How is your grasp on the core competencies of Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion?

In the wake of Black Lives Matter and COVID-19’s disparaging effects on Black and other communities of color, your firm is revisiting its philosophy on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), or at least, it should be. Now is the time to scrap everything you thought you knew about it and re-build a more intuitive and comprehensive platform. Honestly, ask yourself if you have a real grasp on the core competencies of EDI?

 Janet Stovall, Executive Director of Communications at UPS, believes that EDI should be addressed with “real problems, real numbers, and real consequences”. As one of the very few Black professionals in her field, Stovall teamed up with TED to enlighten corporate leaders and share expertise that not only challenged her predominantly white alma mater on these grounds but one of the largest corporations across the globe, UPS.  Her devout work to eradicate racism proves results are actualized only when your firm interrogates itself, measures shortcomings, and severs employment when these deliverables are unmet by any employee.

Echoing the sentiments of Stovall and her overarching philosophy of EDI is executive leadership coach and founder of 11:11 , Paloma Medina. Through an unconventional lens that highlights the lazy rhetoric often used in conversations about diversity, Medina succinctly transfers the end-goal of these initiatives from that of “diversity” to “equity”. While corporations are notorious for distinguishing terms like “diversity committees” or “inclusion champions”, these talking points do not explicitly carve out space for equal recruitment, equal pay, and unassimilated walks of life to be housed in work culture. However, when equity is the baseline for all initiatives we can make a way for these things to happen. Again, interrogate your firm. Is it actively working to deliver on these core EDI principles across the entire operation?

To assist the internal assessments of your EDI platform and a possible rebuild, we’ve mapped the below core competencies to reference.

EQUALITY

When you hear the word “equality”, think in terms of “opportunities” and “compensation”. How does the firm measure up when answering the following questions?

Opportunities

• Is our talent force balanced in terms of race?— It is important to verbalize this answer and understand why.

• Do we source talent from institutions motivated by race other than those predominantly white? —This will require an intentional and in-depth assessment of your talent pool(s).

• Do we equally screen talent, with respect to race, at all access points in our recruitment pipeline?

• Can we also satisfy the above questions substituting “race” for: “gender”, “orientation”, and “religious affiliation”?

Compensation

• Are there varying rates of pay for employees in the same position?  

• Across executive and senior leadership, what does talent penetration look like? Where are we top heavy? Why are we top heavy? How do we fix it? Where should we be?

DIVERSITY

Your EDI metrics will live here. The penetrations of your workforce will outline where you can improve, and they help to benchmark achievements. These numbers will inform your commitment however, they cannot measure your total impact. The impact can only be measured in terms of equality (opportunities and compensation) and inclusion. How does your firm measure up when answering the following questions?

• Is our workforce reflective of the communities we serve?

• Are these reflections and penetrations evident across every level of employment?

• Are we genuinely activated to progressively reach a workforce penetration that is 50% white and 50% people of color?  If not, then why?

 INCLUSION

This is the working culture you create, foster, and interrogate to improve for generations to come. How does your firm measure up when answering the following questions? 

• Are minority talent sequestered in our decision-making processes?

• Are people of color in positions of power?

• Do we have a sign-off strategy for decision making to ensure the input from minority talent is included, activated, and supported?

• Are we regularly and intently educating ourselves on culture(s) in our minority talent force?

• Do we provide access to spaces and resources that foster this education and synergy across our operation?