It’s no secret that diversity, equity, and inclusion is facing major criticism. Since the last US election, organisations have had to reckon with increased attacks on their policies, with mounting pressures to drop them altogether. How can we make more robust cases for these policies and not submit to these rising pressures?

Earlier this week, the IPA, in partnership with the Institute For Employment Studies, held a webinar on their Employee Voice Hub diving into this exact issue. Led by Dr Meenakshi Krishna, the Head of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at the EIS, it delved into how to reframe your initiatives to focus on inclusion above all.

The ripple effect  

Meenakshi started by establishing the issues at play for diversity, equity, and inclusion. This included the coercive tactics the US government had been using, such as restricting access to government contracts if companies didn’t abandon their DE&I schemes, as well as deleting words like “women” and “black” from their own databases.

For companies in the UK, the ripple effect of these tactics is being felt, with many organisations now reviewing their representational goals and diluting their agendas, with many public sectors remaining silent on the rising tensions from overseas.

The good news is that the UK has strong legislative framework for protections, giving more security to these proceedings. With 15% of the population being classed as BAME, on track to rise to 25% in the next year, there’s still a strong business case for diversity.

Is there a need to row back?

Amongst a complex economic environment and changing market conditions, Meenakshi posed the question on whether companies should row back on their commitments.

Meenakshi pointed to the way companies value difference through these schemes, reflected in their representational targets. This was demonstrated through the building up of networks, including gender-based ones, parent/carer networks, and minority networks that gave employees space to voice concerns and ideas.

But there were ramifications from this. In her experience, diversity could lead to further divisions, sparked by people using identity politics to push through initiatives, leading to power struggles between networks. Each group uplifted were creating a problem with specialness with each group needing adjustments.

Ultimately, Meenakshi didn’t think this meant you had to throw out the baby with the bathwater, but rather recognise the reality of launching these schemes to tackle them more effectively.

3 ways to pivot from traditional DE&I

By and large, Meenakshi’s philosophy was to Reframe Not To Retreat. In her work, she had seen how not applying these policies effectively led to managers “walking on egg shells”, a sentiment that resonated with the participants.

In response to all these threats, Meenakshi took us through her means of pivoting from DE&I strategies of the past:

• Re-engage staff networks
• Invest in inclusive leadership; harnessing the power of senior leadership and line managers to walk the walk, and establish practices, outside of policy.
• Take an intersectional approach, combining identities to create a more holistic sense of diversity at your organisation.

To demonstrate what this meant in practice, Meenakshi took us through three case studies:

Case study 1

The first case study came from a large media and publications organisation. A toxic environment had begun to grow between staff networks, specifically a self-described gender critical group creating issues with a trans and non-binary network, over the Supreme Court rulings of a definition of a woman.

The cohesive collaboration was being undermined, so leadership launched the Dialogue Project. This was space to speak in a respectful context and understand each side of this debate. This worked to reduce hostility and facilitated ERG leaders’ alignment with broader organisational goals.

Alongside this, employee concerns were heard and understood, allowing them to focus on the work at hand. By creating a proactive solution, there was a middle ground between these networks that didn’t shrink the importance of either.

Case study 2

The second case study was from a third sector educational certification body and membership organisation. It concerned an issue occurring where line managers were being “too nice” and accommodating unreasonable requests, out of fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. This caused the functionality of the organisation to suffer because clear work boundaries were not being set.

To solve this, new training was implemented for line managers and senior leadership on what inclusive leadership meant. This equipped them with exercises, tools, and in some cases scripts, to lead conversation without overstepping or being unreasonable with colleagues.

By giving them these building blocks to difficult conversations around race, gender, and identity, they could understand how to use them in the smaller social settings of their workspaces.

Case study 3

The final case study was from a health and social care regulatory body who was intent on tackling structural and institutional racism. They posed the question of “What does inequalities look like in the organisation?”

This was the focus of a sector-wide employee survey, in which 68% of respondents reported experiencing combined discrimination, i.e. a combination of gender, sexuality, nationality, or ethnicity factors. This meant that the nature of discrimination was more complex than first thought and that understanding the root cause of these issues couldn’t be determined by understanding one aspect.

In response, their findings were disseminated through the organisation and new guidelines were set for employers. This improved the education of colleagues and meant they could better understand the intersection between cultural identities rather than classify them separately.

Q&A discussion

This then led to more open discussion and question asking from the group. These themes ranged from managers feeling pressured into silence as well as bridging the gap between training and recognising and distrusting biases.

How do you tie all the strands together to impact individual practice?

Meenakshi followed the PPP model:

• Policy
• Process
• Practice

Policy is vital – after all, we wouldn’t throw out legislative or company policy because it sets the mandate for what we have to do. At the same time, limiting to simple policy won’t instil the new behaviours that can breed a more welcoming and understanding workforce.

To do so, you need to base policy themes into aspects of process. Training is not the be all and end all of this but is the best way to demonstrate implementation and equip colleagues with the knowhow they need. More than this, communication strategies can amplify this focus to more clearly establish the company efforts to necessitate this commitment to diversity.

The PPP method also is a big step in stopping DEI being isolated. As Meenakshi put it, if there was just two hours training on any other corporate change policy, no one would expect to see change, so why is DEI considered differently?

It takes effort and self-reflection to embrace and embed these habits, and those spaces for honest articulation are vital for managers to voice fears and concerns. From there, tools and exercises can ground their activity and enable self-sufficiency, establishing that it’s more meaningful to have these intentions in place.

How to safeguard against reliance on employees to feedback on policies?

A recurring question was the issue of avoiding the need for colleagues to bear the burden of these policies. Meenakshi emphasised that although colleague-led initiatives were important for the success of DEI initiatives, managing structural and systemic operations needed to work in tandem to ensure success. Otherwise, the company is the one who benefits without tangibly improving interpersonal relationships on the inside.

Conclusion

After delving into the threats of rowing back on DE&I policy, Meenakshi emphasised the importance of the business case of these initiatives. Ultimately, there’s so many conflicting issues to fold in with more on the horizon as Trump’s presidency continues. Managers and comm’s professionals need to consider them holistically, harness the personal experience of the organisation, and create spaces to discuss openly to make for greater honesty and nip these tensions in the bud.