Loved the Bloomberg cover page picture for Issue Sept 28,2020.

If COVID wasn’t enough, another pandemic hit the globe, resulting in a much needed and an enhanced focus on diversity and inclusion. Corporations all over took immediate steps to assign Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, declared support for playing an integral part in this cause through various channels.

However, is this going to suffice in making a difference? How will organizations know where to take actions? What actions need to be taken? How will they know if the actions are working?

Goes back to core principles of Performance Management :

Check out the article below (article #1 of a series) on how to leverage data and analytics to understand how to convert your company’s data into a meaningful business strategy on diversity and inclusion:

• Launch/ create a HR Dashboard. HR Dashboard will track diversity metrics.
• Assess current diversity mix in the workforce. Headcount by gender, by race, by minority groups, by sexual orientation, by national origin if available.
• Add more attributes like Bands (Career level), Title, Department, Function, Number of Direct reports.

This will allow a view to see if there is a disparity in gender mix in management / leadership roles. For example:

• Number of women in management roles
• Number of women from minority in management roles
• Number of workforce representing LGBTQ group in management roles
• Number of women of color in C-suite, executive leadership roles

How do you define enough?

• Where are we today (% of total) and where do we want to be. Define realistic targets to achieve.

How do we move the dial? The percentages are not going to change by themselves

• Concrete actions need to be taken, formal initiatives launched and commitment from senior leadership to sponsor these actions.
• Ongoing review of the insights from the analyses of this data by leadership team.
• Hiring/ Recruitment bias – mandatory training for recruitment teams to bring awareness of the possibility of bias in hiring and steps to eliminate such bias.

CEO sponsorship, endorsement and commitment to this initiative is critical for it’s successful implementation and prevention of premature failure. CEOs can leverage the analytics and insights from the Diversity and Inclusion executive dashboard to speak to the organization’s performance on this initiative at company town halls, investor relations calls, conferences. Metrics and quantifying efforts and results is the mantra for demonstrating to the employees, the investors and the public, that the organization’s CEO and executive leadership has serious investments in this cause.