Building D&I Accountability

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DBP RESEARCH REQUEST

D&I goals are only realized when key decision-makers are accountable. Change and commitment must start from the top, cascading throughout the organization. By taking accountability for goals, leaders signal the importance of diversity and inclusion as a business priority and help focus people’s attention.

Set meaningful and realistic diversity goals. For example, what percentage of diverse talent is needed in the pipeline to create a difference in the next three to five years. When developing such goals, understand what talent pools are available by business region and how goals may vary across different locations. Establish accountability for progress. D&I efforts should be measured with the same scrutiny that other business objectives receive, and include a mix of quantitative and qualitative measures to help track progress and inform improvements. Quantitative measures might include statistical data related to recruitment tactics, candidate applications, hiring decisions, retention outcomes, provision of training, and advancement opportunities provided to women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups. It is important to assess this information carefully to identify any patterns by lines of business or region. For example, are women advancing at a significantly lower rate in one region over another?Qualitative measures can come from employee ‘pulse’ surveys, annual engagement surveys, and focus groups can. These types of data sources provide important feedback on employee perceptions of inclusion, equity, and bias, and can be utilized to measure progress over time. Make sure to assess qualitative data by demographic group to understand how responses vary by race, gender, generation, etc. Instead of lumping all people of color or all underrepresented groups together, compare the responses of the various subgroups represented within these categories. For example, how do the engagement survey responses from your Black employees differ from those of your Latino or Asian employees? And going even further, tease out areas of intersectionality. Are Black women more or less engaged than Black men?

D&I Accountability Starts at the Top

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Consider the following organizational assessment questions before establishing D&I goals:• How often do we review the talent sets of underrepresented employees in our internal pipeline? What percentage of these

employees are getting visibility, new job experiences, and stretch assignments? Who has access to opportunities for mentorship and sponsorship?

• Are women and other underrepresented talent being promoted at the same rates as the majority? What employees are getting visibility, new job experiences, and stretch assignments? Who has access to opportunities for mentorship and sponsorship? Howmuch are women and employees of color paid in comparison to men and white counterparts in similar positions?

• What are we doing to identify, develop and support high potential diverse talent? Do women and employees of color have equal access to the right channels that will help them know how to get ahead? Are they aware of career paths and roles open to them, and how they should be preparing to advance?

• Are there targeted employee development plans in place to put women and employees of color on the path to advancement? How are those plans measured in terms of progress, timeliness, mobility and advancement?

• Do we know what factors in our organization prevent underrepresented employee groups from reaching their full potential? Are we auditing for bias at every step of the talent development and advancement process?

• Do our succession plans include measurable targets for women and diverse populations? Do leaders know what roles yield the highest promotable successors? If not, how will we determine success?

• Are leaders held accountable for performance related to the advancement of women and minorities in the workforce?

The answers to these important questions will help inform your D&I goals and how you will measure progress and hold leaders, managers and other key personnel accountable for results.

Set Measurable, Realistic D&I Goals

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What some companies are doing

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Sodexo’s CEO has committed to reach global representation of 40% women in senior leadership by 2025, and linked 10% of annualincentives for the executive population to help achieve this goal. Additionally, Sodexo has set a target that all employees work for gender-balanced management teams by 2025, up from today, where 59% of employees work within entities with gender-balanced management.Internal data showed that the share of women in their workforce dropped sharply after entry level, which reduced the number of women in the company’s leadership pipeline. To build accountability for increasing gender representation, Sodexo created a scorecard to measure progress and hold managers accountable.Managers can earn up to 600 points for achieving numeric benchmarks for attaining hiring, promoting, and retaining women and underrepresented groups. The scorecard doesn’t just measure numeric progress. An additional 400 points measure D&I actions that managers engage in that improve Sodexo’s culture and demonstrate inclusive leadership. For instance, a manager can earn points for setting up bias and inclusion training for their team, by mentoring or sponsoring women or people of color, or by getting involved as a sponsor of the company’s ERG for women.Sodexo monitors outcomes closely, and refines the scorecard as needed. For example, the initial scorecard only awarded points for meeting quantitative representation benchmarks. However, feedback suggested that Sodexo would see more widespread buy-in and less resistance if managers were also rewarded for changing their behavior, changing their processes, and being more inclusive.Based on the feedback, Sodexo established additional metrics to capture and reward inclusive actions taken by managers. Sodexo leadership believes this expanded focus has helped the company meet its numeric goals faster, as well as made the company’s culture more inclusive.The scorecard is driving real results. Over the past five years, women’s representation has increased by 10% on average at entry and manager levels, more than 20% at the SVP level, and has doubled in the company’s C-suite.

Sodexo’s Diversity Scorecard

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At Intel, diversity is one of the strategic performance goals that determine 50 percent of executives’ annual cash incentives.In 2015, Intel’s then CEO Brian Krzanich set a goal to reach “full-representation” by 2020. Intel defined full representation as having a workforce that is reflective of the available talent pool in the technology industry, and earmarked $300 million to spend towards strategic initiatives to achieve their goal.

The company has baked diversity and inclusion goals into the business strategy, with 7% of all employee bonuses tied to hiring and retention goals.

To encourage referrals of more diverse candidates, Intel doubled the referral bonus for staff who referred diverse candidates. The company now offers $4,000 for employees who refer a woman, minority or veteran job candidate who is ultimately hired — double the standard referral bonus. The bonus fee is viewed by the company as a way to increase chances of having women and minorities receive more representation in a job applicant pool that has disproportionately consisted of white men. Intel reports the bonus structure helped double its diversity hires in just one year, exceeding its goal of 40% diversity hires by 3%.

The company also invested in initiatives like Warmline, which catches workers who may be thinking about leaving because they do not feel challenged or included. According to the company’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, women and underrepresented groups like Hispanic and African-American workers are now leaving at a slower rate.

Case Study: Intel

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To increase D&I accountability, P&G instituted a new compensation system:

• 10% of executive compensation is linked to diversity goals, which are evaluated as part of performance reviews. Performance criteria include being an executive sponsor of an employee resource group, being a cross-cultural mentor, and recruitment and promotions in the executive’s area of responsibility.

• Stock option awards for the company’s top officers are linked to diversity results. Executive compensation plans are directly tied to successful completion of staff and supplier diversity initiatives.

At Walmart, approximately 75% of the company’s named executive officer (NEO) is performance based. The NEO’s cash incentive payment can be reduced by up to 15% if diversity objectives are not met. In addition, the CMDC may reduce or eliminate NEO annual cash incentive for failure to meet annual compliance objectives. Walmart Associates subject to the company’s culture, diversity and inclusion goals program have 10% of their annual performance evaluation tied to diversity and inclusion and can have their annual cash incentive reduced by up to 30% if they violate our discrimination and harassment policies.

At Facebook, staff recruiters are given points for successfully recruiting diverse candidates. These points apply to Facebook’s internal ratings system and lead to stronger performance reviews and potential bonuses. In 2019, Facebook added a new metric to its employee bonus formula: employees’ ability to tackle problems like misinformation and hate speech on its service. As reported by Fortune, this change came about after Facebook faced mounting pressure from consumers, advocacy groups and regulators to clamp down on illicit content and privacy breaches.

Metrics Other Companies are Using

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Microsoft links approximately 17% of annual bonuses to culture and organization leadership goals, which include promoting diversity. In addition, senior executives are evaluated in three qualitative performance categories, including culture and organizational leadership.

Microsoft Holds Leaders Accountable

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Comerica

Step 1: Create Reporting and Metrics for the Organization and Executive Leadership• Comerica tracks metrics and creates accountability through a Diversity Involvement Scorecard for every

senior leader, including the CEO. The scorecard measures the following areas under each leader’s control:• Workforce diversity• Business outreach• Volunteerism• Supplier diversity.Within each category, Comerica defined specific metrics for each leader. For example, workforce diversity focuses on hiring, promotions, and retention. Within hiring, the metrics track the application pool for age, gender, and minority/nonminority compared with the employees hired. The same process and metrics applies to promotions and retention to provide an extensive review of D&I in all business units. By using a workforce analytics tool, leaders and the diversity team know exactly where each leader is in relation to the goals.For example, if the technology department promotes fewer women than men to the senior and manager levels, then the technology leader develops a specific goal to help solve the issue. The goal may be requiring that 50 percent of the applicant pool for all senior officers be female. The hiring decision can’t be made until the application pool meets the criteria.

Source: Affirmity 9

Comerica

Source: Affirmity

Step 2: Hold Leaders Accountable for Achieving D&I ObjectivesAt the beginning of the year, leaders set goals for each area, and HR tracks results against these metrics throughout the year. The diversity team, the leader’s HR business partner, the CEO, and Comerica’s Executive Diversity Council review the goals.

Each leader knows exactly to which metrics he or she will be held accountable and the numbers needed to achieve the goal. The Diversity Involvement Scorecard results determine his or her end-of-the-year compensation.

Step 3: Create Benchmarks for Realistic and Business-Focused PlansComerica leaders meet with their HR business partner each quarter to review their progress. They discuss the trends based on the metrics, opportunities to improve, and changes to make. Common outcomes from the meetings include organizational changes and training in areas such as unconscious bias. After the meeting, the diversity team also discusses how to support the leader as he or she works to create organizational changes.

Step 4: Evaluate Alignment of D&I Initiatives with Organizational Strategies, Objectives, and CultureComerica weaves diversity programs and awareness through all aspects of the organization. Through market segmentation teams, employees focus on understanding the needs of specific multicultural markets and improving both products and sales methods for the community.

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In 2013, Tracy Chou (a female Asian-American programmer) disclosed to the world the lack of diversity at her organization. In an effort to fix the problem, Pinterest brought in more applicants from nontraditional backgrounds yet the diversity numbers did not improve. CEO Ben Silbermann and cofounder Evan Sharp realized they had to give their employees a reason to care about diversifying and prove that diversity was about the bottom line. By sharing D&I goals publicly, Pinterest is held to a higher degree of accountability.

Here are Pinterest’s D&I goals:• Increase hiring rates for full-time engineering roles to 30% female.

• Increase hiring rates for full-time engineers to 8% underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. • Increase hiring rates for non-engineering roles to 12% underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.

• Implement a Rooney Rule-type requirement where at least one person from an underrepresented background and one female candidate is interviewed for every open leadership position.

Pinterest

Source: DBP Research Report11

Walmart established a range of diversity and inclusion goals. Here are a few examples:

• Increase sourcing from Women-Owned Businesses

• Empower 1 million women through training

• Promote diversity and inclusion representation within merchandising and professional services suppliers

• Veterans Welcome Home Commitment will guarantee a job offer to any eligible U.S. veteran honorably discharged from active duty

• Hire 100,000 veterans by 2018, increasing the projection to 250,000 veterans by the end of 2020

Walmart

Source: DBP Research Report12

Metrics, Strategies to Build Accountability

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A proposal delivered by Google shareholders and backed by Google employees calls for the board of its parent company, Alphabet, to address issues related to gender and racial diversity, and tying these metrics to executive compensation.

The shareholder resolution states the lack of diversity in tech is a “crisis” that “threatens worker safety, talent retention, product development, and customer service.” The resolution also notes Google employees are not satisfied with the company’s response to a series of concerns raised in the past year, including ending forced arbitration and adding a worker representative to its board.

“We believe executives are out to lunch on several key social risks facing the company,” Pat Tomaino, Director of Socially Responsible Investing for Zevin Asset Management, a Google shareholder, told Bloomberg. Last year, Zevinand others introduced a similar shareholder proposal backed by Google employees that would tie diversity metrics to performance. Alphabet rejected the proposal.

The most recent resolution claims Alphabet “has not responded adequately to key demands” made by workers in a massive walkout in November, such as adding a worker representative to its board and ending forced arbitration for its entire workforce. It also asks the board’s compensation committee to look into including “sustainability metrics”—such as executive diversity— into its bonus system or stock vesting protocols.

Danger of Lack of D&I Accountability

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Here are a few metrics companies use to build D&I accountability in recruitment:• Diversity of talent pools

• Number of prospects from partnerships (colleges, associations, etc.)

• Number of referrals or candidates as a result of diversity recruitment programs broken out by dimension of diversity

• Number of applicants from additional efforts including social media, job boards and recruitment events

• Percentage of diverse candidates at each recruiting stage

• Percentage of conversions by diverse demographic

• Recruitment firms’ fulfillment of diverse candidate slates

Hiring managers and recruiters are held accountable for meeting metrics, however, targets may vary based on their geographic location or local workforce demographics and diversity goals.

To monitor the success of the diversity recruitment process, companies will need to track new hires on an on-going basis: to what extent women and diverse applicants are represented in the applicant pool, how many make it through the interview process and get hired, and what type of positions they are hired into.

Metrics don’t end there – companies should also track retention and promotion rates across workforce demographics to identify ‘leaks’ in the internal pipeline.

Embed D&I Goals in Recruitment

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Sample metrics to build hiring manager accountability:• Information about candidate ratios, hiring and non-hire ratios• Outcomes for gender, racial, age and other patterns and disparities• Conversion rates for diverse groups compared to other candidate pools• Data cut by lines of business to identify trends and patterns• Attrition rates and retention rates of new hires and the timing of the attrition

Tip: Train recruiters and hiring managers in unconscious bias. Most individuals don’t think of themselves as biased. However, unconscious biases are hard-wired into human nature and overcoming them can be challenging. Provide recruiters and hiring personnel unconscious bias training to create self-awareness around any preconceived biases that they may be bringing to the process and help them strategize around how to mitigate them. Consider asking recruiters and hiring personnel to take an implicit association test to check for and raise awareness about hidden racial and gender biases.

Hiring Metrics

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One of the simplest and most effective ways to increase diversity hiring is to require that diverse candidate slates that include a proportionate number of both women and diverse candidates are presented for interviewing. Diverse candidate slates can minimize discrimination and unconscious bias in hiring, promotion, and job assignments. Typically, diverse slates indicate a mix of job candidates that align with established diversity targets. This doesn’t mean the company has to disclose department-by-department diversity targets. It is sufficient to require broad diversity targets - i.e. 30% of candidates should be from minority populations or 40% of candidates should be women. These targets will move over time as the company realizes its diversity goals and should be assessed and adjusted accordingly.

Suggested strategies:Spend time to explain your goals for a position to recruiters and hiring managers, and how those goals link to the organization’s overall business objectives. This will help assure that all parties involved in the hiring process will consider the company’s current demographic profile and diversity representation goals. Your point for improvement should always be visible in the candidate funnel.Develop guidance and provide training to reinforce policies and practices, and hold recruiters and hiring managers accountable for adhering to those policies and practices. For example, a hiring target might be established around finding one qualified female candidate for every two qualified male candidates. If the targets aren’t met, require a suitable explanation why.

Link D&I Goals to Hiring Practices

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FAQ: What is the right ratio for diverse candidate slates?

Research by Harvard Business Review found that when the final candidate pool has only one minority candidate, he or she has virtually no chances of being hired. If there are at least two female candidates in the final candidate pool, the odds of hiring a female candidate are 79 times greater. If there are least two minority candidates in the final candidate pool, the odds of hiring a minority candidate are 194 times greater. This methodology is referred to as the “two in the pool effect.” The challenge is that there is no "one size fits all" on this. Definitions of diversity vary from organization to organization and person to person, but most often diverse interview slates refer to a pool of candidates that contains a certain number or percentage of women and/or minorities.

Here’s a few examples:

Goldman Sachs requires two diverse candidates be part of the slate for all open roles, and encourages leaders to consider progress against diversity goals when evaluating Senior Managers for pay and promotion. Diverse candidate slates will be key to achieving the bank’s diversity targets, which include achieving 50 percent women, 11% Black, and 14% Hispanic hires in its 2021 class of incoming Analysts and Associates, which comprise 70% of the company’s annual hiring.

Lincoln Financial introduced a balanced slate process which requires hiring managers to include at least one woman and one person of color on each officer-level candidate slate. A woman of color does not count for both.

The diversity scorecard at Sodexo holds recruiters and hiring managers accountable by reporting hiring performance compared to diversity targets each quarter in three diversity areas: hiring, promotion and retention. After a brief delay, in partnership with recruiters, Sodexo surveys top women and diverse applicants who drop out of the recruiting process and who reject offers in order to find out why.

At GlaxoSmithKline, VPs in R&D established a diversity hiring protocol to review all hiring decisions with hiring managers to ensure unconscious bias was not at play, particularly if diverse candidates were presented and not hired.

Diverse Candidate Slates

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There are a number of metrics that can be established to assess diversity and inclusion in the workforce. These metrics should be sliced by as many dimensions of diversity that are available to best understand the experience of different employee groups. Below are a few metrics companies use to understand diversity and inclusion shortfalls and areas for improvement:• Attrition rates• Promotion rates• Internal mobility rates• Stay Interview data• Tenure rates/length of stay• % of professionals development plans, completion rates of development plans, and velocity rates of completion

(how long to fully execute plans)• Employee referral rates/Employee Net Promoter scores (would they refer/advocate for the org)• Turnover costs (ensure that the dollar impact of diversity turnover is credibly calculated, work with finance to help

determine the best way to measure). Understanding turnover costs will help support a stronger business case to support retention efforts.

Link D&I to Retention

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Merely having data is not enough to deliver meaningful changes that create a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Here are the five common data mistakes CDOs must avoid.• Measuring diversity as a blanket number. Comparing your organization with the industry by tracking Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other data is a good place to start, but this doesn’t always reveal the root causes of issues hampering progress. A better analysis, for example, would look at how the proportion of females changes across leadership levelsso you can zone in on the biggest problems, such as hiring or retention issues.

• Prioritizing reports over insights. Compliance reports filled with general quota numbers aren’t useful for decision-making. To start, these reports are generally only seen by the person generating them and the agency they’re being reported to. When data can be accessed in a way that facilitates exploration (without the need for a data science degree!), it can help organizations understand where to focus their talent efforts to achieve broader goals.

• Forgetting to look at post-hire data. How new hires from specific groups fare in the long term reveals important insights about recruitment practices. When all pre-hire and post-hire data systems are connected into one analytics platform, an organization can quickly—and regularly—analyze the performance of diverse employees and keep an eye on promotions they received (as well as when in their tenure they achieved these). These insights can help businesses identify high-quality employees who come from a variety of backgrounds.

• Not delving into the “why” of turnover problems. Retaining diverse talent is just as critical as hiring diverse talent. It’s important to not just measure turnover in certain groups but also uncover the why of the turnover problem. People from certain backgrounds may choose to leave the organization if they don’t feel welcome, but it also could just be a matter of job descriptions not meeting reality.

Remember, it is important to not only measure new hire retention and long-term retention of diverse employees but also dive into the data to understand why these people are leaving.

Avoid Common Pitfalls

Source: HRDailyAdvisor

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Diverse teams are built through a well-formulated and actionable succession planning process that continually identifies high potential talent, and then sets them on a deliberate course toward leadership roles.

• Start by assessing your organization’s demographic and age profile to identify when employees in mission critical positions will retire, and better understand what knowledge and skills will be lost.

• Establish baselines and set targets for increasing diversity in those roles. Set goals. To achieve diversity, even at the highest levels, there must be reasonable but aggressive goals on changing workforce demographics, e.g. at least 30 percent of succession slates are diverse.

• Identify high-performing professionals early in their careers and start them on the leadership path as soon as possible. Many companies will consider the top 10% of talent when developing a succession plan. To cast your net wider, consider the top 10% of diverse candidates as well.

• Create diverse talent development plans. Identify what experiences and development opportunities will be needed to advance high potential talent to middle and senior management roles. Monitor and measure progress, outcomes, and the time it takes to execute plans to ensure parity.

• Dedicate roles and responsibilities. Hold someone responsible for achieving succession planning goals.

• Make sure your succession plan includes specific metrics and timelines to track progress and ensure goals are met.

What is your company doing to prepare diverse talent and succession pipelines? Do you have succession plans targeted to diverse populations? Or set percentage goals? If not, how will you move the needle, and what will determine success?

Infuse D&I in Succession Planning

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Sample Metrics to Consider

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Simple measures are unlikely to achieve what is intended. For instance, often touted as a simple, quick ‘fix’ is to tie executives’ bonuses to hiring more women and minority talents. Some incentivize their recruiters and employees to bring in more diverse candidates. While this carries appeal as a way to show that the organization is ‘serious’ about diversity, it can nevertheless backfire. It can seduce people to hire for bonus rather than for skill, experience, and ability.

Such an approach can set minority talents up for failure by reinforcing stereotypes and bias. Also problematic with D&I goals is that simply bringing in more people who are ‘different’ does not create an inclusive organization that is set to leverage the uniqueness of these new employees. Hiring to meet the diversity numbers doesn’t address root causes of biased decision making, processes that limit rather than widen the talent pool, and a culture that isn’t open to difference.

Meaningful metrics must be focused at the specific challenges an organization is facing and should show a turn-around of a trend that is of concern. This could be aspects like differences in engagement scores based on personal demographics, or a higher share of attrition or lower promotion rates of women and minority talents.

Setting Your D&I Goals

Source: Vantage Newsweek23

• Hiring, retention, promotion, lateral mobility numbers

• Velocity of movement (how long it takes to hire, promote or move laterally)

• Percentage of development, succession and talent plans that include underrepresented groups

• Velocity of development plan completion (how long does it take to implement plans)

• Percentage of sponsorship, mentorship program participants who are from underrepresented groups

• Number of sponsorees, mentees with positive movement as a result of program

• Engagement and D&I index scores per leader

• Percent of the talent pipeline that is diverse

• Number of ERG active members, active allies

• ERG ROI impact (e.g. #Recruits, # referral conversions, $ sales, market development, community giving, supplier diversity support, retention impact (turnover reduction))

• Employee engagement scores or survey results parsed by race, gender and other underrepresented categories

Metrics to Consider

Source: DBP Research Report24

Promotion

Description: Tracking promotions awarded to individuals from monitored groups compared with promotions awarded to individuals who are not members of a monitored group.

Strength: Useful for identifying bias in assessment and selection.

Weakness: Does not indicate whether members of monitored groups are self-selecting out of promotion opportunities. For example, studies have shown that women are less likely than men to put their hand up for a promotion. Also, does not track whether members of monitored groups are being developed or promoted at the same rate as non-monitored individuals.

Improvements: Track promotion applications from members of monitored groups compared with promotion applications from individuals who are not members of a monitored group. Track the time it takes for members of monitored groups to progress compared with non-monitored individuals. A difference may be indicative of a performance vs. potential bias that favors members of the dominant group. Track and compare development opportunities offered to members of monitored groups and compare with development opportunities offered to individuals who are not members of a monitored group.

Metrics to Consider

Source: CulturePlus25

Development Description: Tracking lateral moves, appointments to acting roles, training and other learning and development participation, and other stretch assignment opportunities by identity group.

Strength: Useful for identifying bias in development.

Pay and benefits Description: Compare financial and non-financial rewards earned by individuals from monitored groups to financial and non-financial rewards earned by individuals who are not members of a monitored group.

Strength: Useful for identifying bias in compensation and reward schemes.

Weakness: Like-for-like pay equality (equal pay for an equal role) obscures inequality in opportunity.

Improvements: Analyze pay and rewards across rank and function. For example, do men, on average, earn more at your organization (or department or workgroup) than women earn, over average? If the answer is yes, there is a bias against women in your organization, even if on a role-for-role basis, women earn the same as men.

Metrics to Consider

Source: CulturePlus26

Employee engagement Description: Compare employee engagement scores for individuals from monitored groups with scores reported by individuals who are not members of a monitored group.Strength: Useful for identifying whether certain groups of employees are experiencing lower levels of satisfaction and engagement compared with others. A noticeable difference in engagement scores among different identity groups can be indicative of biased mindsets and practices that favor one group of employees over others.Weakness: Existing engagement surveys may not include specific questions relating to diversity and inclusion. Also, existing surveys may not record diversity dimensions, and so comparisons across identity groups are not possible. Further, disengaged employees may not complete the survey, skewing the results.Improvement: Solicit voluntarily disclose by respondents of identity, such as race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, age, parental status. Supplement existing survey items with questions that specifically tap diversity and inclusion concerns. These questions may be incorporated into existing engagement surveys or constitute a separate ‘Inclusion Survey’ or ‘Inclusion Index’. For example;• “Employees are valued for their differences and their unique contributions.”• “Employees can voice their opinions without fear of retribution or rejection.”• “People are rewarded fairly according to their job performance and accomplishments.”• “I have confidence in my company’s grievance procedures.”

Metrics to Consider

Source: CulturePlus27

D&I Structure: Councils and Their Role in Building D&I Accountability

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D&I Councils come in many forms and have a variety of structures and names. For the most part, there are two basic types:

Executive diversity councils, usually led by the chairman, CEO or chief diversity officer, are made up of senior vice presidents, vice presidents, business-unit heads or other high-level leaders from all of the key company’s business functions or core businesses. This council develops the comprehensive, integrated diversity strategy that drives company best practices, goals and objectives, and monitors the company’s progress against those goals and objectives.

Advisory or regional diversity councils are designed to provide greater representation of the diversity of a company’s workforce, are often larger than executive diversity councils. An organization may create several such councils to represent multiple business units, locations, or operational components. These councils implement the diversity strategy and policies established by the executive council. They are also responsible for advising company leadership on the company’s diversity and inclusion needs and the progress of diversity initiatives throughout the organization.

D&I Councils: One Size Does Not Fit All

Source: DBP Report29

• Support – and direct involvement – of senior leaders

• Council goals drive the business strategy

• Diverse membership • Metrics to track progress • Clearly communicated goals

and outcomes• A long-term strategy that

drives short-term initiatives and activities

Characteristics of Effective Councils

Source: DBP Report30

• Assist the CEO/CDO in creation of the D&I strategy and key milestones

• Embed the diversity and inclusion function across the enterprise with strong connections to business units and operational divisions

• Clearly delineate diversity roles and responsibilities and provide for ongoing assessment to ensure effectiveness

• Broadly build and share knowledge on D&I successes and impact – build the case for D&I!

• Work with Learning department to identify specific D&I education content to be included in employee training and professional development

• Identify D&I barriers that impact recruitment, retention and advancement, recruitment, training, and key assignments

• Create content and custom D&I messages for the Communications team to deliver to leadership, middle managers, and the general employee population

• Act as change agents for the organization – challenge the status quo – champion D&I and promote the company as an employer of choice

D&I Council Responsibilities

Source: DBP Report31

SUPPORT FROM THE TOP IS CRITICAL Senior leadership support is vital for diversity council success; without it, councils are unlikely to achieve their goals. Engagement of senior management—ideally the CEO—is necessary if councils are to fulfill their mandate. Senior leaders play a critical role in providing direction to the council’s mission, strategy, and deliverables, and ensuring the necessary resources are available to drive real change.

LINK TO BUSINESS STRATEGY Diversity councils are a critical driver of organizational change, establishing a dedicated focus on diversity and inclusion priorities, managing the D&I program, and connecting D&I activities to a broader business-driven, results-oriented strategy. The Council works closely with senior leaders to ensure tight alignment with the company’s mission, operations, strategies, and business objectives. The D&I Council is responsible for measurable results, provides governance and oversight on diversity efforts, and promotes company-wide communication on objectives and progress.

Building an Effective D&I Council

Source: Catalyst32

The D&I Council provides support and guidance for employee resource groups (ERGs) and helps ensure that all ERGs are a catalyst for fostering a diverse and inclusive environment and connects D&I and ERGs to the business.

A D&I Council can support ERGs in the following ways:

• Provide assistance to managers and employees that want to start an ERG • Provide oversight, strategic guidance and direction to the ERG Executive Sponsor, Chair, and

Committee Chairs • Allocate and monitor ERG budget expenditures • Share industry research along with internal and external best practices • Assist ERGs with developing a consistent strategy • Drive awareness and education of ERGs

ERG Oversight and Direction

Source: DBP Report33

A diversity council’s members should mirror the diversity in the organization. Councils should be composed of individuals of different genders, generations, departments, and/or other dimensions of diversity. Many diversity councils are designed to address gaps in representation or inclusion for specific demographic groups, including women, racially/ethnically diverse individuals, and people with disabilities. Other councils address diversity and inclusion more broadly and consider every member to represent some aspect of diversity: dimensions may include organizational role or level, educational background, communication or management style, geographic location, and demographic group. Leaders of employee resource groups may also be part of the council. Councils can also include individuals with diversity expertise who do not work for the organization; these outsiders can provide expertise or offer a customer’s perspective.

Importance of Diverse Representation

Source: Catalyst34

At xxx, we recognize and appreciate the importance of creating an environment in which all employees feel valued, included, and empowered to do their best work and bring great ideas to the table. We recognize that each employee’s unique experiences, perspectives, and viewpoints add value to our ability to create and deliver the best possible service, technical assistance, and research to clients and partners. Given that our individual social, economic, and cultural identities shape and influence our experiences and perspectives, it stands to reason that xxx will do its best work by ensuring diversity in our workforce across the various dimensions of social and cultural identity and by practicing inclusivity in how we work with one another. The mission of the D&I Council will be to foster an environment that attracts the best talent, values diversity of life experiences and perspectives, and encourages innovation in pursuit of mission. Using available research and data on effective diversity and inclusion practices, the D&I Council’s efforts will focus on the following objectives. • Building capacity and competency to lead and manage a diverse workforce• Creating a work environment that ensures equal access to opportunities for professional growth and advancement• Developing cultural competence and responsiveness, as an organization, to maximize our effectiveness in project

engagements with clients and partners, considering and respecting their unique perspectives, experiences, and needs.

Our diversity and inclusion objectives, and progress toward achieving them, will be assessed annually to ensure alignment with strategic business objectives.

Example: Stated Commitment to D&I

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The xxx D&I Council will have the following responsibilities. • Conduct a scan of the literature to identify D&I best practices supported by research• Create opportunities for employees to provide feedback to executive staff about organizational climate and culture

(i.e. climate assessments, anonymous satisfaction surveys, focus group sessions, etc.)• Create opportunities for employees to have meaningful engagement with leadership to promote cultural inclusivity

and discuss issues relating to equity in the workplace• Provide feedback and insight to executive staff on issues of culture, climate, equity, inclusion, and diversity in the

workplace, including recommendations and support regarding short- and long-term strategies to meet the organization’s current and future workforce needs (i.e. unbiased recruitment, hiring and retention practices)

• Formulate recommendations for the development or modification of policies and practices that negatively impact diversity, inclusivity, and equity efforts

• Create internal organizational learning opportunities in which employees may voluntarily participate and engage to deepen and develop personal understanding of inclusion and equity at an organizational level

• Identify opportunities for the organization to engage with its broader communities to promote equity, social justice, and inclusion (i.e. community volunteer activities, corporate social responsibility initiatives, etc.)

• Serve as a D&I communications vehicle to senior management as well as across the organization by helping to develop the tone of internal messaging

• Conduct a self-assessment of Council effectiveness during the current fiscal year that describes accomplishments relative to developed goals and chartered responsibilities, challenges and barriers encountered during the period, and recommendations for solutions.

Example: Clearly Stated Responsibilities

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The D&I Council will have two co-chairs and report to the xxx executive team (i.e. including the CEO, CHRO, CDO). Co-chairs will be responsible for meeting scheduling and preparation, meeting facilitation, follow-up on action items, communication and messaging, liaising with the executive team, etc.

A member of xxx’s senior management team will be appointed as the Council’s sponsor. The sponsor will support the Council by providing guidance to the co-chairs; serving as the link between the co-chairs and senior management; acting as an arbitrator and making decisions that may be beyond the authority of the co-chairs and Council members; and supporting co-chairs in presentation of recommendations to the executive team.

Members will be selected by the co-chairs from among employees who express interest in participation and who have approval from their supervisor after review of current workload and consideration of any other factors such as alignment with individual professional development plans. In general, committee membership should reflect a diverse mix of employees, taking into consideration factors such as race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, etc. In addition, members should reflect different business areas of the organization.

Example: Leadership, Membership & Reporting Lines

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Leading our efforts is our Global Diversity & Inclusion Council (GDIC), which is chaired by the CEO and provides strategic direction on how we approach diversity and inclusion as a company. Our GDIC is focused on growing the diverse representation of our workforce, promoting an inclusive workplace and being a place where all employees have the opportunity to achieve their goals and meet the needs of our customers.Providing additional leadership to the GDIC is Corporate General Auditor, who serves as GDIC executive vice chair and represents the company’s management team and partners with our Global Human Resources (GHR) executive, to keep the management team informed about the GDIC’s objectives, progress and areas of opportunity. Providing day-to-day leadership of the GDIC are Vice Chairs, chairman of Global Commercial and Investment Banking, Consumer Lending executive and head of Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions.Also serving on the GDIC is Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, whose Global Diversity & Inclusion Organization partners with GDIC leaders, GHR and other business and regional leaders to determine priorities and initiatives that position the bank as a leader in diversity and inclusion globally. Further, each line of business and region has its own Diversity & Inclusion Council that develops strategies to support our diverse and inclusive environment.

Bank of America’s Global D&I Council

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Intel’s global diversity and inclusion office, which is a central part of the company’s HR function, drives the company’s D&I enterprise. The office works closely with executive leaders to set organizational D&I goals, and provides oversight and direction to the company’s seven leadership councils and 33 ERGs. Intel’s seven leadership councils, composed of over 200 senior leaders, serve as leadership role models and D&I champions for the communities they represent. Each council is assigned specific ERG communities to oversee. Leadership councils also host sponsorship programs to advance ERG leaders and members within their respective communities, and participate in a mentoring program which connects leadership council members with groups of seven to ten senior-level employees to mentor. Employee Communities. There are 33 ERGs at Intel, with 22,368 members overall. Combined, the ERGs operate 168 chapters: 129 in the US and 39 globally. The intersection between the Global D&I Office, leadership councils and ERGs aligns on-the-ground diversity initiatives with Intel’s overarching D&I goals. In the U.S., ERGs are funded through the larger D&I enterprise, however, global chapters and ERGs must secure funding and resources in the regions where they set up shop.

Intel’s D&I Infrastructure

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The University of Rochester enables each academic department and administrative and service unit to create its own Diversity/Cultural Competency Advisory Council. The role of these subordinate councils is to ensure that their diversity initiatives align both with the University’s D&I program and goals in addition to the business unit’s strategic goals.

Sodexo’s Cross-Market Diversity Council (CMDC) is an example of a company-wide advisory council. The charge of the CMDC is to collaborate and operationalize the diversity plan within each business line; serve as thought leaders to advance the D&I strategy; implement D&I at a regional level and align with employee business resource groups.

Kellogg established nine distinct diversity and inclusion councils to drive D&I goals across core business streams:

• D&I Subcommittee of the Finance People Development Committee

• Global Business Services D&I Council• Global Engineering D&I Council• Information Technology Diversity Council• Kellogg Canada Diversity & Inclusion Council• Procurement D&I Council• Research, Quality and Technology Diversity

Taskforce• Wyoming Diversity & Inclusion Council• Women in Supply Chain

Business Focused Diversity Councils

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The company’s two D&I governing bodies ensure that accountability and ownership takes place at all levels: A D&I Steering Committee is responsible to develop corporate Diversity & Inclusion strategy, define global initiatives on D&I, ensure internal and external communication on D&I and evaluate progress on organization’s diversity Goals. Comprised of members from the Alstom executive committee, senior business & global function leaders & members from the HR leadership team, the committee meets once every quarter . The D&I Champions Network is responsible to promote, facilitate and support the implementation of the corporate diversity initiatives at regional and or business unit/project level. The network is chaired by the Global Diversity Champion and the Global Talent Development Director and comprises of D&I representatives from the Regions.Every Region, has the responsibility to develop its D&I Strategy Action Plan, in a consistent way with the global D&I I strategy, but taking into account the varying geographic and sociocultural contexts (e.g., reflecting varying regulatory contexts and differing starting points). While KPI’s for Diversity are set by Global Steering Committee and the EXCOM, we also endeavor to further our Diversity& Inclusion journey by setting KPI’s on “Inclusion” in the future.

Case: Alstom’s Governance Structure

Source: Alstom41

Alstom’s D&I Council

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Case: Dell’s D&I Infrastructure

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