3.44 min
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belongingness (DEIB) is a whole new territory for a lot of HR leaders right now.
As organizations have moved towards an employee-centric culture, DEIB has become more than compliance; it’s a genuine vision of employers who want to elevate employee experience.
In fact, more than 84% of CHROs have revealed that they are increasing investments in DEIB efforts (Gallup Research).
The only problem here is that DEIB is not a set process, where you can follow preconceived steps and achieve desired results.
And the biggest validation for your DEIB efforts comes from your employees.
So, what do your employees have to say about how things are going with the whole DEIB scenario?
So, let’s get real and see what the trends have to say:
While organizations are putting in genuine efforts to eradicate workplace bias, market trends are clearly stating another story.
One Gallup data reveals that only 33% of employees believe that they have a fair chance of career advancement as everyone else in the organization.
Another data shows that only 30% of employees have described their workplace as fair.
And one of the biggest problems is what we believe as HR leaders is often different to what our employees feel.
In fact, there was a survey on whether a company would do the right thing in case of a crisis concerning ethics and integrity.
86% of HR leaders responded positively to this
However, only 35% of employees felt that the organization would do the right thing in such a situation.
This revelation speaks volumes about how the employees are yet to feel the change we’re trying to make.
It does feel frustrating when you’re trying to do everything right and still not getting the results.
An HBR survey, reveals that 97% of HR leaders have confirmed that their organization has made changes to improve their DEI culture, but only 37% of employees agree to the same.
So, what is it we’re missing out on?
Implicit bias is supposed to be an unconscious response that is mostly error-prone due to a lack of sufficient reasoning.
It is a major reason why your workplace is still not immune to discrimination.
Navigating around this might be tricky for organizations because it’s a very deep-rooted response.
So, how do we go about avoiding this nightmare?
Solutions:
Recruitment is a process where biases can creep in and nullify all your DEIB efforts.
There are a couple of measures that you can take to make sure you minimize the effect of implicit bias.
This essentially means removing the names, and locations of educational institutions and organizations a candidate has inhabited.
By doing this, recruiters focus majorly on the core skills and competencies of a candidate, hence becoming equipped to make a more bias-free and informed decision.
It again dissipates the chances of discrimination as the ability to decide is distributed among leaders coming from different backgrounds.
While these measures can be adapted during the recruitment process, how do you control implicit bias when you have a diverse workforce?
Here, awareness plays an important role.
Until and unless you’re aware of what your biases are, you won’t be able to combat them.
One tool that really helps with this is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed by Tony Greenwald in partnership with the Universities of Harvard, Virginia and Washington.
So, it’s all about understanding your deep-rooted biases and becoming aware to fight them consciously.
It’s time that we understand that hiring a DEIB expert is not the end of our responsibilities.
DEIB as a cultural integration is about addressing the smallest and biggest ethics and integrity issues.
While Employee A might be facing gender pay equity issues, Employee B might be encountering discrimination due to their cultural background.
So, DEIB is an evolution that happens daily.
It is a critical conversation that needs to be a regular part of the workspace.
Here, are some changes that you as HR leaders can initiate, so that your DEIB efforts involve everyone and become more of a collaborative affair.
1. Report any progress even if that’s obvious, employees need to know that the change is happening.
2. Ensure that if any complaints are addressed, they should be kept confidential to protect the individual from discrimination.
3. Upskill your function leaders to have conversations on DEIB. They should be able to address the basic issues if a team member comes to them with a complaint.
4. Standardize your recruitment and appraisal processes to ensure fairness and transparency.
Another process from where biases and discriminations should be removed is ‘Appraisal’.
Also, what does come to your mind when you think of a standard appraisal process?
1. A process where you don’t have to struggle with Excel sheets.
2. Having set metrics that are standardized to remove bias.
3. Full-proof access controls to maintain the integrity of data.
4. Real-time insights that make your appraisal planning competitive and comprehensive.
CompUp is built on the vision to achieve all this and more.
Understanding that appraisals play a key role in employee retention, we’ve created a platform to make your appraisal planning more seamless, dynamic, and precise.
Join us on our journey as we revolutionize the world of appraisal planning!
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I've come to appreciate the extraordinary impact that carefully crafted words can have. They shape perceptions, drive decisions, and inspire action. It's my aim to turn ideas into compelling narratives.
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