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Excerpt: Two DEI leaders share ways members of the executive team can model their DEI commitment through behaviors and actions.  A company’s pledge to diversity, equity, and inclusion and its decision to hire a chief diversity officer to lead initiatives are two critical steps in the effort to create a more inclusive and diverse organization. But as you know as a DEI leader, your work won’t take root without the support of the entire executive team.  Employees, clients, and business partners need to see that your company is walking the talk, making it critical for executives and senior leaders to take an active role in modeling diversity, equity, and inclusion in their decisions and actions. A collective commitment to the company’s DEI mission makes creating a more inclusive environment and reaching established diversity goals achievable.  Two Senior Executive DEI Think Tank members shared their insights on some of the ways executives can exemplify their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Read on for their leadership advice and valuable ideas that you can bring back to your own organization. 

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With intentional leadership and clear expectations, a distributed workforce can create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all.

expert panel

As we step into an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, the conversation surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The next five years promise to bring forth a multitude of challenges and hot-button issues that will shape the DEI landscape. From the intersectionality of identities to the role of technology in workplace equity, leaders across various sectors are tasked with anticipating and addressing these emerging concerns. Below, nine DEI Think Tank members share the key issues expected to dominate the DEI discourse and provide insights into proactive strategies leaders can adopt today to navigate these turbulent waters tomorrow.

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DEI leaders at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Kanarys, and Elastic offer strategies for recruiting, retaining, and promoting Asian American and Pacific Islander employees.

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Even today – perhaps even more so today – it’s not uncommon for colleagues to question or criticize DEI initiatives. Sometimes, that pushback comes from fellow executives or influential department heads. How confident you are as a DEI leader in navigating conversations with DEI skeptics has a lot to do with two key factors: 1. how well you’ve quantified DEI’s impact on your organization’s strategic objectives and 2. how much support you have from the CEO. We asked members of the Senior Executive DEI Think Tank – a criteria-based organization for DEI decision-makers at large companies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies – to share their playbooks for responding to DEI pushback from internal sources. Consider the following.

expert panel

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are notoriously under-resourced – often treated as more of an employee perk than a strategic business driver worth investing in. It’s up to DEI leaders to secure more funding for ERGs, a challenge requiring deliberative planning and clear outcomes. How much should you engage ERG leaders to make specific budget requests for their individual groups? Must every ERG initiative align neatly with organizational goals? How will you demonstrate ROI? Should you compensate ERG leaders for their time? (Yes.) We asked members of the Senior Executive DEI Think Tank – a criteria-based organization for DEI decision-makers at large companies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies – to share their best practices for securing and making the most of financial resources for their employee resource groups. Here’s what they had to say.