Make an affirmative commitment to diversity and inclusion by crafting a Diversity & Inclusion (DEI) statement. Admit that your organization might not yet reflect ideal diversity standards, yet make clear how you plan to address that gap.
An effective DEI statement includes several key components, including: an explicit commitment, specific inclusivity goals and accountability metrics.
Goals
Organizations seeking to foster an inclusive workplace must set specific diversity, equity and inclusion goals. These should align with their company mission and values while being specific and measurable. Companies should then devise an action plan in support of these goals that includes things such as hiring diverse employees or offering cultural competency training; additionally they may even establish an inclusive committee to help monitor progress toward them.
Academic jobs often require applicants to submit a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion statement as part of their application materials. This gives candidates an opportunity to showcase how they have implemented DEI into their teaching and research practices, along with tangible examples that showcase this effort. Ideally, statements should be specific and measurable with references included that show exactly what work has been completed.
Some elements that should be included in a DEI statement:
An interest in fostering an equitable society. Guiding students from minority racial communities to succeed in your field. Fostering inclusive learning environments by using various teaching strategies which make your classrooms accessible for all learners.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are essential in creating an equitable organization that fosters innovation and productivity. By recruiting people from diverse backgrounds, organizations can become more creative and innovative while diversity promotes acceptance of differences while creating positive cultures that value differences as strengths.
Establishing diversity, equity and inclusion goals for companies can help strengthen their competitive edge. A recent Harvard Business Review study discovered that diverse firms were 45 percent more likely to increase market share due to having better understanding of customer needs and having access to more perspectives and sources of tacit knowledge.
An effective diversity, equity and inclusion strategy requires an intersection between goals, policies, and actions to ensure employee happiness and advancement opportunities are equalized across the organization. They should also adhere to equality principles such as fairness and accountability as well as measures intended to combat unconscious biases.
Accountability
DEI statements that are effective offer specific and measurable goals for how your organization intends to improve. These goals should align with your mission, vision and values and should include a plan for reaching them; such as outlining steps you plan to take to address an issue such as unconscious bias or discrimination and how such changes will impact business results and employees lives.
Setting clear metrics for your goals will enable employees to hold leadership accountable and ensure real progress toward becoming an inclusive workplace. In addition, clear metrics will give your company an added layer of transparency essential for lasting change within your culture.
Leaders need to take an active approach towards developing an inclusive team culture in order to effectively implement DEI statements, including hosting company-wide town hall meetings and offering training on communication, conflict resolution, office politics etc. Additionally, it’s crucial for them to recognize and acknowledge empathy within their workplace by listening for nonverbal cues that indicate meaning – including verbal cues as well as nonverbals such as hand gestures or body language.
To be effective in its diversity and inclusion initiatives, companies require the support of all their employees. Your statement should therefore include a call to action encouraging all staff to fulfill their commitments while working toward creating an inclusive workplace environment.
Salesforce provides a great example of this with their Diversity Equity and Inclusion Statement. In it, they outline their goal to “move closer to equality for all”, detailing a continuous journey that includes every employee and external partner. Furthermore, this statement lists several employee resource groups it supports such as Africans@Google, GREYGIT and Trans at Google as well as current representation figures for these groups – providing compelling proof that diversity and inclusion are integral parts of business strategies rather than simply moral obligations.
Linking to Mission and Values
Your diversity equity and inclusion statement must not only reflect your mission and values; it must also resonate with them. Strive for an equilibrium between an ideal internal culture vision and tangible measures of accountability. Avoid making promises that could cause disillusionment; overly ambitious pledges could cause discontentment instead. Instead, set specific and measurable objectives related to hiring practices, mentoring programs or community engagement activities as targets in your statement.
DEI statements should be honest assessments of your organization, recognizing its ongoing efforts toward creating an inclusive workplace. While failures or mistakes in the past might be acknowledged, your DEI statement should also highlight progress made so far and where you want it go next; for instance if your commitment lies within higher education your statement might focus on building more diverse academic communities or how your research is helping marginalized groups across society.
Include tangible data in your DEI statement to demonstrate to potential employees and stakeholders how serious you are about diversity and inclusion efforts at your organization. For example, if you take pride in the number of women holding leadership roles at your business, include that information on your website. You might also provide statistics related to existing diversity initiatives like how many underrepresented groups were employed at your company or details regarding gender pay gaps within it.
An authentic diversity statement should reflect who you are as an individual scholar who is dedicated to advancing DEI in your discipline. Share personal stories that illustrate how your identity has helped you meet academic goals; or discuss why being from racially marginalized communities motivates you as a mentor of young scholars in your discipline.
A strong diversity statement should encompass a broad array of identities and cultures. Diversity encompasses race, ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation disability education level marital status age learning style.The most effective diversity statements tend to be broad enough so they can be understood differently by different readers, increasing their chances of resonating with more readers than otherwise possible.
Authenticity
A diversity and inclusion statement should reflect authenticity; otherwise it becomes nothing more than a box-checking exercise. Instead of producing documents intended to draw attention, effective diversity statements resonate with employees, candidates and customers.
No matter the focus of your statement – gender, race or sexual orientation – it should reflect your organization’s culture and values – such as respect, empathy and sincerity as well as transparency and accountability. With more businesses adopting policies related to diversity equity inclusion (DEI), it’s vital that statements made reflect authentically what the company believes, values and goals.
Your Diversity & Equity (DEI) statement must also be captivating and informative, providing tangible information rather than simply positive sentiments. Nike provides specific diversity targets and representation numbers while Google links to employee resource groups such as Africans@Google, Greyglers, Gender Alliance and Trans at Google – among many others.
Effective DEI statements should be straightforward and to-the-point, outlining definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as how you plan to reach those goals. They also make clear your dedication to creating an inclusive work environment – all three aspects must be prioritized when crafting such an approach.
A diversity statement can also set expectations for leadership within your organization. A top-down approach to DEI requires full buy in from senior leaders, and commitment from them to engage in ongoing dialogue about any challenges, pitfalls, or biases that arise when discussing this topic. Furthermore, leadership should be mindful of both implicit and explicit biases they might hold as well as how these contribute to systemic inequality that exists throughout society.
Companies have seen increasing efforts by hiring chief diversity officers and creating DEI departments as an attempt at increasing accountability and providing greater focus in this area, but these steps alone won’t address all issues regarding equality. An authentic culture of DEI involves every level of an organization involving employees, candidates, customers and other stakeholders – an ongoing learning process and reaching out to diverse communities while supporting their development is required for true diversity to thrive in any organization.