Chief Diversity Officer: Is the Role Sustainable?

Often, chief diversity officers (CDOs) are hired to tackle an immediate issue with the brand or employees. And with the overload of revamping a toxic workplace into a tolerant, inclusive one, the turnover in the role is high. How can organizations make this role sustainable and successful? 

The merits of a diverse and inclusive workforce are not unknown. They’ve been covered by study Opens a new window after studyOpens a new window . But making diversity and inclusion an inherent part of company culture requires a concentrated effort in that direction, and the CEO or CHRO of an organization may not be able to do this alone. Both roles already place significant demands on the leaders fulfilling them. For organizations to make diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) an inherent part of organizational culture, they need to have a professional leading the program individually.

What Does a Chief Diversity Officer Focus on?

The answer to this question may seem obvious, but what a CDO does depends mostly on who they report to. A CDO could hold a position separate from the CHRO, or they might report to the CHRO. If the two offices are distinct, a CDO may be able to improve diversity and inclusion efforts within the organization, creating employee resource groups or support groups, and ensuring that DEI measures clearly drive established business outcomes. 

When working with a CHRO, a CDO may work on improving diversity recruitment measures, ensuring that the team is supported by the necessary human resources as well as the right technology to do an efficient job.

When working with a CEO, the outcomes may be most positive because, at that level, the CDO gets a holistic view of diversity initiatives within and outside the organization. The CDO can work on developing a unique customer-facing as well as employer brand, help hire a diverse range of employees, and sustain diversity efforts within the organization.

Learn More: How Virtual Reality Works to Help Create a More Inclusive Workplace

Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer Is Not Enough – How Do You Set Them Up for Success?

A CDO – no matter who they work with – must have the resilience to deal with pushback from various employee groups. Sometimes this pushback may come from the people who hire them, and at others, from employees in the organization who may say they feel targeted by the DEI initiatives the CDO has introduced. As most studies report, CDOs’ resilience is not enough to deal with the organization’s pushback.

The Wall Street Journal recently reportedOpens a new window  that the role of a CDO is one of high turnover, stating that their average tenure in an organization lasts about three years. In June 2020, Morgan Stanley’s ex-chief diversity officer suedOpens a new window  the company, saying that the company didn’t do enough to promote its D&I initiatives and then fired her when she attempted to fast-track the program.

In an articleOpens a new window  titled “Hiring a Chief Diversity Officer Won’t Fix Your Racist Company Culture,” author Nadia OwusuOpens a new window  clearly outlines the challenges CDOs, particularly female CDOs, face in the workplace. They are often told to not use language that might be perceived as “hostile” when raising issues about unconscious bias and racism, and they are likely to leave after a so-called “honeymoon period” – which ends when the CDO starts bringing up real diversity issues that need to be tackled in the organization.

The chief diversity officer’s role isn’t one to be filled as a mere show of solidarity with underrepresented groups. The CDO has a meaningful role to fulfill, and that is possible only if top leadership supports their vision and initiatives.

The goal of a D&I initiative is more than just achieving compliance

DEI is more than just a compliance metric for an organization. Proactive organizations implement DEI initiatives because they understand that they can enable productivity in the organization and cognitive diversity, and they develop the organization as a social enterprise that works to close the gap between underrepresented and fairly represented groups. A DEI leader, in this case, the chief diversity officer, must be able to present a strong business case about why a full-fledged DEI initiative is fair and applies to all parts of the organization, and is not just a compliance exercise.

Define the goals that need priority

While most organizations may expect a CDO to come in and resolve all its diversity and inclusion issues, that is a vague goal to ask them to achieve. In conjunction with the CEO and CHRO, CDOs need established metrics and support to achieve those goals. Is the organization looking to hire more employees from underrepresented groups? Is the organization looking to increase diversity at the executive level? Is the organization looking to create an inclusive and equitable environment for existing employees? Is the organization looking to understand the challenges in closing the wage gap, how underrepresented employees (such as women – of color) are paid? Is it to train employees to lead an increasingly diverse team while ensuring equity and inclusion?

Empower them with the resources they need to be successful

This is another part of making a CDO’s role successful.

1. Do they have a reliable team with a background in DEI initiatives?
2. Do they have the freedom to create a task force that consists of change agents across the organization – including employees and leaders?
3. Do they have analytics access to measure employee demographics, identify recruitment trends so far, and maintain compliance?
4. Do they have the necessary budgets to invest in DEI training across the organization?
5. Most importantly, do they have access to the top leadership and the freedom to take strategic initiatives as they see fit?
6. Have you identified the goals they need to achieve and defined the metrics that will measure the success of that goal? For instance, an X% increase in employee engagement due to diversity initiatives?
7. Are these goals reasonable?

While considerable success has been seen in hiring professionals for the role of a chief diversity officer, their own success is yet to be examined as they make moves that help organizations meet their DEI goals. The open secret, though, is allowing them to do what they have been hired to do – without the micromanagement and without the need to please people. This may be hard because a diverse employee base has diverse thoughts – some not as inclusive as needed to succeed with DEI initiatives. At such times, support from top leadership and a CDO’s resilience to fight the pushback will make the role and function successful and sustainable.

What do you think is the most important metric that measures the success of a chief diversity officer? Share your thoughts with our readers and us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .