How to Set — and Meet — Your Company’s Diversity Goals | Harvard Business Review

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are a priority for many organizations; yet, more work is needed to make real and meaningful progress. The article by Ellyn Shook, CHRO, Accenture, outlines a methodology Accenture created to hold itself accountable for delivering on its DEI priorities. It’s based on a set of five key goals it has shared publicly, including 1) Analyze locally so your goals reflect the communities where your people work and live; 2) Focus on skills, not education; 3) Work the education-location equation and identify the proportion of residents with and without bachelor’s degrees, by race/ethnicity, in our largest office locations; 4) Pressure test your goals to ensure rigor and reasonability; 5) Build your own pipeline through tactics such as Apprenticeship programs that “create new career pathways for non-traditional hires.“ The article includes questions firms can ask as they create opportunities for advancing DEI (e.g., “Does your work environment enable people to be their authentic self?” In case you missed it, here is a 62-page report by The Wharton School that examined the relationship between seven categories of DEI practices and twelve workplace outcomes.