How To Lead The D&I Charge As An HR Professional

Focus on culture, compliance, confidentiality & trust

I think that we can all agree that 2020 has been a doozy. If you’ve been leading Human Resources within your organization this year, it’s been a doozy times 10, maybe times 100. You likely started the year off strong with a clear vision and lofty goals; and then Covid-19 hit. You began managing office closures, new work from home arrangements, and something else you might not have been ready for - leading Diversity and Inclusion for your organization. Significant and troubling national events pushed the need for Diversity and Inclusion leadership within organizations to the forefront of critical business needs this year and the likelihood that HR is being charged with leading these initiatives is high. But the truth is, not all HR leaders are primed and ready to tackle this charge. But how do you do it successfully?

   

Although I don’t believe HR professionals should be appointed to lead Diversity and Inclusion initiatives alone, I do believe HR should be equipped with the skills and direction to contribute to the critical needs of their employee population in these challenging times. But what are those primary focus areas employees and organizations alike need at a time like this?  As an HR professional who has lead D&I within my organization for several years with significant support and collaboration, I have been able to do this effectively by focusing on several key areas to maintain a strong company climate, set achievable goals in collaboration with our company’s leadership, and skilfully balance my HR role with the needs of my employees. The focus areas I share with you are not all encompassing, but a great starting point for grounding your D&I initiatives to change the way your organization does business.  

Company climate, or company culture, is a powerful tool that guides employee behaviors. Start by assessing your company culture at this time and get an idea of what it feels like for all of your employees. 
 
Assess the Climate: Use various methods to assess the current climate within your organization. Use pulse checks in one-on-one meetings with employees, surveys, or touch bases with the intention to listen to what people are feeling within the organization and what they need. From there, collaborate with your organization’s leadership and key D&I collaborators within the organization to craft the right initiatives for your culture. At the height of the social justice movement this year, my connections within my organization told me that Black employees and other people of color wanted to have a safe space where their voices could be heard, and they could express their grief. We then crafted what we call “Brave Spaces'' and hosted these virtual open sessions for all employees who were interested to come and talk about what they were feeling. It showed we were listening to our employees and the organization climate changed. It became more open and supportive for those employees and it built allied behavior across the organization. 

Inclusive climates help with wellbeing. When people feel valued in an inclusive environment, they are not only confident and connected, but they perform at higher levels. There is trust and sharing and employees begin to build more constructively on ideas. When they aren’t feeling included, they feel stressed and not committed to the organization. Keep culture at the center of everything you do, and you will feel the climate within your organization change.

Get Inclusive: Diversity and Inclusion is collaborative, so get support with your D&I initiatives from employees and leaders alike within the organization. Their perspective is key to having a well-rounded approach. It also helps with buy-in on those initiatives and eases your personal burden to carry these initiatives on your own. How do you get others involved? Invite leaders and frontline employees alike to collaborate in crafting what the organization’s D&I charter looks like. Engage your employees in designing an approach for celebrating culturally significant events or months like Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Juneteenth or Pride. 

You could also engage your lead Strategy or Analytics folks to help you comb through and understand your organization’s diversity numbers and craft the plan for increasing diversity and inclusion with your Staffing team and department heads. Additionally, think about using an unbiased third-party diversity consultant to help in the beginning stages of developing your D&I approach. An outsider’s view is often a refreshing perspective on issues that might be too difficult for HR to see or to articulate to leadership. Moreover, people tend to listen differently and more attentively to perspectives that come from an unbiased source.  

Generally speaking, compliance is adhering to a rule, such as a policy, standard, or law. As it pertains to HR and D&I, it’s about setting expectations or goals for what you expect to achieve with your D&I focus, measuring those goals, and being a good steward of your company’s culture. 
 
Setting Expectations: You can’t inspect what you don’t expect. Setting expectations or SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based) goals around D&I creates accountability. Accountability creates engagement and gives you something to measure your progress against. 

Setting Standards: Additionally, compliance is setting standards and making sure that those standards are followed. Make sure your policies are up to date and reflect the company’s values. If you are an organization that claims to be “people centered”, do your policies reflect that? Also, do your D&I goals reflect equity for all people? Set goals that help support the employment and growth of historically marginalized people. 

Stewardship: A strong steward of a company’s culture not only sets the standard for what inclusion looks like within the organization; they also are responsible for making sure that all employees follow that standard. As a rule, HR must ensure that no one is made to feel “less than”, so it’s imperative to keep your ears to the ground to make sure you’re making progress and all feel heard and welcome. 

Maintaining confidentiality as an HR professional is paramount and absolutely necessary in building trust with your employees. Confidentiality isn’t just about keeping employees’ personal information private, it’s fostering the trust with your employee population that if and when they come to you with their concerns, they know you will listen and act thoughtfully and with intention. This is even more important if you are leading D&I as an HR professional.

Gain and Maintain Trust: At all times, you must foster trust and confidentiality with your employees - especially employees of color that may start coming to you not only as their HR support, but as the D&I lead within your organization. Employees may start disclosing deep-seated feelings and concerns they have never shared before with anyone, let alone someone at work. Be ready to maintain those confidences and be clear about the process if concerns that are shared do need to be escalated or investigated.

Trust Nuances: I do want to call out that there are nuances to challenges that employees face and in order to gain and maintain trust, HR professionals have to know how to navigate those nuances. For instance, an employee may want to discuss discrimination, however, they may be discussing systemic discrimination that is difficult to put your finger on but is still there lurking in company policies or procedures. With that in mind, take note that Black, non-black POC, and any other historically marginalized people may struggle with coming to HR in general with their concerns about the company’s culture of inclusion.

Leading Diversity and Inclusion might not have been what you signed up for when you first entered into the HR profession, but trust me, it will be the most rewarding work of your life. Although I have been steeped in the work of D&I for four years within my organization, this year’s events have made working in D&I the toughest, and yet, the most rewarding year of my career. I’ve felt empowered and defeated, strategic and unfocused all at the same time. In crafting my organization’s D&I action plan, listening and giving voice to employees’ perspectives, and moving the needle forward, even if it is ever so slightly, quarter over quarter, I’ve found strength in connecting with a greater purpose in my career.

As an HR professional and newly minted D&I leader, you will find that your ability to give voice to the voiceless and steer the culture of an entire organization will empower you. It will also build a strong foundation for your organization for years to come. By keeping your focus on your company’s culture, setting standards and maintaining compliance with those standards, and leading with transparency and trust, you will find your way to a more inclusive culture and a new amazing skill set.