Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gen Z and millennial workers are taking stock of their job satisfaction levels, looking beyond pay and career development opportunities to consider social responsibility and inclusion within their employers.
Businesses that value diversity, equity and inclusion often create roles to support this initiative, with titles and responsibilities that vary accordingly.
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Business cannot foster diversity and inclusion effectively without employees that champion these efforts, particularly if the business wants to ensure both its employee pool and customer base reflect the communities it serves. Indeed reports that job postings for these positions have increased by 53.6 percent year over year on their site.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a workplace philosophy that encompasses all aspects of human identity. This can include factors like culture, ethnicity, religion, age, sex gender education family status family status family status gender language ability. By acknowledging and celebrating such differences DEI helps build stronger organizations with more cohesive cultures while assuring workers can bring themselves fully to work without feeling threatened or excluded.
Though most workers view DEI initiatives in their workplace positively, significant work remains. Six-in-ten workers report having policies designed to ensure fairness when hiring or promoting employees; however, only some employers employ someone specifically who deals with these issues. Furthermore, most workers report receiving some form of training or meeting on DEI; however only a minority say their organization offers salary transparency or DEI affinity groups geared specifically at certain identities.
Companies seeking to promote diversity and inclusion (DEI) face one major challenge when trying to foster DEI: unknowingly developing unconscious biases – those unconscious associations between people that form stereotypes without anyone’s awareness; such as sexism, racism and homophobia. Furthermore, microaggressions directed against certain identities may arise at random times and occur with frequency.
Businesses face unique challenges in terms of Diversity & Inclusion (DEI). To address them, businesses require leaders who can emphasize its significance while encouraging other members of their ranks to get involved with DEI initiatives. We asked diversity professionals from Boston-area companies how they’re fostering DEI in their organizations and what lessons have been learned along the way. Below you’ll find their answers and insights.
Diversity Specialist
Diversity specialists are an integral component of human resources teams, working closely with directors or managers of diversity and inclusion to design and implement programs and training sessions to foster an inclusive workplace culture. Their work often is highly creative and compassionate.
Under direct supervision, diversity specialists perform various routine entry-level tasks that include organizing events, meetings, workshops and conferences; reviewing information related to equal opportunity and affirmative action compliance; reviewing information pertaining to equal opportunity/affirmative action issues and compliant practices; as well as compiling reports. They must possess excellent interpersonal communication skills as well as be capable of engaging employees and other stakeholders on diversity/inclusion topics.
They serve as resources for other employees, offering advice and answering inquiries regarding equal opportunity policies. In addition, they conduct employee surveys, requests, and questionnaires in order to gather diversity-related data before analyzing and interpreting it before reporting back to their superiors in HR or C-suite stakeholders.
As well, they may be responsible for ensuring their company complies with equal opportunity laws and regulations, staying abreast of current trends in diversity, equity and inclusion practices as well as creating educational materials, tools and guides to support employees within an organization.
Diversity specialists typically hold bachelor’s degrees in one of several disciplines such as HR, organizational development or psychology. They possess in-depth knowledge about diversity principles and best practices as well as experience implementing D&I programs within organizations.
Other qualifications for diversity specialists may include effective communication and problem-solving skills, understanding workplace dynamics and the ability to facilitate trainings and meetings. Travel may be required as part of this role – therefore having a flexible schedule should be prioritized when considering this career choice.
Diversity, equity and inclusion roles tend to be available in large corporations with established human resource departments; however, consulting firms and HR agencies have begun seeking them as well. Over the next decade, this field is expected to experience rapid expansion as larger corporations prioritize D&I initiatives while smaller and midsize businesses take similar approaches.
HR Manager
Some organizations may employ an HR manager who specializes in diversity, equity and inclusion issues; oftentimes this position reports into the general HR department. Such roles are particularly vital during times of rapid change when people expect businesses to take a stand against issues like racism and gender discrimination.
Unconscious bias can be an enormous barrier when working to promote diversity and inclusion, especially within the workplace. Unconscious bias refers to “stubborn, pervasive, and automatic assumptions or beliefs people form without their conscious awareness”, such as hiring decisions or microaggressions that arise as part of daily work life. Thankfully, however, unconscious bias can be addressed via training and awareness-raising measures.
According to UCSF’s Office of Diversity and Outreach, this training’s goal is to enable participants to recognize and challenge their own unconscious biases so they can make more informed decisions regarding supporting a diverse and inclusive workplace environment.
Diversity and Inclusion Specialists serve as a vital link between employees with inquiries about diversity initiatives in a company and HR teams and C-Suite stakeholders. Their role includes answering employees’ emails, phone calls, or in-person requests regarding diversity initiatives at work, gathering and analyzing company-wide diversity data, reporting back on progress in this area to supervisors in HR as well as C-suite stakeholders.
Employee engagement programs facilitate employee interaction by connecting employees from diverse backgrounds and experiences through mentoring programs, affinity groups (e.g. women in business and Black Employee Organization), cross-functional teams and mentoring initiatives.
Even though these positions overlap, it’s crucial that they remain distinct so the DEI initiative doesn’t become lost in translation. A single person trying to handle both roles could quickly become overwhelmed and cause the initiative to suffer as a result. Furthermore, having separate positions gives DEI specialists more agency when dealing with HR as “HR is often where there’s an overly adversarial relationship between DEI specialists and HR,” notes Bax.
Manager of Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion efforts within companies do not come without challenges. While the goal of welcoming all identities and perspectives into the workplace is admirable, biases, prejudices, and systematic barriers may prevent employees from feeling fully supported at work. To overcome such difficulties, organizations require managers who can address marginalization issues effectively as well as create policies, practices, and cultures founded upon respect, fairness, and equality.
Managers of diversity and inclusion oversee the implementation of their company’s diversity and inclusion policy, often by overseeing training programs, workshops, meetings for all employees of a particular business as well as offering guidance or assistance when employees encounter workplace-related challenges or concerns. It is an extremely specialized role which requires in-depth knowledge about discrimination and harassment as well as an ability to work effectively with all types of people.
Managers of diversity and inclusion typically possess expertise in human resources or organizational development and leadership, familiarity with equal employment opportunity laws, data analysis tools to inform their decisions as well as strong management skills allowing them to inspire other employees into championing diversity initiatives in the workplace.
Managers of diversity and inclusion possess skills that extend far beyond hiring diverse employees; their job also includes working closely with talent acquisition teams to make sure job advertisements use inclusive language that recruits from a broad pool of candidates.
Professional development opportunities for all employees is another essential element of an effective diversity and inclusion strategy. This may involve mentoring, coaching and training sessions to help employees hone their talents while understanding the significance of diversity within the workplace.
Workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion has become more essential than ever as companies compete for top talent. If you want to put your skills and passion for diversity to work in this vital area of business, Monster offers open positions across numerous industries that you could apply for today.