Think About How You’re Gauging Your Organization’s DEIB Progress

As the end of the year is approaching, it’s standard practice to begin assessing your organization’s performance in key areas. DEIB should be one of them. But as you’re evaluating your progress in this area, keep in mind that this is NOT a typical operational capability and there is no standard business “solution” for it. Progress in embedding and living the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging cannot solely be determined by numbers and statistics. Yes, there may be some obvious things to point to such as diversity among new hires and newly promoted individuals but what about:

·   Your retention statistics and the identities of who’s staying and leaving your organization

·   The level or frequency of issues being discussed and addressed among your teams – not just escalated to HR – related to identity and difference

·   The breadth and depth of DEIB topics that your organization has explored in your learning offerings throughout the year

·   The frankness of discussions related to identity and difference in multiple contexts, including hiring decisions, performance evaluations, and business strategy formulation

These are all indicators of real change. These are the examples that show that the importance of DEIB has sunken in and that your workforce understands what it means to apply the concepts in day-to-day business. That is how we collectively bring out meaningful outcomes for people who have historically been excluded. Take some time in the next week to identify 3 DEIB performance measures that are relevant to your organization and your DEIB journey, and discuss them with leaders. We can only measure what we pay attention to and not everything can be measured in the same old ways we’re used to.