The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequalities that existed in the global labor market. After companies went into a survival mode, women were fired disproportionately and people of color are struggling to get back their jobs.
Meanwhile, as business leaders continue to talk about building an inclusive workforce, it remains a mere lip service. However, several studies have shown that diverse companies, teams, and boards outperform their non-diverse counterparts.
Josh Bersin analysts, in their report Elevating Equity: The Real Story of Diversity and InclusionOpens a new window , found, contrary to popular belief that HR programmes can lead inclusivity, it is business strategies that can truly drive inclusion and diversity. Here’s what the study observed:
How COVID-19 Impacted Employees
While it is often said that the pandemic disrupted work in an unforeseen manner, the crisis is also seen as a great equalizer.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the impact of the pandemic, we see that certain demographic groups faced more challenges. Quoting a McKinsey study from July 2020, the Josh Bersin report highlighted that in September 2020, only 53% of the adult Black population in the US was employed, compared to 57% of the corresponding White population. Similarly, 65% of US Hispanics and Latinos work in leisure, hospitality, and retail sectors, which suffered the largest drops in GDP during the pandemic.
Women, especially mothers, were also disproportionately affected. They reduced their work hours four to five times higher than fathers in order to take care of children and household responsibilities.
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What Is Stalling Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)?
The Josh Bersin report revealed that only 12% of companies surveyed hold managers responsible for hiring diverse candidates, while just 11% of recruiters are evaluated based on sourcing from underrepresented groups.
Also, 75% of companies said they do not have DEI included either in their leadership development or overall learning and development curricula. For them, DEI is just a compliance issue.
Coming to training, while only 32% of companies mandate any form of DEI training for employees, as low as 34% offer such training to managers.
The study also found that HR professionals are not trained adequately to support DEI initiatives. A separate Josh Bersin research initiative noted that only 3% of respondents claim deep expertise in DEI, while about four in five HR professionals considered themselves as beginners in this area.
The research also showed that those companies which invest in HR capabilities in DEI are 2.2x more likely to achieve exceptional financial results and this is just one of the numerous benefits.
Need for an Inclusive Talent Supply Chain
The first roadblock to inclusivity is hiring as it is not always easy to find candidates with different backgrounds, ethnicities and races. However, the effort should not stop there. Rather companies should have an inclusive approach while evaluating performance, giving rewards and pay, and providing opportunities for growth.
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The Way Forward
One mistake business leaders do is that they think DEI is a training problem. However, in reality, it is a strategy and culture problem, where training can complement the solution but cannot be the solution itself. Rather it is imperative that executives set a complete business agenda that includes diversity, equity and inclusion.
The study identifies three practices that can drive DEI results.
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- Invest in external benchmarking and comparison and not merely compare internally.
- Add outcome goals for inclusion in the metrics mix. For instance, derive an inclusion index from the employee survey.
- Be transparent about DEI goals to the external audience as they set a high benchmark.
It is also important that the business itself is accountable for DEI, rather than teams blaming each other for any shortcomings. DEI is not one person or one team’s responsibly and it can be achieved only when everyone in an organization works together.