What’s New: Shifting the Conversation from DEI Activities to Outcomes
In our journey to champion diversity and make organizations more inclusive, equitable and accessible it might be helpful to take a moment to reflect on the whether the outcomes we had hoped are being achieved. From my perspective as a person with a disability, I observe that organizations often spend an inordinate amount of time on DEI activities and processes with little or no attention on measuring whether all their efforts have made a difference to achieving equity.
In the article titled Taking Bold Action for Equitable Outcomes featured on Deloitte Insights, the co-authors Steve Hatfield and Lauren Kirby share their perspective that “DEI progress has traditionally been measured based on activities and effort, often with little consideration for actual outcomes achieved. DEI actions should be in service of achieving equitable outcomes in the workforce-and broader society-while boosting an organization’s innovation, competitiveness, and long-term business success.”
Hatfield and Kirby address four common challenges that organizations face in furthering their DEI progress including:
Too much emphasis on activities and adherence to compliance standards rather than impact.
Prioritizing DEI activities at an individual level which does not necessarily result in the organizational behaviour change needed to improve outcomes.
Collecting the data needs to report progress or results.
Disconnect between DEI outcomes and other business objectives.
The co-authors present findings from the Deloitte 2023 Global Human Capital Trends survey that illustrate that most organizations have prioritized diversity outcomes over equitable outcomes. A theme that permeates this article is that “It is important to measure DEI success according to DEI outcomes (that is, what is changing?), not what is being done (such as dollars spent, training completed, or participation in affinity groups). The DEI efforts of several leading organizations to better achieve more meaningful and equitable outcomes are cited in this article. Hatfield and Kirby encourage organizations that now is the time to “lay a path to bold action in pursuit of more equitable outcomes for all.”
This article is highly recommended for any leader who champions diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in their organization. When you are finished, then take a moment to answer the question…What change and impact resulted from your DEI efforts?
To read this article, click here.