5 Strategies to Infuse D&I Into Your Organization | Harvard Business Review

As firms commit to making real and meaningful progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), this article provides five strategies to speed up these efforts. 1) Ensure the CEO positions him/herself as the top champion and takes responsibility for progress toward goals. 2) Center D&I in your business strategy. 3) Hold executive leaders accountable for D&I outcomes. 4) Mitigate implicit bias at the systemic level. 5) Pivot from diversity training to leadership development. Concerning #4, the authors emphasize the need to eliminate systemic bias embedded in talent management and other decision-making processes rather than focusing primarily on eliminating individual bias. One tactic is to review all talent management policies and processes to identify how they unintentionally increase bias. A few examples include: recruiters might only advertise jobs to a narrow range of potential candidates; managers might only assign high-visibility work to those they know well; hiring managers might rank employee referrals higher than other candidates. Firms can audit all of their talent practices to determine required changes.