Posted in : Blog
Posted on : January 27, 2017
Zakeana Reid, CHRP - Senior Director, Special Projects
The pilot stage of CCDI Employer Inclusivity Index (EII) project is ending and we are putting the finishing touches on the final product for rollout to the public. The EII, based on global diversity and inclusion benchmarks, helps employers identify any diversity and inclusion gaps and provides customized recommendations that the organization can take to drive a successful workforce into the future.
In my review of the pilot findings, it became clear that organizations that separated their diversity strategy from their organizational strategy consistently scored lower on the index. Also, these same organizations cut budgets and reduced the number of staff who supported diversity and inclusion (D&I).
Many organizations simply associate D&I initiatives with social justice and community relations, rather than realizing the business value to the organization. In the joint research report by Deloitte Australia and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, Waiter, is that inclusion in my soup? A new recipe to improve business performance, the authors found that D&I can have the following impact:
When employees think their organisation is committed to, and supportive of diversity and they feel included, employees report better business performance in terms of ability to innovate, (83% uplift) responsiveness to changing customer needs (31% uplift) and team collaboration (42% uplift).
Given that the impacts are all at the business strategy level, having a diversity strategy that is divorced from the organizational strategy seems counterintuitive.
My counsel to D&I practitioners is to know your organizational strategy and use diversity and inclusion as a means of achieving the strategy. When the two are in lockstep, the risk of losing valuable resources (financial or human) is minimized. Here are some steps to follow:
These are just some of the things you can do to add greater value to your organization and show the business results of diversity and inclusion.
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