Times are unprecedented. We constantly use this phrase to describe the pandemic, the shift to hybrid and digital work, and 2020 in its entirety. COVID transformed multiple aspects of our lives, both personally and professionally. However, the pandemic was not the only transformative factor of the past two years; another movement simultaneously disrupted the way we live and work. In 2020, the social justice movement took center stage, becoming what most call an “international phenomenon.” This was a time when the news cycle was rife with headlines about racial injustices toward the Black community, hate crimes toward the Asian community, and a rapid increase in the number of women leaving the workforce due to the pandemic. There was barely enough time to process one negative headline before we were hit with another.
This was also a time when employees were looking to their employers for empathy, compassion, and support. At that moment, employees — specifically, employees of color — needed to know that their company and colleagues cared about their well-being and supported them. Companies needed to act quickly to assure employees that they were committed to providing a diverse and equitable work environment where all employees could thrive and have a strong sense of belonging.
At the time, I was co-steering Forrester’s Diversity & Inclusion Council, an employee-led initiative to accelerate D&I initiatives at Forrester. The events of 2020 underscored and accelerated the criticality of these efforts. Employees, like so many in society, were eager to act and become better allies to Black and minority communities. At that moment, we needed to find the right balance between building and executing a longer-term D&I strategy while taking immediate actions to stand with employees against racial violence, injustice, and inequities. Upon reflection, there are four key pieces of personal advice I’d offer to anyone creating a D&I strategy.
Listen To Your Employees
Your D&I strategy should center around your employees. After all, employees are the heartbeat of an organization. Their feedback and experience should dictate a company’s D&I focus areas and strategy. When building Forrester’s D&I strategy, we had conversations with more than 100 employees across the globe to get a pulse on how our programming could both ensure and increase a sense of belonging among colleagues. These conversations allowed us to view the world through their eyes. By connecting with employees and getting first-hand information about their experiences, we were able to prioritize efforts accordingly.
Do What’s Best For Your Organization
It is critical to understand where your company is in its D&I journey to remain authentic to your brand and values. We built our approach to D&I based on employee feedback. Our employees wanted safe spaces to get together and discuss topics that were top of mind for them, so we launched D&I employee groups. These Diversity & Inclusion Networks, or “DINs,” as we call them, have three main goals:
- Create safe spaces to talk about D&I at work.
- Communicate and advance the D&I Council’s progress.
- Continue to listen to employees, globally, and incorporate their feedback to plan and implement the next steps.
Today, our DINs give the employees the platform they need to discuss key topics including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and identity, ageism, and ability in a psychologically safe environment. Our DINs continue to create space for connection and have expanded to help educate and drive awareness around the significance of events such as Black History Month and Pride Month, as well as how to create a more inclusive and accessible environment for all.
Think Globally
Your D&I strategy must be localized and reflect the priorities for each region you’re operating in. Your global offices and employees follow their own cultural norms, have different needs and concerns, and operate in different time zones. If you are not connecting with your employees across all geographic locations, your strategy is not inclusive. It seems obvious, but people often forget: To have a comprehensive D&I program, you must think globally.
We activated DINs in nine countries across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. By creating these groups, we were able to provide region-specific and more localized programming, activate our employees globally, and address each population’s unique needs.
Keep Going
While setting up these DIN groups was a step in the right direction to engage employees who were already passionate about D&I, we also needed to provide more education to all employees. Some employees were confused about what was going on or how what was going on affected their workplace. Others felt uncomfortable about discussing sensitive D&I topics.
To help employees understand the significance of the moment, we launched an internal campaign focused on building empathy and awareness. As part of the campaign, we encouraged employees to share anonymous stories of microaggressions they might have experienced in their careers and paired them with resources that explained why that experience could be perceived as exclusive or divisive. We posted those stories and educational resources twice a week and asked employees to reflect on them on their own time. This initiative allowed us to increase education around how certain behaviors — as unintentional as they might be — could be misconstrued and make people feel uncomfortable.
Conclusion
My experience has taught me that D&I is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Every organization has employees who represent an array of different lived experiences and thus have different needs. It’s important to remember that the key ingredient to D&I is your workforce. Listen to and activate your employees regardless of region, demographic, or knowledge level, and think outside of the box to meet your employees’ needs. Every employee contributes to your culture, which means every employee has an influence on building an inclusive culture.
