the transformation of - wiley beyond dei ebook.pdf · 2020. 12. 7. · the diverse talent needed to...

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CORPORATE DIVERSITYAn expert’s guide on the intersection of education and DE&I

123

The demand for increased corporate social responsibility

The opportunity for today’s diversity leaders

Rethinking your diversity strategy

456

Solving the skills-diversity disconnect

The diverse management gap

The transformation of corporate diversity strategies

789

Continuing education and your equity strategy

Top take-aways

Education, Wiley Beyond, and your DE&I plan

Contents

1The demand for

increased corporate social responsibility

1 The demand for increased corporate social responsibility

Societal consciousness around diversity and justice as it concerns race, not to mention gender identity, neurodiversity, and more, has reached a long overdue point of no return. Companies that react to this movement as a mere trend are falling ever further behind the curve, yet wonder why they can’t seem to hold onto diverse staff.

By contrast, others are standing out from the crowd, gaining trust and more market foothold. Their secret? They are proactively investing in long-term strategies that correct systemic inequities for individuals of various, historically disenfranchised backgrounds internally.

As such, corporate Diversity leaders need to consider how to be part of this cultural shift. They need to honestly and authentically forward their existing strategies to better attract and retain the diverse talent needed to innovate and succeed in an ever-evolving market.

This long-overdue societal change leads to a number of questions about how companies can transform their strategic diversity plans to drive business value, some of which we’ll address in this eBook, including:

• How can you embrace the cultural current to support your long-term diversity strategy?

• How do you generate buy-in to implement changes to your diversity strategy?

• What actions can you take to attract and retain diverse talent?

• How can continued education advance your diversity strategy and your diverse staff?

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CORPORATE DIVERSITYCORPORATE DIVERSITY2

“We need to shift from thinking of D&I as a burden on companies to asking, what does this unleash and unlock?”

—R/GA

“Instead of trying to change some people to fit the organization, we

must focus on transforming our organizations to fit all people. “

—HBR

2The opportunity for

today’s diversity leaders

In the early days of corporate Diversity & Inclusion efforts, companies were still thinking in terms of employee assimilation rather than company cultural transformation. But with developments in the social and business sphere, corporate diversity leaders have more measurable reasons to advance their company’s diversity programs.

Powered by the social justice wave

The topic of diversity and justice for Black lives has become about as hard to ignore as the pandemic that hit the United States in early 2020. Global protests for Black lives and outrage at systemic (including corporate) racism via social media channels have been on the rise.

While 2020 showed a heightened demand for corporate social responsibility, already in 2017 one U.S. study found from consumers:

These results call to mind a certain fast food company whose funding of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives has been strongly countered by robust community activism.

want organizations to focus on social justice issues

will not buy from a company that opposes issues they care about

will buy from a company that supports issues they care about

78% 76% 87%

2 The opportunity for today’s diversity leaders


2 The opportunity for today’s diversity leaders

Solutions that help diverse talent help everyone

Corporate diversity leaders often find resistance and lack of funding when stakeholders view their initiatives as benefitting a small, seemingly forgettable few. However, the value corporate diversity programs can bring to the table overlap with general corporate improvement and employee satisfaction.

According to an analysis of Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work 2016, the companies where employees are happiest have 2 factors in common:

Another study showed that diversity turnover correlates directly with general turnover, with 84% of surveyed executives acknowledging this fact.

This wouldn’t surprise social justice advocates on the front lines. This mirrors exactly their argument that uplifting the most vulnerable uplifts everyone else in turn.

Accordingly, DE&I business leaders can make the case more easily than ever that their programs aren’t just good for some, they are ultimately good for all.

86% of staff report receiving “special and unique benefits”

While there was still work to be done in diversifying leadership, these companies have demonstrated a commitment to attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse staff.

• Competitive pay and benefits

• Doing a good job at Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Advanced diversity strategies benchmark more than just race and include:

Age/Generational diversity

Country of Origin/Ethnicity

Disability (both visible and invisible)

Gender identity (cis- & transgender, two-spirit etc.)

Neurodiversity

Sexual orientation


“[Your] Diversity & inclusion strategy needs to be baked into the overall enterprise strategy

with clear goals, objectives, metrics and accountability.”

—WittKiefer

3Rethinking your

diversity strategy

As today’s cultural shift has made apparent, long gone are the days when companies could skate by on quick, “fix it” solutions to their diversity problems.

Companies with unadvanced strategies focus too heavily on performative measures and lack demonstrated commitment to internal change. In this case, efforts to diversify end — often unsuccessfully — at talent acquisition.

In order to successfully attract — let alone retain — vitally necessary, diverse talent, organizations must develop a truly comprehensive plan. This plan needs to purvey all dimensions of the organization and go far deeper than a candidate’s hiring experience. A compelling employee value proposition must inform their actual working experience and how that working experience folds into and impacts their entire lives.

Organizations with a more sophisticated understanding work on a number of key initiatives to enhance diverse employees’ wellbeing and retention

Employee resource groups

When people of historically disenfranchised backgrounds don’t see themselves throughout a company or notice others advocating for them, isolation sets in. It is important to employees’ mental health, productivity, and creativity to see others who look like them and to have safe spaces just for them. It is also beneficial to create opportunities for proven allies to support as well.

What is more, ERGs need to become more intersectional than before. When it comes to groups for LGBTQ employees, these have disproportionately represented gay, White men. Consider that only 7% of LGBTQ professionals 55 and over are non-White compared to 53% of workers ages 18-24, or that 54% of LGBTQ employees identify as women.

Signs of Underdeveloped Diversity Strategies

Expecting the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) to fix everything

The Chief Diversity Officer reports to HR, not the CEO

Little company-wide dialogue about diversity, racism, bias etc.

Strategies that focus on diversity in hiring alone

Weak buy-in and budgeting for strategic diversity initiatives

Diversity awareness limited to women and Black professionals

Expecting diverse employees to assimilate to company culture rather than transforming culture to include them

More allies than before

The likelihood of straight professionals under 35 to take part in ally groups compared to previous generations

3.6x

3 Rethinking your diversity strategy


Black professionals see obstacles to Black advancement that are invisible to White professionals

By race, employees who think Black individuals must work harder to move up in their careers*


Pay gaps

Paying people well for what they do well is not only an acknowledgement of accomplishment. When companies pay people of historically marginalized groups equal to their more privileged counterparts, it sends a clear signal that they are in fact viewed as personally valuable and equal. Companies need to make sure diverse employees are equitably paid at or near the top of their pay scales upon hiring and throughout their careers.

Sponsorship

Diverse employees require sponsorship and mentorship from more senior staff just as much, if not more than, everyone else. More privileged employees are more likely to automatically receive mentorship and guidance. Organizations need to ensure their staff of various backgrounds receive this same attention.

Ideally, there are diverse senior staff who identify with and can mentor junior ones. Where racial diversity is not present on various levels, for instance, companies need to be even more deliberate about mentorship and subsequent job satisfaction.

And while managerial seniority doesn’t always correlate with age, the need for teams of diverse ages should be prioritized specifically. According to one study, 85% of employees surveyed felt that diversity of age was key to their team’s ability to innovation.

Glass ceiling

Wanting to advance but receiving neither proper opportunity to upskill nor appreciation when they do, historically underserved staff usually find themselves up against a glass ceiling. Ensuring you have a solid strategy for building your employees’ skills and rewarding them with career advancement shows that your organization is invested in who they are and what they have to offer.

Black (59% men vs. 69% women)

White (15% men vs. 16% women)

65% 16%


Top 3 reasons senior-level women leave for other jobs

Increased pay

Chance to learn new skills

Opportunity for advancement

42%

35%

33%


Personal benefits programs

Regardless of demographics, benefits programs should improve employees’ lives on all levels. Reducing friction in their personal lives means reducing friction in productivity. Staff of historically marginalized groups encounter much more friction navigating the world than do their more privileged counterparts.

For instance, working parents find themselves struggling with work-life balance and in need of more employer support, but due to implicit gender and racial bias, women of color are even likelier to suffer. When companies strategically select benefits programs that prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable, all staff benefit.

Career benefits programs

Businesses should be investing in career benefits as well, such as employee-sponsored education, which paves the way to advancement and, in turn, provides companies with much-needed skill sets to stay competitive. While companies need to back up the incentive to learn with clearly delineated and implemented advancement plans, such benefits are directly and mutually beneficial.

When companies continue to treat women and minority employees as just another box to be checked, morale of diverse employees dwindles. They are vulnerable to being poached by recruiters or making concerted plans to leave. Not only do such individuals becomes flight risks – potentially exposing an organization’s culture of continued bias and disenfranchisement – companies also risk losing the talent they’ve spent precious time, money, and resources recruiting.


“Products and services often reflect their creators, and you can usually tell, consciously or subconsciously, by looking at the product or service

or using it, whether the creators were like you.”

—Fast Company

4Solving the

skills-diversity disconnect

”When people are reflected in your mission, vision, product, and marketing, they sense that they were the target user or that this was something that was built with them in mind. Your goal in product inclusion is to enable as diverse a consumer base as possible to see their reflection in your company, your products, and your marketing.”

—Fast Company

4 Solving the skills-diversity disconnect


Fulfilling your diversity goals is more than just about checking boxes. It’s about cultivating diversity on a system level, which means attracting and retaining people of all kinds in all departments, with numerous and complementary skills.

Companies that lack refined diversity strategies often lament that there simply isn’t enough diverse talent from which to choose, rhetoric which has publicly landed companies in hot water and weakened brand trust.

Such hiring managers are thinking too small and too conventionally. Not only are they failing to recruit outside of their usual networks, they are also failing to see the whole value a candidate has to offer. Hiring managers must instead consider:

• Does the candidate bring identities/life experience that lacks representation on my team?

• Which transferrable skills does the candidate offer?

• Which skills can be learned on the job and/or through company-sponsored educational development?

Hiring managers will need to think carefully before passing diverse professionals by for an otherwise more “traditional” candidate that “just fits” the team. Because increased innovation is one of the main benefits diverse employees create for their employers, team leaders themselves need to think more creatively about which skills and experience can be most valuable to the team.


As such, the case for hiring talent whose lived experience or innate skills your company cannot teach is enormous. Consider prioritizing the hire of individuals whose identities and life experience represent the diversity of your target market, but whom are unrepresented on your team.

As intended users, we can always tell when a product meant for us is designed by people like us. The simple similarity of life experience and identity are hard to fabricate by someone who does not also have those same needs or experiences. Cisgender women, for instance, can always tell when products intended specifically for women are marketed, designed, or otherwise led by cisgender men. The target consumer just knows. Something just doesn’t sit right, whether in presentation or function.

Now, think of the same scenario but with cis- and transgender women. Transgender women are reminded daily that many products and services marketed toward “all women” were not made by them or designed with them in mind. Conversely, certain products or services, especially those that concern reproductive health, may not appeal or apply to trans women but instead to trans men.

Hire more for the experience you can’t cultivate

While skills and systems can be learned through employer-sponsored education, the life experience and inborn skills of people from historically underrepresented backgrounds cannot be trained. As such, companies need to place more value on the unteachable, lived experience of minority professionals when deciding whom to hire.

Autistic individuals may have innate, high-impact skills

High rote memory

Extreme focus

Advanced innovation

Attention to detail

Honesty and loyalty

”The biggest problem is that the job interview process is so focused on socialization and communication skills, which puts many adults with autism at a disadvantage.”

—Market Watch



Don’t just hire for who people are today. Hire for who people can be tomorrow.

The value of prioritizing the life experience of historically marginalized professionals by investing in their careers should not be underestimated. When you include more people and level the playing field, you are setting your business up for long-term competitiveness.

Autistic employees can be more productive than others with proper accommodations

“Our autistic employees achieve, on average, 48% to 140% more work than their typical colleagues, depending on the roles” —ED for Autism at Work at JPMorgan Chase


“Creating growth and development opportunities for diverse talent to thrive will be

instrumental in retaining diverse talent, which will in effect impact

diverse recruitment.” —Forbes

5The diverse

management gap

“There are not many senior leaders that look like me. So how am I going to get to that level, how is there a path for me?” —Black Millennial Man

The above experience was expressed in a recent study conducted by The Center for Talent Innovation, but this person’s experience is far from unique.

According to that same study, 19% of Black respondents (23% men, 16% women) reported feeling that someone of their race or ethnicity would never achieve a high-level position compared to only 3% of White respondents.

Forbes also reports that “One of the primary reasons why Black talent leaves an organization is a lack of growth opportunities and inaccessibility to those in leadership positions.”

Whether in terms of race, sexual orientation, gender identity or beyond, when organizations first start implementing diversity strategies, there is virtually always a seniority gap. Oftentimes the only top leader of less privileged identities is the Chief Diversity Officer. By contrast, the company may overall show promising diversity numbers when in reality these employees are only working in low wage, consumer-facing roles.

Traction but deep room for improvement

CEO of Land O’Lakes, Beth Ford becomes the 1st openly gay woman to run a fortune 500

Only 0.3% of Fortune 500 board members are openly out as LGBTQ+

2018

2020

” In the United States, there is a linear relationship between racial and ethnic diversity and better financial performance: for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on the senior-executive team, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rise 0.8 percent.”

—McKinsey

5 The diverse management gap


5 The diverse management gap

As organizations develop and implement more sophisticated plans, they first need to hire diverse middle and senior management outright. In addition to redefining what experience is most valuable to the team, companies will also need to change up their recruiting pools. Experienced and qualified individuals of numerous backgrounds are out there, but recruiters may need to take a different approach to find them.

Concurrently, companies can begin to develop educational pathways for entry-level staff to join the team. In this case, companies will want to consider such options as:

Showing up-and-coming professionals very real and attainable opportunities can win them over early, creating dedicated brand advocates and long-term company innovators.

At the same time, other minority professionals you need may be harder to identify and recruit because they don’t openly self-identify. For instance, individuals with invisible disabilities or who are LGBTQ+ may only disclose their identity if and when they feel safe to do so, which may be never. As a result, companies need to be even more proactive and upfront about their DE&I stance in order to better attract diverse talent.

Indeed, all of these methods for fleshing out your staff are best used in tandem as they are mutually beneficial. Whether hiring early- or mid-career, laying out a clear course for advancement supported by pay parity, mentorship, and an intelligent upskilling program will be necessary for long-term company health.

Some diverse individuals never self-identify

Of LGBTQ+ professionals:

Among white collar employees with a college degree

• building a talent pipeline with universities

• enabling paid internship/fellowship programs

• establishing mentorship programs

• outlines for future employee-sponsored re-education

have a disability

not out at work

disclose their disability to their employer

wish they could be out at work

not out to clients and customers

have had at least 1 negative interaction in the last year

have had 10+ negative interactions in the last year

30%

40%

3.2%

26% 54%

75% 41%


“Achieving racial equity in the workplace will be one of the most important issues that companies will tackle in the coming decade.”

—HBR

6The transformation

of corporate diversity strategies

Achieving racial equity is just the beginning. As we’ve seen, it’s not enough to simply hire diverse talent to fill your company’s ranks. And it’s not enough to just make people feel like they belong. You may spend considerable time up front simply recruiting and creating safe, inclusive spaces, but without a truly comprehensive plan that aims not only to attract but to cultivate and improve the lives of the people you need, your dollars will only go so far.

Companies ultimately need to think about more than Diversity. They even need to think past Inclusion or Belonging. They need to commit to the kind of transformation that builds Equity.

Diversity & Inclusion provide the baseline

What does an Equity- not just Diversity or Inclusion-driven strategy look like?

The diagram shown here illustrates that companies will initially set the groundwork by working on Diversity. They hire a CDO who reports directly to the CEO with whom they work in concert. From there, the CDO & CEO provide the thought leadership around DE&I and hire diverse staff in all departments and at all levels.

Diversity• focusing on more than just race • hiring diverse candidates at all levels, in all departments • ongoing discussions about diversity, bias, and inclusion • CDO & CEO lead together

Inclusion• mentorship programs • ally groups • employee resource groups

Equity• educational benefits • career advancement plans • personal benefits • pay parity

6 The transformation of corporate diversity strategies

Diversity encompasses the full range of how people identify, and what makes each person unique.

Inclusion is the organization’s behavior—recognizing, valuing, and leveraging diversity so individuals can contribute fully to the success of shared goals.

Equity is about action and accountability, ensuring that everyone has equal access to the same opportunities.

—R/GA

Foundational layers of programs for a comprehensive, equity-driven DE&I strategy


After that, the journey continues with Inclusion. At this stage, the company has a more open culture that addresses the tough issues of bias and prejudice. Everyone feels a baseline of safety and acceptance having these dialogues. Employees of disenfranchised backgrounds enjoy a sense of community working alongside and in employee resource groups. They also begin to have mentors who can help guide their career journeys.

Equity makes a complete strategy

The Diversity and Inclusion stages set the stage for the greatest goal: an advanced, Equity-driven strategy.

In the Equity stage, companies focus on ensuring diverse employees aren’t just represented or included, but are recognized and elevated in position, power, and pay.

In fact, without an Equity-first approach, Diversity & Inclusion efforts will ultimately go wrong. Without a comprehensive employee value proposition aimed at Diverse employees that Includes them and drives organizational Equity, the initial Diversity plan will already have failed.

To be successful and achieve the greatest ROI, employers must develop Strategic Equity Plans.

Need for categorical Inclusion

disability

age/generation

neurodiversity (as separate from disability)

DE&I strategies have historically centered on women and Black professionals. Only a small percentage of top companies include other groups in their plans:

4%

8%

18%



When organizations lead their employee value proposition with an Equity-driven approach they:

Actively providing a career advancement roadmap with mentorship and educational development baked in leads to greater influence and compensation. This establishes the virtuous cycle of career satisfaction needed to keep them committed for the long-run.

• ensure that employees are paid near or at the top of their pay bands for their positions

from the time of hiring

• receive structured mentorship and purposeful access to senior leadership

• are given meaningful opportunities to upskill and advance through employer-sponsored

educational benefits


7Continuing

education and your equity strategy

Workplace education is a broad term that applies to the development of career-building skills within your organization. It refers to the acquisition of both hard and soft skills through formal learning and workplace training.

Education for diverse recruitment

Like all areas in life, historically underrepresented people are not automatically given the same resources and privileges as others, and may appear to have skill or educational gaps at an intrinsically biased first glance. When companies continue to hire the same, more privileged people who seem to check all the usual boxes, you further cement systemic inequity and lose the very chance to innovate that you want to create.

Critical to this topic is continuing education. Workplace-sponsored education is one of the foundational benefits that your diverse talent wants to advance their careers and you need to drive your business Objectives and Key Results.

In one study by Fractl, 44% of individuals reported tuition assistance ranked in the top factors when deciding to take a job. Furthermore, 14% of men and 16% of women would take this benefit into “heavy consideration” when accepting a job offer.

7 Continuing education and your equity strategy



Continuing education is also one of the top reasons employees stay with their organizations. Another study showed that a whopping 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if they saw a demonstrated commitment to their educational development.

One study on skills development within the tech industry found that professionals spend an average of 7 hours per week on learning, most of which is not employee-sponsored. As such, companies have an opportunity to either implement or improve their current upskilling program.

Education for diverse retention

The importance of education becomes even more stark when considering how it intersects with the lives of historically disenfranchises peoples. According to the Urban Institute in 2013, 42% of Black families had student loans, compared to 28% of White families.

And yet the debt Black people take on to launch and improve their careers continues to do them a disservice. Another study found the unemployment rate for Black college graduates was more than double the average for all graduates, regardless of race (12.4 % vs. 5.6 %).

Given that Black individuals are more likely to take on student loan debt, which is harder for them to repay than their peers, companies who want to improve innovation through strategic DE&I efforts have a clear path to success:

Provide education as a key benefit in your employee value proposition to boost employee satisfaction, propel innovation, fortify your Equity strategy, and achieve a robust ROI.

Cigna – the health services organization – saw a 129% return on investment on their tuition assistance program, based on reduced turnover and cost savings from internal promotions alone. This figure doesn’t include the benefits from increased performance and application of new skills, which is harder to measure but no less impactful.

Autistic individuals also face extreme inequities

unemployment rate of autistic college grads85%



Joining forces: Where DE&I and L&D meet.

Although strategic diversity initiatives are gaining more and more focus and buy-in, the resources provided to corporate diversity leaders may still lag behind other departments. Whereas 47% of diversity leaders reported having the resources they need to carry out their programs, 83% of L&D professionals reported that buy-in for their programs wasn’t an issue.

Because of their overlapping goals, diversity leaders have a unique opportunity to partner with their peers in learning and development. By joining forces, DE&I leaders have even more justification to make upskilling a pinnacle of their strategies, and Learning & Development (L&D) leaders have precedent to develop even more compelling and transformative educational development strategies that better serve all staff.

Boost employee longevity

Sustain/increase employee happiness and loyalty

Keep employees’ skills up-to-date for developing business needs

Appeal to prospective talent

Sustain/increase creativity/innovation

Sustain/increase productivity

52% 43% 41% 27% 14% 14%

According to SHRM, reasons companies create and maintain educational benefits programs:


“Organizations must commit to sustained steps over time, to demonstrate they are

making a multi-faceted and long-term investment in the culture — if for no other

reason than to honor the vulnerability that staff members bring to the process.”

—HBR

8Top take-aways

This time in history represents a critical window of opportunity: either lead societal change from the inside out or simply follow its course. The businesses who step up will:

• drive markets, not be subject to them

• lead societal and product innovation

• inspire brand trust • compound their income

As such, becoming a thought leader in the DE&I arena requires much more than simply finding diverse, innovation-driving talent or even making them feel included. People need to be appreciated, influential, and “on purpose”.

Attracting and including the people you need to stay competitive and innovative means crafting a strategy that prioritizes Equity and involves more than just race and gender, including ability, age, sexual orientation, and more.

Diversity is being invited to the party.

Inclusion is being asked to dance.

Equity is planning the party from the beginning.

8 Top take-aways


8 Top take-aways

The Key to Your Equity-Driven Employee Value Proposition

In review, investing in your talent for Equity means implementing a number of things, all of which require a comprehensive workplace plan:

Map for career advancement Make sure your people can see a clear future with your organization. Build this vision during hiring and implement it once hired.

Prioritize what you can’t teach more Hiring diverse talent for innovation means innovating your hiring approach.

Concerted mentorship Make sure your lower- to mid-level people have senior mentors who can guide them to greater and greater success.

Ensuring pay parity Pay parity should be delivered upon the time of hiring and advanced throughout an employee’s career.

Continuing education Offering education as a benefit elevates your company’s positioning to prospective talent of all demographics. When you prioritize continuing education for your staff from historically underserved populations, your whole team reaps the benefits.

All Roads Lead to Education

Continuing education as a benefit makes all of the above possible. Working in tandem with L&D to spearhead your efforts will make your strategy even more compelling and help generate the buy-in you need to implement your plan.


9Education, Wiley

Beyond, and your DE&I plan

“It’s no longer enough to just stand with the Black community, in this case. It’s important for us to take action. “ —Chuck Robbins

At Wiley Beyond, we partner with forward-thinking enterprises to increase talent mobility through transformative education.

We go beyond benefits to help you make education and learning part of your employee value proposition, aligning talent strategy with business strategy.

Wiley Beyond empowers corporations and individuals to achieve their goals by staying innovative and competitive. We are helping companies who understand that Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Belonging is foundational to their business strategy to acquire and retain top talent, assess their employees’ skill sets, and implement educational programs in order to transform company cultures and deliver exceptional business value.

Diverse talent has always been ready to be recognized, cultivated, and elevated. The time is ripe for your organization to lead the path forward. Are you ready?

Wiley Beyond is here to help.

Find out more at wileybeyond.com.


9 Education, Wiley Beyond, and your DE&I Plan

the transformation of - wiley beyond dei ebook.pdf · 2020. 12. 7. · the diverse talent needed to...

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