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The good news? Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) has become a somewhat higher HR priority over the past several years in light of a combination of changing legislation, the need for our workforces to reflect the demographics of the consumers we serve, and the bottom line benefits of D&I itself. But the most important reason to manage D&I well is because it is the right thing to do. As Mahatma Gandhi taught us, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”
Unfortunately, despite some progress, we are failing Gandhi’s test in many ways.
Here we will highlight findings from several different HR.com studies, taking a broad look at D&I progress, barriers and best practices. We will also specifically explore gender diversity along with one of the biggest barriers to progress: workplace sexual harassment.
In our 'Workplace Diversity and Inclusion: Emerging Awareness and Best Practices' report, participants were asked to rate the strategic importance of several D&I program facets. Three topped the list:
In 'The State of Diversity and Inclusion 2018 / 2019' study, we asked respondents to indicate their level of D&I maturity. The figure below includes a definition of each stage along with the corresponding response. Only 20% have practices that are at the Vanguard or Advanced stages. About half put themselves into the Underdeveloped or Beginning stage.
We also asked participants to rate the overall effectiveness of their D&I efforts on a ten-point scale. Only 23% indicate they are on the high end of the scale, assigning a rating of 10, 9 or 8 to their programs. D&I is hardly a new issue and these findings are, in our opinion, a cause for alarm.)
Although women make up nearly half the U.S. workforce, they have a miniscule representation in some key corporate leadership realms. For example, as of January 2019, there were 25 female CEOs of S&P 500 companies. Therefore, they are about 47% of the workforce but 5% of the top business leaders.
HR.com's latest research confirms that there's a problem among organizations. In most respondent organizations (62%), women are less than 41% of leaders. In nearly a fifth of responding organizations, they are no more than 10% of leaders.
In the U.S., non-Hispanic (or non-Latino) whites make up about 60% of the labor force, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Therefore, ethnic/racial minorities are about 40% of the U.S. workforce.
Our study indicates, however, the leaders of most organizations are much less diverse than the workforce in general. About three-quarters of HR professionals say ethnic/racial minorities are no more than 30% of their leaders. In fact, 44% say no more than 10% of their leaders are members of ethnic/racial minorities. The bottom line is that these diverse populations are vastly underrepresented in leadership ranks today.
Despite the lack of diversity and inclusion among corporate leaders, only 36% of HR professionals say their organizations have one or more development initiatives focused on improving D&I in the leadership ranks. In addition, few (34%) have mandates for making leadership more diverse.
In fact, it appears that managers have few tangible incentives for increasing diversity. In the large majority of organizations, managers are not even partially rated, promoted or compensated based on their ability to help the organization achieve diversity goals.
Not only is gender parity a long way away, many women have had to deal with harassment in their work environment as well. Our report, 'Sexual Harassment in the Workplace', indicates that only 13% of HR professionals report a decrease in harassment complaints over the past two years, whereas 15% say there have been increases. The remainder indicate that the number of complaints has stayed the same.
We found several concerns around the levels of success organizations are having with their initiatives to curtail harassment. A fifth report that fewer than 60% of their employees understand their company's policies around harassment. And, only 38% feel their employees would give high marks to the training they receive in this area. The potential good news is that nearly three-quarters of HR professionals say their organizations plan on bolstering training efforts or are considering doing so in the coming year.
In 'The State of Diversity and Inclusion 2018 / 2019' study, we broke our participant sample into two groups to explore critical differences. The "high performers" are those that indicated that they were at the Vanguard and Advanced D&I maturity stages. The "low performers" are those organizations that indicated they were in the Underdeveloped, Beginning and Intermediate maturity stages.
High performers are considerably more likely to leverage the following diversity and inclusion initiatives to a high or very high degree.
The following are suggested practices for organizations that wish to improve in this area. Of course, every organization is different, so only adopt or adapt the ideas best suited to your circumstances.
Our research indicates that D&I initiatives are more likely to succeed if they are supported by senior leaders. There are various ways to help build such support, starting with communication. Seek the help of leaders who already understand that diversity brings with it various benefits, from higher innovation to improved employee relations. Then enlist their help in a communication, education and culture change campaign.
Such a statement can highlight the benefits of D&I, reinforce the organizational commitment to great diversity and inclusion, and set forth future aspirations.
What is already in place and should be in place? What is already working, and what's needed to make diversity and inclusion initiatives more effective? An audit will help answer such questions.
Identify the steps needed to fulfill the D&I mission. As part of this process, set realistic goals and objectives for both the short and long term. Identify a budget and other resources and adjust your timeline accordingly. Based on the timeline, consider immediate and long-term plans for training, communication, social events, ERGs, benefits and more.
Leaders who are already knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of diversity and inclusion can coach and mentor others. Organizations can also create leadership development initiatives focused on improving diversity in the leadership ranks. Once the organization develops greater leadership diversity, these new leaders can help nurture cultures that respect a variety of points of view. Development programs can also be linked with succession planning programs that help ensure that leadership pipelines contain diverse groups of high potentials.
Cultures must place a premium on diversity and inclusion. This often requires greater gender diversity in the workforce, especially at the top. The more women in senior positions in an organization, the less likely leaders are to tolerate harassment. Culture change also requires leaders at all levels to not only carefully guard their own behaviors but be willing to take action on cases of abuse and provide support to those who are victimized.
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inspiring and educating today's HR professionals.
Over the past three years, the HR Research Institute has produced more than 85 exclusive primary research and
state of the industry reports based upon surveys of thousands of HR professionals.
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