How Strong is Your Diversity and Inclusion Strategy?

A few years ago, diversity/inclusion was an important part of a business’s strategy. Now it’s essential. The pandemic created a mandate for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to making society better. And then a global outcry for racial justice elevated the importance of diversity and inclusion. Many companies are also reaping the long-term business benefits of recruiting and developing a diverse workforce. They include: 

Financial Performance 

Companies that have more diverse management teams achieve 19 percent higher revenue due to innovation that comes from the ideas that come from people with diverse backgrounds, according to the Boston Consulting Group. According to McKinsey, companies in the top quartile for diversity on executive teams are 36-percent more likely to perform above average than teams in the lowest quartile. Deloitte Insights says that inclusive cultures are twice as likely to meet or exceed financial goals – and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes. 

Relevance 

The latest U.S. census data reveals an increasingly diverse population across racial and ethnic groups. Businesses whose workforce composition reflects the diverse nature of the population are more relevant to their stakeholders. Relevance also means relevance to values. For Gen Z and Millennial job seekers, diversity and inclusion in the workplace is a requirement according to a recent Glassdoor study. Job seekers are closely examining company websites for evidence of a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and they’re reviewing Glassdoor reviews to see how well the company’s actions align with their words. 

According to Forrester Analyst Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee, “When we as consumers and customers look into the mirror that we call marketing, what we expect to see reflected back is not just people who look like us, but people who look like everyone around us.” And in an increasingly diverse society, businesses need to be more inclusive towards people of color, different sexual orientations, and gender identities in their actions and words. 

It’s no surprise that 77 percent of talent professionals say that diversity will be very important to the future of recruitment.  As a PWC survey of CFOs’ 2021 priorities put it, “A diverse workforce and deliberate inclusion efforts help drive better outcomes and elevate growth. Diversity is more than just doing the right thing — it’s good for business. And driving business value is always top of mind for CFOs.” In fact, 49% of CFOs surveyed by PwC said that they plan to increase employee diversity and inclusion training. 

Where to Start 

But how can companies get better at diversity recruitment? This can be an intimidating question, but I have a simple answer to get you started:  

• Build a foundation by telling a credible story on your own website. This means sharing evidence that you are inclusive, meaning that your business will nurture a diverse workforce after they join. 

No matter where job seekers find you, at some point in the process of learning about you and applying for a job, they’re going to come to your website. 77 percent of job seekers go to a company’s website when they look for a job, which makes the website the most important source of information. Here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Define Your Audience 

“We need to attract more diverse talent.” 

This is a powerful mandate that you’re probably hearing every day from someone in the C-suite. And you might be saying the same thing, too. But what does that mean? What kind of talent do you have in mind? Diversity means different things to different people. It is important to get on the same page by: 

• Reaching a common understanding of what diversity/inclusion means for your company.
• Aligning that understanding with the diversity/inclusion goals for your company. 
• Using that understanding to define your audience of job seekers who are visiting your site. 

Be as broad in your scope as you can. We define a diversity/inclusion communications outreach that accepts and includes various subgroups of your audience, including categories related to: 

• Age 
• Ability 
• Gender 
• Sexual identity 
• Race or ethnicity 
• Religion and spiritual views 

Remember: diversity and inclusion by definition must reflect the scope of our population, not just a segment of it. It’s important that companies tell the story of their own journey toward diversity/inclusion – and this is indeed an ongoing journey. 

Consider Your Entire Website 

Most companies we work with to build a diversity/inclusion narrative on their site focus on their Careers section. And that’s absolutely correct. But demonstrating diversity/inclusion in your Careers section is not enough. Your entire site needs to reflect diversity/inclusion. For instance: 

• How accessible is your website for people with disabilities? Does your site meet or exceed the requirements of the level A criteria of the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative (WCAG WAI) 2.0 guidelines? Accessibility is a growing field, and an essential one. Learn more about accessibility in this blog post.  

• Will job seekers see evidence of diversity/inclusion across your site? When they review the management team on your site, what will they find? Does your choice of images to represent your commitment to diversity? Do you discuss the importance of diversity/inclusion in your Investor Relations section? 

Job seekers don’t limit themselves to your Careers section when they evaluate you. Don’t limit yourself, either. 

Publish Inclusivity Reports 

Inclusivity reports consist of detailed, comprehensive overviews of a company’s progress toward becoming a more inclusive workplace. The best ones report detailed data that hold the company accountable toward their progress. For example, Johnson & Johnson’s annual “You Belong: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Impact Review” reflects on the company’s diversity/inclusion journey, which includes specific ways the company is implementing a diversity/inclusion strategy. The 50-page report is comprehensive, covering everything from how Johnson & Johnson incorporates diversity/inclusion in supplier relations to the link between diversity/inclusion and innovation.  

Share evidence of Achieving Diversity in the Management Team 

Doing so shows that your business is a place where a diverse workforce can grow. For example, L’Oreal publishes data on the percentage of women who hold managerial positions, and Accenture notes the percentage of women on its board of directors. However, businesses across the board have a very long way to go demonstrating that people of color are well represented in management positions.  

Show how Diversity/Inclusion Permeates the Workforce 

One of the best ways to demonstrate that diversity/inclusion reflects the entire workforce is to give employees a voice. For example, Google regularly discusses its commitment to LGBTQ+ issues through the lens of LGBTQ+ employees. At the same time, companies must demonstrate support from the top-down, as IBM does by discussing its corporate programs for supporting transgender employees and educating all employees on transgender inclusion. 

Discuss the Gender Pay Gap 

The gender pay gap is a global issue, and it’s becoming a legal one, too. In the United Kingdom, the Equality and Human Rights Commission requires employers with at least 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap information, on their own websites, as well as upload the data to the government website, by October 4, 2021. In the United States, though, gender pay reporting is becoming increasingly important, too, but U.S. companies are still catching up. We find that the best practices in this area come from the U.K. For instance, Centrica reports on its gender pay via a Gender and Ethnicity Pay Statement. As Centrica notes, the company has published its gender pay gap for the last four years in line with U.K. law, has now added an ethnicity pay gap. The actual statement is a fact-based, downloadable document that not only reports the numbers but explains them clearly. 

Lean on Your Site to Take a Stand 

People expect companies to take a stand against injustice of all types, and when companies do so, they set an example for their peers. We’ve seen plenty of examples of businesses speaking out against racial injustice amid the global social outcry led by the Black Lives Matter movement. But taking a stand means more than condemning injustice (racial or otherwise). It also means taking a stand through actions, and reporting on those actions on your website. For example, in 2020, Netflix announced on its website that it would transfer $100 million to Black-owned banks in order to fight systemic racism by empowering Black-owned businesses. When job seekers see evidence that your company is committed to making the world around you more diverse and inclusive, they are more likely to see a connection between your values and theirs: for instance, 60 percent of people surveyed by Edelman said they expected brands to speak out against racism.  

Where’s Your Evidence? 

Going forward, the strength of your diversity and inclusion story will come down to one overriding factor: evidence. Evidence that demonstrates your resolve. Evidence that makes your story transparent. Evidence that makes your story credible. To learn how to share a compelling narrative backed by evidence, contact IDX.