Читать книгу Diversity and Inclusion Matters - Jason R. Thompson - Страница 22

Despite the increase in diversity officers and good intentions, many companies are struggling to achieve their DE&I goals and to develop successful programs because they have been asked to do too much in too little time.

I recently received a call from a person who had transitioned from the head of sales to CDO of a global company with more than 40,000 employees. The person had done very well as a sales director, but that experience did not prepare them to be the CDO. This person found me on LinkedIn and contacted me, needing my help. The opportunity to be CDO was a significant promotion, so I don't blame them for wanting the opportunity. Additionally, prior to the promotion, this person had worked to help move the company toward establishing a DE&I program. What they were finding out is that making the argument to company leaders to start a DE&I program and leading a DE&I program on a daily basis were two different things. I get a lot of calls like this from diversity officers who are struggling and don't know what to do on a regular basis. These calls come from high-profile companies, sports organizations, and technology companies.

Without any background or experience, these individuals, who are otherwise very successful, simply did not know where to start. Some of these calls were from individuals who were overwhelmed, and they had not even been on the job a month. They had established the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion but did not know where to go from there. They needed a bridge. I introduced them to the CAPE process:

 Collect the demographic data.

 Analyze it.

 Plan development.

 Execute it.

I explain to them that if you start with an overly broad generalization like “We need to recruit diverse candidates,” you will quickly become overwhelmed. Generally, most DE&I departments are not staffed nor designed to oversee every single hire. Overly broad goals will undermine your success.

Everyone has some understanding of DE&I, but that doesn't mean everyone knows how to do the job. Roughly half of S&P 500 companies employ a CDO, and 63% of those had been appointed or promoted to their roles within the past three years, according to a 2019 study by Russell Reynolds Associates.⁹

The short length of service is symptomatic of good intent but challenging situations. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of these diversity officers lack previous experience. They may have done very well in their previous non-diversity positions, but that doesn't always translate to successful execution of an impactful DE&I program.

A Fortune magazine article titled “Chief Diversity Officers Are Set Up To Fail”¹⁰ outlined some key reasons why CDOs are struggling to succeed. The article indicated that the majority of the CDOs were new to the role and often were given other responsibilities in addition to their diversity work. Also, they tended to have limited power over decisions that affected diversity in the company. A large majority of these CDOs did not even have access to the kind of data they needed to make a difference. Additionally, the CDOs reported that diversity, equity, and inclusion work ranked last in terms of perceived importance by company leaders. You can see how this would make it impossible to make any measurable gains in DE&I work (Figure 1.3).