DEI: More Than Just a Trend
In a world that thrives on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), understanding its profound significance is not just a choice; it's an essential part of building a more equitable and harmonious society. Your business should not just be promoting DEI — it should continuously be coming up with initiatives to move these goals forward. Including everyone in your business mission and taking active steps to reach a larger audience is desirable for many reasons: it promotes equality, tries to mediate the existing imbalance of power in the workplace, and includes those who have been systemically marginalized.
While it can be easy to fall into the trap of only promoting DEI when it’s already in the news, it’s crucial for your brand to keep these efforts top of mind, regardless of what’s trending. This real work begins when you make an effort to be DEI-friendly all year long, not only during periods like Black History Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, or Autism Awareness Month. To make a real impact, you should be promoting DEI even when other people aren’t discussing it. Among other action items, you can consider talking about privilege routinely, thinking about your leadership’s representation, and being mindful of language and the many layers of DEI. Let’s discuss how you can be a more DEI-friendly business and make a real difference in your community and the world.
Talk About Privilege Routinely
If you want to extend your DEI initiatives past trending news cycles, make sure to discuss the issues year-round. Privilege is seeped into every aspect of our life, from our social circle to our education, to the structure of workplaces. Every business must know the imbalances between privilege and power and acknowledge that certain groups have more freedom and opportunity than others. Make space in your workplace for conversations like in a safe and supportive environment. This isn’t about trying to “reduce” privilege from those who hold it. Instead, it’s about inviting privileged individuals to become meaningful allies.
It’s Not Just About Race Or Gender
Another important thing to remember when fostering a DEI-friendly work environment is that it’s not just about race or gender. While it’s easy to bracket all diversity into these two categories, this is reductive and unhelpful. For example, in an all-black women’s workspace, there will still be an imbalance of privilege based on sexual orientation, colorism, disabilities, and class. It is not enough to tick the boxes of racial and gender diversity and think that the workplace is now de facto DEI-friendly. Once we acknowledge the various layers and intersections of exclusion, we can create a more open, inclusive, and equal business.
Think About Daily Leadership Representation
Does your leadership represent diverse groups? In their daily life, your employees and colleagues already see that only a specific section of society (read: powerful, legacy-educated, rich, white, men) get promoted to the top positions. To change this up in your workplace, analyze your existing leadership positions to see if bias and prejudice have played a role in deciding who gets to be a leader and who doesn’t. For example, suppose the board of trustees of a company only has cisgender individuals. In that case, chances are that there is a discrepancy in the diversity of hires and their chances of getting promoted. Every company should be self-aware enough to see if they are actively working against prejudices or simply buying into them. Examine your company’s leadership to see where you stand.
Figure Out Where Your DEI Is Right Now
To be more DEI-friendly, you must first know exactly where your business stands. By analyzing demographics and things like geography, age, and gender, you can get a better understanding of where your company has room for improvement and growth. Suppose you have multiple different ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations in your workplace but find that all your employees are only aged between 30-40. In such a situation, you should actively include younger and older people in your business. Gathering data frequently about your hiring and promotion tendencies provides a roadmap for the areas in which you need to improve. This can be implemented throughout the year while constantly getting additional information on your current DEI status.
Be Mindful Of Language
How we talk about things directly impacts how we understand and process them. Because of this, we need to be extra mindful of the language we use in the workplace. This doesn’t just involve how colleagues speak to each other but also how the company communicates to its employees through statements, memos, and press releases. There must be an open platform where employees are encouraged to raise issues about workplace language to understand whether it is demeaning, discriminating, or dated. This isn’t only about intra-company functioning, but also about how the business approaches and talks to potential new hires and to their audience. Examine the current wording for job postings and ask different people their opinions on it. While it may seem inclusive to 80% of your employees, the other 20% might see some problems with it. Getting a variety of perspectives on the language used by the company leads to a more inclusive understanding of what it’s doing well and where there is room for improvement.
Being DEI-friendly takes up a lot of personal (on the level of individual employees) and company (the macro lens of the business) time. However, it is a meaningful initiative because it aims to improve the way businesses function and increase the chances of employee satisfaction. If employees can see that their company actively cares about their collective struggles, they are more likely to be happier in their decision to stay. Additionally, research conducted by Deloitte shows that 99% of Gen Z workers state that DEI is an important company value. A study by McKinsey & Company also found that businesses outperform others by 36% in profitability when they care about implementing cultural and ethnic diversity. Caring about DEI isn’t just a valuable moral stand; it’s also a good business plan.
Always in your corner,
The Content Queens
