What’s your score?
How many times do you ask yourself or someone else this question? About how many different things?
It seems sometimes that we are a society that is obsessed with grading, measuring, winning, and achieving. And that can be a good thing, right?
How can you know you’ve reached your goals if nothing is measured, and no one is keeping score?
The answer is…you can’t.
That’s why it’s so important in anything that you measure or score to know what standard you are trying to achieve and who is keeping score.
Every year during Black History Month, the conversation in business turns to the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Of course, we should be having this conversation year-round, but February gives you a chance to take a deeper look at what’s happening in your business.
In an ideal world, diversity, equity, and inclusion would be a given. These things would be present naturally, without question.
Sadly, we’re not there yet.
As a leader, you are responsible for the climate and culture in your business. It’s your job to keep your company moving toward that ideal world.
We can’t tell you what DEI should look like in your business, but here are four things to keep in mind as you set your own goals and assess your own DEI efforts.
- Commitment – Make an explicit commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in your business. Be intentional about devoting time, energy, and resources to making changes that will move you toward your DEI goals.
- Communication – Be sure that the commitment to DEI is explicitly stated and understood within your organization as well as outside the organization. Recruitment and hiring are key components in building a diverse workforce, so your potential applicants need to know that you are seeking people like themselves.
- Counting – Set goals and metrics and regularly measure your progress. Be sure that you are including both qualitative and quantitative measures, particularly when it comes to assessing inclusion. This is one place where it’s important to know “who’s keeping score.” People need to feel included, not just told that they will be
- Consistency – Efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion must be made consistently throughout every aspect of your organization. It’s not enough just to hire a diverse group of people. You need to think about promotion, retention, policies, and practices that support a sense of equity and inclusion.
While the value of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace is well-established – President Biden signed an Executive Order on DEI for the federal workforce in June 2021 — the specific standard or score card for any individual business needs to be developed internally so that it is reflective of the unique circumstances of that organization, community, and industry.
There is no race toward the DEI finish line and there are no gold medals to be awarded. But the rewards are great. It’s up to you to create the score card for your business and to include everyone in the effort to keep score of your efforts.
High DEI has big payoffs. According to Deloitte Insights, businesses with a culture of inclusion were
- 3 times more likely to be a high performing organization
- 4 times more likely to be innovative and agile
- 8 times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Now is a great time to take stock of your DEI efforts and renew your commitment toward an inclusive workforce. When you increase your DEI score, everyone wins.
Blessings,
Chris
