Читать книгу Diversity and Inclusion Matters - Jason R. Thompson - Страница 31

I remember a call I received from a CDO who had been on the job about 10 months, and nothing was going their way. They were the head of DE&I for a large tech company. They were not sure what to do, the initiatives they tried were not working, and they were convinced the employee resource group (ERG) leaders hated them. The ERG leaders were questioning all the decisions they did make, and there was no way to show progress. This person realized that as CDO, they were supposed to influence every hire made by the organization and help the CEO and every other senior leader set expectations and goals on DE&I. They were coming to the end of their first year, and they were going to be held responsible if the goals were not met. On top of that, they needed to set more goals for year two of the fledgling program. This was overwhelming, to say the least, and generally not all of this was going to get done. They wanted my help, and because I had seen this before, I knew I could offer some good guidance.

Generally, I found there were certain issues that continued to come up. First, there was no manual to help them run a DE&I program. Second, they were overwhelmed by all the things that needed to be fixed. Third, the company had unrealistic expectations of what a DE&I program could do and of the timeline necessary to make the desired change.

The combination of these three issues make it impossible to be successful. When there is an overwhelming list of things to be done, the expectations are unrealistic, and if there is no manual to help you show results, you will struggle. It is a no-win situation for both the diversity officer and the company. As I always say, the toughest part of a DE&I job is unrealistic expectations.

The solution for this CDO, and what I have helped others understand, is that most of these issues arise from making DE&I goals too theoretical and impractical. I told them that there are two main things that all DE&I programs do: recruitment and retention of employees (Figure 2.2). Approximately 90% of the work falls in these two categories. As a company, you are either recruiting staff or you are trying to retain staff. Your DE&I program may also include students or customers, but the fundamental goal is the same. You are recruiting students and customers, or you are retaining them. Understanding this principle will make your DE&I program highly impactful. Additionally, because you've narrowed the parameters, it's easy to figure out the numbers, the quantitative data, that you need to track and report your success.

Figure 2.2 The Recruitment Retention Link for DE&I.