The History and Growth of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): How far do we away to achieve the goal INTRODUCTION

The History and Growth of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): How far do we away to achieve the goal

INTRODUCTION

Everything happens in a context or background. The widespread expansion of the concept of DEI has not come at once. It is made through a gradual process and now e every country, Industry, and business has made it one of the necessities to be agile and sustainable.

The movements for social equity have become so frequent that its voices cannot remain unheard. It has left no option for Americans to do contemplating the social injustices that exist in their country. The analysis of these social issues has streamed to the professional world. Employees started deliberation on their discriminative feeling in the workplace, executives are struggling to improve their organizations' employment practices and culture. This has led to the rapid expansion of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. DEI, which was once seen as a sub-component under the human resources department, has now evolved into a core business function that large and small businesses alike have been aggressively investing in. Despite COVID-19’s effects on the U.S. economy, the number of DEI-related employment increased by 123% between May and September 2020. However, DEI’s explosive growth raises concerns: namely, sustainability of the industry and business.

HISTORY OF DEI PROGRAMS IN THE WORKPLACE

Although the limelight has been shone on DEI in the past decade, the DEI profession has been around for much longer than that. Workplace diversity training first emerged in the mid-1960s following the introduction of equal employment laws and affirmative action. Prior to this, many companies had known histories of racial discrimination. These new laws have driven companies to start diversity training programs that would help employees adjust to working in more integrated offices. Unfortunately, DEI training programs of the past have struggled to gain immense improvement.

One popular approach to DEI adopted by executives was outlining a list of workplace do’s and don'ts. Employees underwent mandatory training days where they sat through long workshops and filled out various personality and bias questionnaires. Unfortunately, these programs were largely ineffective at improving workplace diversity and harmony.  Reinforcing this conclusion, a 2019 Harvard Business Review experimental study found that bias-focused training particularly had little effect on the behavior of male or white employees — who typically hold the most power within an organization. Specifically, these mandatory training programs were sometimes poorly perceived by employees to be overly controlling. This forced some employees to rebel and skirt training rules, thereby making the DEI training somewhat counterproductive. Another common DEI strategy utilized by companies to fight bias was hiring tests. These hiring tests allowed managers to assess candidates based on their technical knowledge and qualifications instead of their socioeconomic or racial background. However, similar to how employees rejected force-fed workplace rules promoting diversity, many hiring managers disliked being told they couldn’t hire whomever they wanted. As a result, hiring tests were not enforced consistently across candidates from different backgrounds. Clearly, traditional diversity training methods have been negligible and ineffective. Change is long overdue.

INCENTIVES FOR CHANGE

As aforementioned, social pushes for societal reform played a large role in driving this change. Specifically, the recent boom in the DEI industry coincides with current social movements. There has been a significant increase in the creation of DEI jobs since the beginning of the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd in May [2020].” Given the disheartening increase in Asian American discrimination and attacks recently, it is likely that the DEI profession will continue to expand in the coming months. Besides societal expectations, firms also have a financial incentive to invest in improving diversity. Businesses that rank in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to have financial returns above industry medians. As such, investing in DEI programs is in the business’s best interests. Although diversity can bring value to the firm in many ways, it has a particularly positive impact on the following 4 aspects of organizational performance:

1.   Advantage in talent acquisition. A focus on racial, gender, and ethnic diversity significantly enlarges the sourcing talent pool. This mitigates the financial costs of talent shortages faced by many firms.

2.   Increased employee satisfaction. McKinsey research data has found that workplace diversity boosts career and personal satisfaction for women and members of minority groups. Similarly, employee satisfaction is unchanged at firms where DEI programs are a superficial “token” effort.

3.   Better alignment with the customer base. An emphasis on diversity allows firms to better align themselves with an increasingly heterogeneous and globalized customer base. This enables firms to improve customer relationships and strengthen their brand.

4.   Improved decision-making and corporate innovation. More workplace diversity equals more diverse solutions, ideas, and opinions.

THE BIRTH OF A NEW PROFESSION

 This was observed through the rapid increase in the hiring numbers of DEI professionals. Moreover, managerial attitudes towards DEI have also shifted positively. Instead of being perceived as a “chore” for the HR department, companies now see DEI as a key business function that creates value for all. Executives have also invested in DEI initiatives in nearly every aspect of their business, such as talent recruitment, community engagement, executive leadership composition, and data and metrics transparency. The addition of the “Chief Diversity Officer” position to many executive boards has further cemented the value that diversity brings to a business’s performance and reputation. Besides, there has also been an increase in consulting firms that specialize in DEI consulting and related services. Industry-leading consulting firms such as BCG and Deloitte offer specialized DEI strategy services and program support to their clients.

 DIVERSITY: BUILDING A CIVIL RIGHTS EDUCATION

Diversity education started in the 1960s as a mechanic to fight the remaining racial tensions among black, brown, and white people as a result of the civil rights movement, a multiracial coalition comprised of African Americans, Latinx and Chicano/Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. The expectation was that diversity education would attract silenced America. Through integrating diversity in American vernacular and curriculum, and signifying the long-lasting importance of diversity, marginalized Americans were lastly saying, “We’re here, get used to it.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission allowed for the creation of measures of success which effectively employers changed their hiring practices to include a greater diversity of candidates. Many companies begin to release diversity data on the composition of their workforce, a reflection of the EEOC’s stimulus on why diversity in organizations matters. Fortune's list of top companies to work for in 2018 began to take a sharper focus on diversity data as a leading indicator.  The B Corp Movement has adopted a similar Inclusive Economy approach. Diversity data denoted a way to communicate the racial composition of companies and industries but further spread to gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and other identifiers. The diversity offered companies the prospect to intensify new voices in management, modernize new products, and finally, raise their bottom line. This was a result of effective. Inclusion is not similar to “Diversity”.   Diversity is the act of forming a community consisting of people with varying backgrounds and creeds. While inclusion is finding a way of making sure that all of these people feel fully valued. Theoretically, the company culture is dismissive or exclusionary of the thoughts, struggles, and passions of employees from marginalized communities, the effort at making a diverse community might cause more damage.

  In Timothy Clark's The Four Stages of Psychological Safety, he describes that Inclusion Safety, or "species-based acceptance," is indeed the first and arguably most crucial stage to creating a community in which its members feel safe and valued. We are humans and must accept each other. Inclusion presents the idea that the value of humans should not be judged by what we can offer each other but rather by the idea that humans have inherent value simply by existing. If Diversity was a criticism dip, Inclusion was a bounce-pass. We need both to work in tandem to win. Diversity and Inclusion initiatives are bolstered by the addition of the concept of "Equity." Unlike equality, which focuses on providing equal resources regardless of context, equity focuses on the process of just and fair consideration because of someone's experience or specific social position. Equality is treating everyone the same, whereas equity is about achieving the same benefits, even if it means that everyone receives different, though still just and fair, treatment.  Equality is the result, but equity is the means to obtain equality. Really, all humans are not alike. We all have components of our identities like race or gender identity, and hidden, like mental health, dis/ability, or sexual orientation. Irrespective of our views, we have different backgrounds and hold multiple intersecting identities and biases that show up in our relationships and workplaces. Research also shows that higher levels of diversity lead to increased conflict and misunderstanding, often because we struggle with accepting and celebrating our differences. Inclusion doesn't mean that we can just pretend those differences don't exist. It means that we can acknowledge and use these differences to create a diverse, equitable, inclusive community. Thus, we arrive at the current incarnation of this essential tool that features an equal focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Diversity is the repetition of different voices in the conversation. Inclusion is uplifting, validating, and hearing each and every voice. Equity is the manner in which we strengthen voices.

 DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION LIGHTHOUSES 2023

 Leaders like to comprehend the required work to develop DEI. The success factors provided magnificent significant, quantifiable, scalable, and sustainable DEI impact. DEI is at an inflection point: companies and institutions have displayed positive intent and heightened discussion and activity, but the results slow progress. In 2020, the global market for DEI—that is, dollars spent by companies on DEI-related efforts such as employee resource groups (ERGs)—was assessed at $7.5 billion and is expected to double to $15.4 billion by 2026. If we deeply survey at the current rate, it will take 151 years ahead nearly the global economic gender gap at all levels. An alliance of the Global Parity Alliance and the WEF. The across-industry group committed to adopting began the DEI Lighthouse Program to realize an entity thrived in significant, quantifiable, scalable, and sustainable impact.  The ambition is to equip leaders with the best practices that will help focus DEI efforts on what works best, finally providing quicker, scalable growth across the global business community and covering ecosystems. The key success factors initiative that bears a big impact, real case examples of effective DEI initiatives in practice, and actions that employees can take at all levels of the entities to aid progress on DEI.

FIVE SUCCESS FACTORS WHICH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ARE COMMON AMONG DEI INITIATIVES

While the state of DEI efforts varies by company, industry, and geography, a growing number of management teams have recognized the importance of, and urgency behind, and taking action to make progress on DEI. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lighthouses 2023 Report identified five success factors common across the DEI initiatives that yielded the most significant, scalable, quantifiable, and sustained impact for underrepresented groups. The success factors are a nuanced understanding of the root causes; a meaningful definition of success; accountable and invested business leaders; a solution designed for its specific context; and rigorous tracking and course correction. The beacon initiatives were selected by an independent panel of DEI experts for exceeding a redecided point for significant, quantifiable, scalable, and sustained impact for understated groups.

1. Comprehending the root reasons

Selecting our company-specific DEI chance areas may help to inform the prioritization of efforts and investment, goal setting, and solution design. This process begins by analyzing relevant data and sources of insight to deeply understand the challenges and root causes most affected. This fact basically comprises employee feedback surveys and input from the target population found through focus groups and interviews. US retailer Walmart made an initiative to progress social mobility for employees through free education and upskilling. In steering a routine equity and accessibility assessment of their processes, Walmart found that its frontline workers, 39 percent of whom identify as Black or Hispanic/Latino, were not securing higher-paying roles at the company. Through a deeper retention diagnostic, Walmart understood that this was due to the skill sets or degrees required to rise internally, and the exorbitant time commitment and cost needed to obtain those skill sets. The initiative impact included a 20% higher rate of retention among program participants and an 87.5% likelihood of promotion for Black program participants versus nonparticipants.

2. Meaningful definition of success

After prioritizing defining success by setting clear, measurable, short and long-term goals, to guide the effort and assess effectiveness. Then, articulating a case for change—the rationale for why the organization is focusing on the effort and how it joins to the company’s values, mission, and business outcomes inspires employees to action. Energy company Schneider Electric developed a global-local pay equity framework (GPE) to close pay gaps in their organization, globally. In the first few years, their main objective was scaling the GPE across their entire global footprint (85 percent coverage by 2017 and 95 percent coverage by 2020). In 2021 they set a goal to ensure that the pay gap did not exceed 1 percent for all employees by 2025. An additional companywide objective was to achieve a 50/40/30 gender balance by 2025. Schneider Electric’s cases for change included to: allow all employees to be compensated fairly and equitably based on performance; breaking down all barriers impacting gender equity within the company; and to improve the organization’s competitive standing as an employer of choice and allowing the company to attract and retain more diverse talent. The initiative impact included: 99.6 percent of the workforce covered by the GPE framework by 2020 and a year-over-year improvement in the pay gap for women since the launch of the GPE initiative.

3. Accountable and invested business leaders

Deep commitment from executive management can help set initiatives up for success by signaling the importance of DEI and making sure initiatives have the right resources. The CEO and senior business leaders can support by setting the effort as a core business priority, being held accountable for outcomes and not just inputs or activities, role modeling and leading desired change, and allocating sufficient resources to the initiative—budget, expertise, and timeline.

Consumer cosmetics company Shiseido set out to accelerate gender parity at the board and executive management levels for women in the Japan office and in the local business community, through inclusive work policies, process redesign, upskilling, and community impact. This was a priority for senior leadership starting in 2014 when the CEO made DEI a key pillar of the company’s corporate strategy. Senior business leaders were held accountable for improving the ratio of women managers and leaders through a “social value indicator,” which factors into performance metrics and is tied to their compensation. The CEO also directly contributed to efforts including promoting the training program, coaching program participants, personally reviewing decisions on female candidates in the succession planning process, and serving as the inaugural chair of the Japan chapter of the “30% Club.” The initiative impact included: a ~24 percent increase in the ratio of women leaders from the beginning of 2017 to the beginning of 2022 and 44 percent of program participants promoted to vice president or director roles from 2017 to 2021.

4. Solutions designed for the context

Designing solutions to address the root causes of the problem, including making any needed changes to key processes and ways of working, can support effectiveness and sustainability. Setting the solution up for success also includes equipping employees with the knowledge and skills to support the desired change and encouraging their contributions. Steel manufacturer Tata Steel launched an initiative to improve intersectional gender diversity for employees by addressing key root causes, including stereotypes and lack of support structures, legal and geographic constraints, enduring consequences of historic marginalization, non-inclusive policies, and unsafe work practices. The multipronged solution included a variety of efforts such as upskilling, career support, job opportunity creation, and inclusive redesign of policies and work infrastructure. The impact included launching the first-ever transgender hiring program in India.

5. Rigorous tracking and course correction

Measuring progress against aspiration can help leaders monitor the solution’s effectiveness, adjust the approach to increase impact, as needed, and more accurately direct the use of company resources. HR consulting firm Randstad launched an initiative to support economic empowerment for at-risk women in the United States through upskilling and opportunity creation. The company tracked key performance indicators and participant feedback—including through one-on-one check-ins with participants at key stages of the program—to track participant completion rate and monitor program effectiveness. After the first year, Randstad added childcare and professional clothing to the program’s offerings after learning that participants needed these services to successfully complete the program and secure long-term employment. The impact included supporting 1,000 at-risk women, with 95 percent of apprenticeship graduates advancing into long-term job opportunities through the program.

Applying the key success factors to your DEI initiatives

Engagement at each level of the organization—from individual contributors on the front lines to the CEO and board of directors—can help make meaningful progress on DEI. A lifelong labor economist shares five steps for making better choices about money and love. The Berkeley Economics Department made an offer as an assistant professor. Fearing the complaint against Berkeley, Stanford decided to hire women in real positions also. Also got an offer from the business school at Stanford shortly after I got my offer from Berkeley. Later founded Stanford’s Center for Research on Women. We got a lot of support from the president and provost of the university, and the organization is still flourishing. It was endowed by Michelle Clayman, who studied in the business school and has been successful in her career in finance. It’s now called the Michelle Clayman Center for Gender Research.

What is your ‘5Cs’ framework for making decisions related to money and love?

The first C is clarified. The second C is communicated. The third is choices—consider a broad range of choices. The fourth is checking in with family, friends, and other resources, and the fifth is exploring the likely consequences of our decision.

First, clarify what we want. Clarify the goals we need to achieve.  Then, communicate about what we want the fact relevant to the decision. Communication between employer and employee can be difficult conversations about tough subjects, so listen. Some describe communication means talking, and part of communication is talking but this is equally important listening and being prepared to change our mind as a result of what we hear. In general, tread lightly. Don’t come in like a ton of bricks. Know that this is a tough time of change at work and in our family, so listen and be kind-spirited. Then, check in with other people about the decision. Broaden our horizons. Think more broadly about possible decisions or choices that we can make. Don’t just think in binary terms—yes or no—because maybe there’s something else. Finally, explore the consequences of our decision. Among these five, the most important is clarity.

 Why are marriage rates declining?

There are many reasons why marriage rates are declining, and also for different reasons among different segments of the population. People are getting married later than they used to, and that’s responsible for some of the decline. People are cohabiting rather than getting married. There are all kinds of reasons why people are not getting married, even though they’re together. There are issues about the economics of marriage that prevent people from getting married. Some people don’t want to get married until they are financially stable whatever that means to them and it’s become more difficult to become financially stable, especially for people who have low-wage jobs. Sometimes women don’t want to get married, because they can now earn enough on their own to support themselves, which was true for very few women in the past. Some women are happy to be single and enjoy other people’s company without being in a marriage. Now it’s even possible I mean socially acceptable—to have a child without being married. For people who want children but don’t necessarily want to be married, that’s an option for them now too.

In a certain way, if the second shift is about caring for family and the first shift is about doing work that earns income, women have been doing the second shift forever. Even in hunter-gatherer societies women are gathering and cared for children, and men are hunting but not caring for children so much. This came to be difficult when the site for women’s work was no longer the home—when women had to leave the home in order to work. Then, there really is a second shift because the woman is out of the house for part of the day and then comes back and is involved with childcare, caring for the home, buying food, cooking food, and more. That’s all for the second shift. Now, even with more women working at home, there is still a second shift because the work that most women are doing at home doesn’t allow us to be caring for children or elders at the same time.

What has or hasn’t changed for working women since you entered the workforce?

We are surprised that although so many things have changed, there are others that have not changed. There is still the assumption that mothers are going to be responsible for their children’s healthcare; the assumption in schools that if your child is having a problem to call the mother to discuss it; the assumption by older family members that in couples the man is going to provide the income, and the wife is going to provide the home care. In many situations, these things have changed, but in so many, they haven’t with regard to people’s expectations and with regard to how institutions think about this. Nobody would say to a young woman now might think it, and they might act on it in a quieter way. We still have to change people’s thinking about this.

What individual actions can people take to bring about systemic change?

The Gap Foundation is very important, as the Center for Research on Women. The first step is to find allies. A group at the Gap Foundation for people who were concerned about parenthood benefits, and changed some of the requirements at the Gap Foundation for parents. A concept, which is very relevant here, of a tempered radical: somebody who works within the system to change the system—not an outside agitator, but a loyal employee who works with other loyal employees in a quiet but effective way to change whatever needs changing. Abby did that at the Gap Foundation, and I did that at Stanford. The stories in our book contain other people who changed the culture and the institutions at their workplaces. It’s very important to realize that we’re not a prisoner of the system and that we can work with others in an effective way to change it.

If we are a manager, avoid assumptions about what the people who work for us like to do. Ask them. We are in a time of change. Let ourselves be surprised. Ask our employees questions about what they would like and see what they say to us. It was originally called Women and Work, at the advice of some intrepid men “Work and Family”. The moral of the story is if we are a manager, don’t make assumptions about what the people who work for us want to do. Ask them. We are in a time of change. Let ourselves be surprised. Ask our employees questions about what they would like and see what they say to us.

What does an equitable division of labor in relationships look like?

There is anyone division of labor that we would call equitable. People need to discuss with one another, long before they get married or decide to live together, what they think is an equitable distribution of labor in the home. If we can’t come to terms with this issue with the person whom we are thinking of living with or marrying, how to divide the work is a major issue in marriages. It depends on the kinds of jobs each of us has, the kinds of preferences each of us have, where we want to live, and how complicated our lives are.

Looking from the outside and saying that something is or is not equitable, We can ask the two people involved and get a sense very quickly about whether they think it’s equitable or not. However, we can’t plan everything in advance. An old saying: “Man plans and God laughs.” Nonetheless, some planning is required. In this case, concerning the distribution of household labor, we can talk about this very intelligently early on and get a sense of if the person that we are interested in is on our wavelength or not. We might look at a couple and say, “This distribution is not equitable. But they may see it as equitable, or they may have plans to change it at some given point. We can’t look from the outside and say that something is or is not equitable, but we can ask the two people involved and get a sense very quickly about whether they think it’s equitable or not.

As average life expectancy rises to one hundred years old, how might the institutions of work and marriage be affected?

We have to think about retirement in a different way, and we have to rethink work and family altogether. If we’re going to be working until let’s say, 85, maybe we can take some years out in our 30s to raise our children full-time. Maybe that will become the model, and we’ll have to figure out how to finance that. This is an opportunity to rethink a lot of our ideas about how to combine work and family.

 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lighthouses 2023

 The Global Parity Alliance—a cross-industry group committed to advancing DEI—launched the DEI Lighthouse Program to identify initiatives that have resulted in significant, quantifiable, scalable, and sustainable impact and surface what those initiatives have in common. The ambition is that equipping leaders with these best practices will help focus DEI efforts on what works best, ultimately contributing to faster, scalable progress across the global business community and surrounding ecosystems. This work includes key success factors common across initiatives that yielded significant impact, real-case examples of effective DEI initiatives in practice, and actions that employees can take at each level of the organization to support progress on DEI.

 CONCLUSION

Now globally people have started the value of a cohesive, cooperative, and collaborative society. Therefore, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion now become a new goals to be achieved at each sector.