Inclusion & Equity First, Diversity Second
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have often been used interchangeably to mean the same thing when in fact all three have a very distinct definition in how they are applied.
These words and the issues they direct at loom large in tech and since 2020, there hasn’t been a week gone by where one hasn’t read an article about DEI or a company touting its commitment to diversity.
Let’s look at some stats:
Google spent $265 million to increase its diversity numbers from 2014–2016. 45% of respondents in another report, which surveyed over 700 startup founders, reported that they talked about diversity and inclusion internally in the last year. There has been a 16.2% increase in diversity executive team members over January 2020. Research from Glassdoor has stated that 67% of job seekers consider a diverse workplace an important factor when deciding to accept a position.
These stats are an indicator that while diversity, equity, and inclusion saw a steady rise over the last five years, it was only in June 2020 that companies started taking it more seriously.
And with all this talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion in tech, there is no better time to dig deep and establish shared, foundational understandings of these terms and their meanings.
Research shows that employees perceive diversity and inclusion as two conceptually different organizational practices. While diversity programs in the workplace focus on the ‘organizational demographic blend’, inclusion programs are intended to remove obstacles so that different groups of workers can effectively collaborate and achieve desired business outcomes.
The Direct Correlation between Inclusion & Employee Engagement
Inclusion is about ensuring everyone feels that they belong, that they’re treated fairly, have equal opportunities and resources, and can bring their whole selves to work regardless of race, age, gender, or background.
Examples would be the participation of women in the workforce, introducing a policy for honoring a variety of cultural and religious practices, talking about gender and potential pay disparities, or possibly revealing some of the company’s data points around compensation.
Inclusion sparks higher employee engagement and for inclusion to be integrated well, businesses need to adopt SMART goals which mean setting metrics that are aligned with the business’ D&I objectives.
For this to happen, businesses need to first, look at their quantitative data - track and examine their workforce and understand the demographics across all departments and locations. Once that’s done, companies should examine their demographic data against attrition, retention, and promotions.
It’s also important that businesses understand their qualitative data, which looks at employee experiences and their voices being heard. This involves having inclusion questions in employee engagement surveys or conducting focus groups.
Looking at this data collectively provides businesses with a clear understanding of the areas where they need to introduce inclusion programs to strengthen DEI in the workplace.
What’s also important to note is that inclusion must be championed by leaders in the business and can no longer be looked at as a conversation synonymous with the HR division.
When we talk about diversity and inclusion, the other key concept that's often neglected is equity.
Equity - Focusing on Individualistic Needs
Equity refers to a state where everyone – regardless of their country of origin, ethnic background, age, gender, physical ability/disability – has a level playing field.
Without equity, even the most diverse company will have a one-dimensional leadership team in charge of making decisions. For example, recent reports by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that women comprise 70% of the global healthcare workforce, but there are still "too few women" making decisions and leading the work.
Companies with more diverse management teams are likely to bring in 19% higher revenues owing to greater innovation. This can only be achieved if every employee group is allowed the opportunity to join management teams.
Equity allows you to address these issues, providing not just job satisfaction but employee engagement as well.
How do you achieve equity at the workplace?
The answer lies in easy access to cognitive diversity, which allows the leadership team to apply varied problem-solving approaches. By taking the right measures toward workplace equity, leaders can ensure that a diverse team is responsible for the company's strategic direction, making it more agile and resilient.
If companies want to have equitable practices at the workplace, then pay transparency policies are a bold first step. Having precise quantification illustrates how compensation correlates to employee performance indicators and labor metrics.
When diversity, inclusion, and equity go together, the workforce is empowered to bring their best to work. Keeping these terms separate and clear will further help leaders or Chief Diversity Officers focus on the scope of their work and the goals they want to achieve for their organization.
It’s about realizing that diversity efforts, without equitable practices and intentional inclusion, will always fall short.
It will help these leaders ask themselves hard questions such as:
Why do we value diversity and inclusion?
For whom are we creating more inclusive environments and how will we ensure that inclusion is real, that we walk the talk?
Why should we make DEI a part of our values?
What systematic barriers exist that may impede any diversity efforts we are taking? And how can we approach this work using equity as our guiding principle?
We believe that all of this, looked at holistically, will allow leaders and organizations to not only have more transparent DEI conversations but more DEI initiatives and actions.
These conversations will bring each of us into deeper engagement with one another, and with the values we want to see moving forward in our industry and taking the right step in transforming workplace culture.
