Diversity, equity and the power of difference
By Cynthia Hansen,
Managing Director of the Innovation Foundation, The Adecco Group
LinkedIn
While our differences are often unspoken and unseen, they are a key ingredient in what drives us forward. Recently, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) decided to remove equity from its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) definition. This was a strategic decision that aligns with SHRM’s commitment to accelerating holistic change through inclusion.
Like many HR professionals, I was taken aback by this decision. Equity is a fundamental pillar of creating fair and inclusive workplaces. It is about levelling the playing field of difference, not creating sameness. There is no diversity without difference. It is diversity in its fullest sense that drives creative conflict, that challenges assumptions, and feeds innovation. In other words, without equity we cannot unlock the potential that lies within our differences.
When underpinned by International Standards and driven by companies looking to create a fulfilling environment, HR policies can shape the future of inclusive workspaces.
Action beyond quotas
There are many studies that have qualified and quantified the value of diverse teams, from claiming higher rates of productivity to increased market share. I think this is the wrong focus. Typically, the takeaway from these studies is that companies should hire more diverse talent out of the same traditional talent pools. While this might work for a limited time, it has diminishing returns.
What actually matters is that employers start to look beyond quotas, beyond mandates, and to take a more experimental approach to configuring diverse teams and seeing what yields good results. This means opening doors to unconventional pools of talent, valuing a broad range of experience and creating an enabling environment for everyone.
In the Women Back to Work programme, the Innovation Foundation is creating ways for mid- and low-skilled women to re-enter work after a career break. It is mainly aimed at non-traditional candidates who often get screened out of hiring processes too early. One of these women, Gabriela, has broad-based skills in customer service, but has never worked in hospitality. The lack of that specific entry in her CV gets her screened out in the first round.
While she is left frustrated by another failed application from which she receives no feedback, it is actually the employer who has lost out on her talent. They lose out on Gabriela’s experience in retail, which gives her skills to work with the public. They overlook Gabriela’s experience setting up her own catering service and expertise in building a business from scratch. They ignore Gabriela’s ability to forge relationships and galvanize a team with her empathy and mentoring skills.
Standardizing diversity, equity and inclusion action
So, how do we keep people like Gabriela in the system and get them in front of an employer who can see the skills they bring to the table? This all sounds good on paper, but it is much harder in reality. Changing norms and behaviours is immensely difficult. While data may change minds, it is only part of the equation. Hearts need to change as well.
The combination of data and empathy may be enough to change the behaviour of an individual recruiter, changing an entire system will take much more. This requires new systems and processes, incentives and rules, examples and narratives. It must rely on a critical mass of employers shifting approaches and sharing their learnings so templates can emerge that lower the threshold for replication.
This is where standardization can play a crucial role. By designing and codifying successful models and creating the right mix of accountability and incentives, standardization can push these models into the mainstream. At that point, they cease being an experiment and become table stakes. ISO’s technical committee on human resource management designs International Standards that do exactly this. ISO 30415, for example, provides comprehensive guidelines for developing, implementing and managing diversity and inclusion in organizations.
Recognizing that each organization is different, this standard presents the fundamental prerequisites for diversity and inclusion, recommended actions, the relevant responsibilities and potential policy outcomes. Companies can also make an impact at the very first encounter with their workers. Employers with an eye on fair and inclusive recruitment and keen to create a positive candidate experience, can lean on the best practices outlined by ISO 30405.
But creating enabling environments doesn’t stop at DE&I and recruitment. International Standards like ISO 45001 focus on occupational health and safety while ISO 45003 empowers organizations to manage psychological risks in the workplace. After all, a workplace cannot be inclusive if it is unsafe and unsupportive of workers’ mental wellbeing.
Bridging differences
Equity is about levelling the playing field, but International Standards allow us to define what the level should be. If everyone is on a universally agreed common baseline, there is only one direction to go: up. If HR teams, hiring managers and employees can collectively shape the future of inclusive workplaces, we can envision a future where skills are weighted alongside certifications, where lived experience is valued as a complement to traditional education and where trainability and learnability are the primary stock in trade. Even a fraction of that is a future I would like to see. For Gabriela. And for all those who struggle in similar situations.