Doubling Down on DEI

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Just in time for Independence Day, June ended with a slap in the face: the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. A host of companies from Google to General Electric to JetBlue warned SCOTUS in a brief that such a decision could badly damage the “pipeline of highly qualified future workers and business leaders.” Nevertheless, here we are.

What this means for employers: We need to aim for resilience in terms of DEI the same way we aim for workforce resilience. How to do that? Double down. 

Don’t give up on your DEI policies, reaffirm them.

Don’t drop DEI from your core values and mission statement, acknowledge its prime importance.

Don’t let people question whether they have a place at the table, set it.

To build DEI resilience

Here's a short list of some strategies to access diverse talent despite the SCOTUS’s decision. (I’m counting on you to add your own in the comments, Buzz family):

Be vigilant

This isn’t the time to question if quashing a long-held and proven policy of affirmative action in higher ed will impact on your talent strategy. It already is. A narrower pipeline is a narrower pipeline, period. That has serious implications for your future.

The decision won’t bolster anyone’s effort to build a resilient workforce (there’s that r word again). The pace of ripple effects remains to be seen, but be vigilant. Get in front of this.

Tap into fundamentals

On buy-in, I’m interested in seeing how companies choose to underscore what we already know: that there’s a clear business case for a diverse workplace. I’d reach back to those legacy studies that have become HR policy cornerstones. For instance, here’s what McKinsey recently wrote in its 2015 study, "Diversity Matters":

“The moral case for workforce diversity was clear, but we found that it makes business sense too: top-quartile companies for racial and ethnic diversity were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians; companies in the top quartile for gender diversity, 15 percent.”

Consider skills-based hiring

To reach promising talent beyond the potential DEI desert of post-SCOTUS higher ed, follow the lead of a number of employers, such as Delta, Google, IBM, and Kellogg’s UK.

All have shifted to degree-free hiring, focusing on skills as a better basis for decisions — and I predict we’ll see more of that. Diversity, equity, and inclusion require a level playing field, and this is one way to make that happen when degrees are going to be harder to come by for traditionally disadvantaged groups. 

Hunt out systemic bias

The level playing field needs to stay level over the whole hiring process and the employee journey. That means finding out where systemic bias lurks in your approach to talent.

In a recent study of some 1200 U.S.-based employees, 67% of candidates said they were ghosted by an employer after their job interview. Historically underrepresented candidates face a nearly 25% higher chance of being ghosted. The same study found that an employer’s lack of commitment to DEI prompted 16% of employees to look for a new employer.

Those percentages are just too high to be random. If you want to make DEI a real priority — as it is for so many candidates, find the blind spots and fix them.   

Push back

Be sensitive to the shockwaves the SCOTUS decision may have on your managers, your teams, and the HR boots on the ground. Communicate sincere reminders that DEI matters in your organization and will continue to matter. 

Make it clear you’re committed to innovating solutions to this new problem — but the problem isn't DEI. That's an important distinction. Above all, this isn’t a time to take a wait and see attitude when so many futures are on the line. 

Help more

There are already plenty of obstacles facing students who don’t have traditional access to advantages. It’s time to offer more tools to help. Before this decision came down I’d decided to expand my own thought leadership to helping college students and new professionals better navigate the world of work. I want us to look for those silent geniuses (see the last Buzz for more on that). Now? We don’t have a choice.

Our time in the trenches has made us all resources of work-related wisdom. So here’s my question: How can we help the new generations not just in the workforce, but trying to get here? Let me know please.

Best,

—MMB

If you enjoyed this issue of The Buzz, check the #WorkTrends Podcast, at TalentCulture.com, where I talk with leading HR experts, innovators, and practitioners about key issues and opportunities we’re facing in the modern world of work.