After the murder of George Floyd, hundreds of companies launched diversity & inclusion efforts – from reporting diversity metrics in greater detail to introducing unconscious bias training.
Unfortunately, many companies were “woke washing.” 😏 Amazon, for example, made many statements of solidarity after George Floyd’s killing, but continued to stand by its position against disclosing pay-gap data. It also opposed several resolutions from shareholders that would address racial justice and equity.
It’s safe to say that many – if not most – companies today advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but do not actively contribute to the achievement of DEI. In other words, they practice performative DEI.
Signs Your Company is Engaging in Performative DEI
Stating commitment to DEI on social media, but only in certain contexts (e.g. George Floyd).
Lack of diversity on staff.
Lack of diversity on the leadership team and other decision-making roles.
More diversity on ads and other promotional content than in the company.
Asking minority employees to be in pictures or on the website (ew).
No DEI team or committee.
Performative DEI is a no-no (not to mention, detrimental to a company’s culture and bottom line).
How Can We Stop Performative DEI?
Here are a few things you can do to create meaningful allyship in your organization1:
Do an internal evaluation. If you know me, you know I love a good survey (#nerdalert)2. All jokes aside, continuously surveying your people (anonymously) will help you figure out what your business really needs. Where are you now and where are you going? Are you ready for DEI work? Do you have the structures and processes in place to drive change?
Focus on structure. Unconscious bias training is one thing. Creating a system of policies, practices, and procedures where equity is the default outcome, is another. In this case, it might be more effective to bring in consultants or external partners. Whatever you do, don’t ask your underrepresented employees to take on the emotional (and unfair) labor of building your company’s DEI strategy and educating others.
Infuse DEI into your hiring process. DEI hiring deserves its own
rantnewsletter. But for now, a few things you can do include writing job descriptions using inclusive (non-gendered) language, ensuring you interview a diverse candidate pool, using standardized interview questions, understanding your own hiring process biases, and getting feedback on your hiring process.Listen actively. At Hootsuite, CEO Tom Keiser and Chief People & Diversity Officer Tara Ataya host listening sessions with employees to have open conversations with their people. Tara advises to focus each session on a different topic or underrepresented group, with the goal of “promoting allyship and strengthening belonging for employees.” These sessions are not meant for problem-solving, just good ol’ shutting up and listening.
Prioritize transparency. As with any KPI in your organization, you should continuously measure your progress around DEI. Share this progress with employees (and, even better, the public) and communicate how you plan to improve. Accountability, baby!
🚩 I just want to emphasize the importance of making mistakes. One of the reasons I love DEI is that there is no right way, there is no blueprint. It’s natural to be scared of making mistakes, especially when it comes to such high-stakes topics like diversity & inclusion. The beautiful thing about DEI is that you’ll only fail if you don’t try (much like life). Inclusive cultures are built on authentic relationships in safe spaces – and a lack of tolerance for mistakes destroys safety.
One Final Note: Empower Yourself When Your Company Doesn’t
If your company does not empower you to prioritize DEI and you’re not willing to quit, take this advice from DEI consultant Lily Zheng:
The job doesn’t have to be your life. Clock-in 9:00 to 5:00, put in your hours, make that money, get yourself a paycheck, and funnel that towards doing work that you feel more empowered by elsewhere. Get out there, organize, protest, get out the vote, engage your community, volunteer.
There’s so much that people can do that don’t involve their workplaces. There’s a lot of opportunities to create impact. It’s our responsibility to determine for ourselves where the balance lies between where we can make the most impact and what we can do that’s an acceptable level of risk to ourself. Everyone’s going to have a different answer.
How are you answering the call for DEI?
A lot of these tips are sourced from Tara Ataya, Chief People & Diversity Officer at Hootsuite.
Seriously, if you ever need responses for your survey, send it my way. SURVEYS GIVE ME LIFE.