During an interview in Mexico for a senior finance role, I asked the candidate why he wanted to join the company. His answer caught me off guard.
âI have observed what you are doing for LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion for many years. I see you walk the talk, and the stories I have read, the policies you change, and the diversity celebration spirit I see here are what I look for and what I believe will let me flourish as an employee. You are making peopleâs lives better in a country where there are still a lot of myths about diversityâ.
Today,âŻdiversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is an increasing priority for companies looking to create a more inclusive environment and address systemic societal issues.âŻCompanies are trying to make progress in multiple areas, including gender, race, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. However, they sometimes struggle either to get started or be perceived as authentic. Despite the amount spent globally on DE&I efforts expected to double to $15.4bn in 2026 from $7.5bn in 20201, the pace of change continues to be glacial. It is estimated that it will take another 151 years to close the global economic gender gap at all levels, while dimensions such as race, different abilities, and LGBTQ+ are still not always on the agenda.
A lack of authenticity in DE&I programs can be incredibly damaging and undermine all the work done to date. Based on my experience working across borders and consulting multiple companies in the LGBTQ+ space, I propose a five-step journey to start a movement that will allow any company to progress while keeping authenticity at the core of any DE&I program.
The first thing to clarify is why you are now focusing on DE&I in your organization. This will help to create a narrative that resonates with people internally, adding credibility to any actions taken.
For example, an IT center in Eastern Europe was losing talent because employees didnât think the company was inclusive enough for LGBTQ+ people. Most of the managers were straight men in their 40s and 50s. There was no clear positioning of the topic, and nobody spoke about minorities at all, apart from focusing on reducing the gender gap. After listening to employeesâ concerns, the company created several Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for minorities and allies and commenced awareness training to educate staff about the importance of inclusion at work. Putting DE&I at the core of the business strategy of this IT center was key to turning the situation around, staying relevant in the labor market, and attracting the best and most innovative talent.
Looking at a recent Bloomberg research, the percentage of people who choose companies that prioritize DE&I issues when applying for a job is growing significantly. While most baby boomers donât consider DE&I when applying for a role, it is a must for 80% of Gen Z â who make up an ever-greater share of workers, especially in the IT sector.âŻ
Being able to find the âwhyâ for your organization is crucial. It will unlock a large amount of energy and message that will become the pivot for the whole DE&I program.âŻ
ERGs play a crucial role in assessing the inclusiveness of employee benefits, allowing those affected to have a say in policy changes and become strong advocates for equality within the company.âŻ
Most DE&I programs start as compliance or to address an issue that recently happened in the organization. Companies are given specific direction by the regulators (talent selection, diversity training, performance, and progression) and typically adopt a top-down approach. They appoint a Chief Diversity Officer who puts a program in place to raise awareness on several topics, mostly achieved through unconscious bias training or other awareness training.âŻ
At this stage, the DE&I strategy is still an HR or legal add-on: People donât see the connection to the business strategy and consider this a nice to have in terms of behavior. To effectively change management attitudes, itâs essential to engage with employees at all levels of the organization, especially minorities, by empowering them and encouraging them to voice their concerns. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), formed voluntarily by employees whoâŻdedicate part of their time to fostering an inclusive culture through educational or awareness sessions, networking opportunities for minorities, and actions aimed at closing the fairness gap within the company, are vital.
ERGs play a crucial role in assessing the inclusiveness of employee benefits, allowing those affected to have a say in policy changes and become strong advocates for equality within the company.âŻOne global manufacturer I worked with decided to include both allies and members of minority groups in ERGs from the start to emphasize the importance of support from allies to the topic and prevent marginalization.âŻTo prevent their DE&I programs from losing momentum over time, clear guidelines for ERGs were established to ensure they had a purpose beyond socializing. Having an army of people who genuinely care about the topic (and who meet regularly to discuss it) creates a sense of urgency for the organization to act.
Communication plays a critical role in creating visuals that will send signals to the organization about the importance of DE&I throughout the year.
If you want to move from a compliance issue to something integrated into the way of working and owned by employees outside of the HR department, it’s essential to create the right narrative. In other words, how you get the message across is just as important as what you have to say.âŻAs one colleagueâŻworking in marketing at a Swedish company told me: âYou can have the best idea, but donât forget people have to buy it, even if itâs obvious to you.â
Communication plays a critical role in creating visuals that will send signals to the organization about the importance of DE&I throughout the year. Questions to consider include: Do you have a motto? Is there a clear visual that people can connect to when they see it around the company? Do you have a virtual background in your meeting tools (MS Teams, Zoom, and so on) repeating the visual? Is the key information easy to find on your intranet?
In my many years of experience implementing big change management programs in multinational environments, I have learned that itâs important to address the topic from different perspectives. This creates a deep sense of connection for all stakeholders by leveraging facts and emotions.
Applying this technique to the DE&I program means understanding why women should support LGBTQ+ people, why R&D people should join DE&I events, why black people should support LGBTQ+, and so on.âŻDuring the first Pride Month celebration at a global manufacturer, we planned an entire month of events.âŻThis included pitching the economic case of LGBTQ+, stories around coming out, allyship stories, educational sessions on the level of LGBTQ+ rights globally, and fun events for employees. Some 2,500 people joined the events around the world because they were able to pick and choose the aspect of the story that most interested them. People from finance were intrigued by understanding the correlation between diversity and company performance, allies wanted to know more about the coming out process, and others had a genuine interest in understanding what they could do to improve the status quo.âŻ
To come up with different perspectives, consider the interconnected nature of social categories like race, gender, and sexual orientation. Organizing workshops on these topics can be an easy entry point from which to start discussing another angle of the DE&I stories.âŻ
Examples of systemic changes include definingâŻthe right tone from the top, appointing executive sponsors for each DE&I topic, and implementing policies that create a context where DE&I is embedded into peopleâs behavior.
As the saying goes, âYou canât improve what you donât measure.â Itâs important to define key KPIs from the outset and what you expect to achieve from your DE&I initiatives. A global manufacturer with over 100,000 employees set itself to the target of reaching 900 people during events for its first-ever Pride Month. While we had control over the number of sessions we held and how many people we invited, it was important to find the right mix of measuring what we put in â and what we got out â to see the difference we were making in the company.
For some DE&I dimensions, representation â such as the number of women in senior positions or race variety in top management â is a good KPI. However, this is not necessarily the case for all dimensions. When considering LGBTQ+ and various abilities, not everyone is visible. So, instead of just measuring representation, itâs better to focus on systemic change to allow everyone to be themselves and feel valued at work.
Examples of systemic changes include definingâŻthe right tone from the top, appointing executive sponsors for each DE&I topic, and implementing policies that create a context where DE&I is embedded into peopleâs behavior. Another great example is changing internal processes to remove biases, especially during recruitment. At one HR team I worked with, we trained talent acquisition managers with awareness sessions, reviewed the way job postings were published, and enhanced the candidate experience from the beginning. This approach sent a signal that everyone in the company values inclusion, and people reported that they felt appreciated for their diversity, which made the company a more attractive place to work.
Progress measurement can also help drive momentum across the organization. For example, having a dashboard that shows progress by country or business can create healthy competition to inspire the laggards to accelerate progress so as not to end up bottom of the list. Rewarding role models can also be another way to amplify the effect of KPIs by showing how single actions can have a collective impact across the organization.âŻ
Like all aspects of culture change, fostering a DE&I movement within your organization will take time. Having a structured approach can help increase its chances of success while creating a roadmap to move your organization from intention to action. The steps outlined above are designed to avoid paralysis and increase the tempo of change by instilling a sense of pride in the impact generated on peopleâs lives. Doing so will create business value, boost morale, stem attrition, and foster innovation and creativity across departments.âŻ
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