and working hours to allowances for both automobile and public transportation travel. Successful equity initiatives, then, must build fairness and equal treatment into the very fabric of an organization on the premise that not everyone has the same set of resources. 

 

Finally, inclusion means that everyone in the diverse mix feels involved, valued, respected, treated fairly, and embedded in your culture. Empowering all employees and recognizing their special talents is part of creating an inclusive company.

 

How do diversity, equity, and inclusion intersect?

 

All three components of DE&I are important一diversity without a sense of equity and inclusion can result in a toxic culture, and inclusion without diversity can make a company a homogenous monolith, stagnant and uncreative. Further, companies are starting to focus more on diversity, but many disregard the equity and inclusion piece of the puzzle. Without a concerted effort towards all three components, the workforce is bound to feel out of place and unsupported. There’s a common misconception that environments in which diversity and equity are priorities naturally lead to inclusion.  The truth is that even among the most diverse teams, there is no guarantee of equity and inclusion. Women might be well represented at the senior management level, but still not feel included due to longstanding gender norms, salary discrepancies, and other factors.

 

Diversity and inclusion expert Verna Myers, founder, and president of Verna Myers Consulting Group coined the phrase:

Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.

The phrase is powerful in the way that it distinguishes the two terms, which for many, mean the same thing.  It articulates (though somewhat abstractly) that diversity is about ‘representation’, and inclusion is about ‘involvement’.  They are really different things, and it’s important to help people understand that. It’s not just about having people from different social backgrounds in your organisation, but about supporting, nurturing, and facilitating their progression within the workspace. Myers says that embracing inclusion requires “the institution to fully integrate its understanding of and appreciation for the diverse cultures and backgrounds of its employees.”

 

Let’s look at an example of women in tech industries. A large percentage of women drop out of the IT industry in their mid-30s, mainly because women do not get the support from their managers/organisations to continue after a parental break. As a result, women refrain or hesitate from taking a break/sabbatical after a long-running engagement or starting a family because they know that once they come back, things would have changed at a much quicker pace than they could keep up with. For all we know, they might not feel included during conversations, as their peers might not consider the fact that they have just come back and need to be briefed about what has been going on around or what they could do to get up to speed. If employers are unable to help women keep up with the pace and address their blockers, it will not help – no matter how well they advocate for women in tech (or any industry for that matter).

Some immediate responses to the example above come to mind. Perhaps initiatives such as getting leadership to start working themselves flexibly. e.g., working from home and encouraging others to do the same to maintain a work-life balance; using flexible working hours to accommodate family needs and commitments; ensure employees are aware of their rights with regards to flexible work; institutionalising regular communications to all employees at monthly catch-ups, conferences and one on one conversations discussing the benefit of flexible work; providing employees time, resources and space to upskill themselves; any training which would enable them to get acclimated to the market changing trends and ensuring employees are aware of coaching and mentoring programs that will help them hit the ground running could improve the ways in which women in the workplace feel included.

But such efforts that help organisations move from just being ‘diverse’ to ensuring inclusion is a big shift. In order to do this, a lot of organizational cultural training is required. Myers highlights the significant way unconscious biases and blind spots operate in our unconscious mind. She says, “our brains are highly habitual. Our brains start reaching conclusions without immediately telling us that it’s doing so. It’s looking for things that go together” (In my next blog, I unpack the idea of unconscious bias, how it operates, not just in the workspace, but outside our working lives).

More importantly, Myer’s phrase about how diversity and inclusion are connected is not the end goal.  We must take her phrase one step further and examine ‘who is doing the asking’ and ‘who is doing the dancing’. Very often, it’s a specific group that controls the ‘dance floor’ that others dance on. The person has to be invited by someone else. The person has to be asked to dance by someone else.  You may be included, but someone else has the decision rights on whether and when that will happen. 

What seems to me to be a better vision for DE&I is to create a sense where marginalized or underrepresented peoples are no longer dependent on an offer of brief ‘inclusion’ but where they are equally able to be ‘party planners’ within the organisation. In other words, we should be striving for ‘belonging’ so that people are being asked for inputs on the music, food, and decorations of the party. You don’t have to wait for someone to ask you to dance. You can determine who you dance with.  You have as much a right to influence the playlist as anyone else – even if your music choices might be different than anyone else’s. ‘Belonging’ is not just a ‘nice thing’ to have, it is truly the point at which we start to see real benefits when it comes to team and business performance and the return on investment (ROI) in DE&I.

At the end of the day, representation and inclusion matter and it’s great that workplaces are beginning to recognise the value of diversity in ensuring a better workforce, brand image, reputation, innovation, and generating profits. But, organizations must commit to going all the way and proactively invest in tools needed to create organization-wide accountability, redesign working models, and change cultures to become not just inclusive but belonging-oriented, if there is to be any real transformation.

In the next blog, I unpack unconscious bias and how it affects DE&I efforts in the organisation.  Do let us know your thoughts on DE&I or share experiences around it in the comments section.

 

#asktherightquestion  #diversityandinclusion  #organisationalaccountability

Keya Bardalai is a Senior Research Consultant at Syngrity. She has a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and specializes in work and employment in the service economy. Keya has a keen interest in gender in the workplace and works on how spaces can be made more just, equitable, and inclusive for all.

 

 

Sources:

1. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/global-diversity-and-inclusion-survey/global-report.pdf 
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inclusion-isnt-being-asked-dance-daniel-juday/ 
3. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2016/05/diversity_is_being_invited_to.htm/ 
4. https://www.achievers.com/blog/the-definition-of-employee-engagement/