What Do Chief Diversity Officers Do?

The chief diversity officer is a C-suite position that has the unique responsibility of holding other chief officers and the entire company accountable for diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) efforts. This professional ensures that a company has an intentional and diverse representation while hiring, elevating, retaining, and promoting internal talent through processes, systems and data.

By Helen Harris

Think of the leadership team within your company. What immediately comes to mind? 

CEO, CFO, COO and CIO are probably a handful that start your list. 

While these positions are no doubt important, another critical position within many organizations today is the chief diversity officer. 

A diversity officer, as defined by Forbes, ensures that an organization's culture values diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). This person is accountable for compliance, advocacy and the education of the company and uses interpersonal skills to promote collaboration among multiple business units. Additionally, the chief diversity officer is in place to make sure strategic goals, company policies, and laws surrounding DEI are being followed and carried out and creates an action plan for change if they are not. 

When you think of diversity officers, you may initially think of big companies with thousands of employees, but this leadership position is for companies of all sizes — a point that Dana Leavy-Detrick, executive resume writer, personal brand strategist and career consultant at Brooklyn resume studio/Canna Career Partners clarifies. 

“I think a lot of times the position of chief diversity officer springs from a cultural aspect,” said Leavy-Detrick. “It's [any company] that wants to change the way it operates, that wants to be more inclusive, and ultimately, has the end goal of operating more fairly.” 

Who Is a Chief Diversity Officer? 

The goals of a chief diversity officer (CDO) are admirable — and needed — in a world filled with inequities and racial and social injustice. And Forbes points out that the earth will continue to spin our population into an evermore diverse existence, making the need for tolerance, understanding, diversity, equity, inclusion and equal opportunity all the more critical in today’s workplaces.  

People of two or more races are projected to grow by 200 percent by 2060. The foreign-born population is expected to grow from 44 million people in 2016 to 69 million in 2060.

Companies are starkly aware that inequities cannot continue to exist and have already taken action to make DEI a part of their mission by hiring a chief of diversity. Additionally, and according to Deloitte, the majority of organizations cite diversity and inclusion as vital to improvement.

Here are just a few of the big-name companies that have a diversity officer:  

• Walmart
• Gucci
• Zoom
• Grammy Awards
• Google 
• HP
• Twitter
• American Express
• Hootsuite
• Facebook
• Nike
• Etsy
• LinkedIn
• Wayfair

Consider the following information from a 2020 ZoomInfo report:

• The number of executives with diversity and inclusion titles has more than doubled over the past five years.
• 39% of Fortune 500 companies had a diversity executive with a title of director or higher in Q1 in 2020. 
• Out of 60 million professionals, there were approximately 2,250 roles with “diversity” or “inclusivity” in the title in 2019, compared to 876 in 2014. Before 2010, fewer than 500 companies had employees with “diversity” or “inclusivity” in their titles.
• “All things considered, the progress made within corporate America may be happening at a pace that’s slower than ideal, but it is happening,” reported ZoomInfo. “As history has shown, the more momentum a movement gains in our social spheres, the more likely it is for our professional ones to follow suit.”

So, who exactly are these CDOs that are blazing the way for DEI? 

“I believe that the people that tend to do very well in these roles have a very strong foundation of community building, diversity, inclusion, social justice, education, sociology, history and diversity and recruiting, too,” said Daniela Herrera, equity, diversity and inclusion Professional, Mogul's Top 100 DEI Leaders in 2021 and keynote speaker. “And especially those people that already have experience working with either multicultural or global teams — or maybe people that have specific experience that connected them to different communities, especially historically excluded communities.” 

ZoomInfo adds to Herrera’s description of these individuals, stating that diversity officers are people who oversee internal diversity-related programs, foster a general sense of comradery among employees and take measures to assure that minorities within the community feel supported.

This may lead you to wonder exactly what else falls into a diversity officer’s wheelhouse. 

Herrera explains further by starting with a couple of values.  

Why Are Chief Diversity Officers Valuable to a Company? 

Herrera identifies exactly what these C-suite professionals add to the workplace, explaining that one of the main values CDOs bring to companies is changing the mindset around hiring. She states that CDOs strive to move hiring away from the “culture-fit” or “value-add” point of view and have hiring managers focus more on transferable skills. 

“Diversity officers are able to analyze and really take a look at how the company has been interviewing and recruiting talent in the past,” said Herrera. 

She explains that this includes exploring the processes and the ways that the company is looking for talent, how hiring managers are making decisions, reviewing who is getting hired and who isn't getting hired and any data associated with applications. 

Apart from reviewing the hiring process and diving into the systems and processes, Herrera also calls attention to yet another critical function these leaders serve in their role: Holding other leaders accountable. 

“CDOs should be able to support, educate, and call in and call out executive leadership as well,” said Herrera. “Because what happens is many leaders or executive leaders want to hire diverse talent, but they are not really aware of all of the changes that they need to do internally to make that happen. And in many cases, they're not aware of the very tough decisions that they will need to make.”

Specifically, she uses the example of the referral process. However, if you are already starting with a non-diverse startup company, and all you’re doing is hiring referrals from within your colleague group, you will likely not be getting great representation when it comes to diversity. 

And you may not realize this until someone comes in and points it out. 

These are tough conversations to have — and conversations that chief diversity officers come in and have with executive leadership teams in order to put new processes in place and create positive change. 

Forbes adds to this perspective, stating that the HR department alone often isn’t enough to give  DEI efforts the dedicated attention and allocated resources today’s workforce needs.

The source continues to state that hiring a chief diversity officer is one way to ensure a company transforms into a work culture where all employees and customers are protected, feel safe, are given an equal chance and are treated with dignity and respect. 

Leavy-Detrick states that overall, a chief diversity officer elevates a company's culture and makes it more inclusive by not only looking at the hiring process by also looking at how certain teams get along and how the company operates internally.   

“The DEI officer makes sure the company is creating a safe space for all groups of employees and sets them up for success by recognizing the different ways that people work,” said Leavy-Detrick. “This could be by creating programs to accelerate talent that wouldn't otherwise have the same opportunities or through mentorship or internship programs. All of these kinds of programs could roll up under the DEI officer.” 

Top Takeaways

What Do Chief Diversity Officers Do?

• A chief diversity officer ensures that an organization's culture values diversity, equity and inclusion. 
• A CDO is for any company that wants to change the way it operates, wants to be more inclusive, and ultimately, has the end goal of operating more fairly.
• The number of executives with diversity and inclusion titles has more than doubled over the past five years.
• “Diversity officers are able to analyze and really take a look at how the company has been interviewing and recruiting talent in the past.”
• A chief diversity officer elevates a company's culture and makes it more inclusive by not only looking at the hiring process by also looking at how certain teams get along and how the company operates internally.