The importance of a diverse and inclusive team

Robert Half’s DEI Council, a supportive group that provides a safe environment to discuss the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion, invited two experts to share their knowledge and experience on diversity and inclusion – Wam Dawson and Catherine Garrod

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Robert Half

What are diversity and inclusion?

WD: For me diversity is about respecting and appreciating what makes people different, but inclusion is allowing people to bring their authentic selves to work, and making sure that their contributions are taken into account.

CG: For me, diversity is who is on the guest list at the event, and inclusion is who is being invited to dance when they get there. The next stage is belonging – where people get to choose what music they dance to, or decide not to dance at all if they don’t want to. Diversity is a fact; inclusion is a choice and belonging is a feeling.

What is the difference between equality and equity?

CG: Imagine a fence with three people trying to see over it, and they’re all different heights – tall, average and short – and only the tallest person can see. Equality would be to give them equal sized stools to stand on, treating them all the same – but the short person still can’t see over the fence! Equity is then giving people stools of the height they actually need to see over the fence in order to create the same experience or outcome. However, if you bring it back to inclusion, the goal would be to take the fence down so there isn’t a barrier in the first place.

WD: I’m in HR so I’ll give a recruitment example. If you’re recruiting for a role and, as part of the solution, you want people to prepare and present a 20-minute case study – it seems fair, right? But if one of those people has, for example, dyslexia and the other does not, you’re treating them fairly, but not equitably. In order to ensure equity, you might need to give the person with dyslexia a little more time to actually read the case study, so you’re bringing them both to the same level.

What does it mean to have a diverse and inclusive team, and why is it so important now?

CG: It’s important to have diversity in the room when you’re making decisions about people – and I’m not just taking about protected characteristics. A good mix should also include things like educational background, income, lived experience and where you’ve grown up.

But having people in the room isn’t enough – inclusivity is also about who gets to talk and whose opinions are heard. There’s a fairly shocking statistic that says 30% of people can dominate 80% of the conversation when you’re in a group, unless you manage it.

WD: Having a diverse and inclusive team gives you a competitive advantage from the offset, straight away, because you have a mix of people. If you are in a meeting room, and you are making a massive decision, but you all look the same and think the same, you don’t know that you are making the right choices. You are probably missing out on 50% of the population, which could help you to make better decisions – and also come up with better ideas.

What are the traps that people and organisations fall into?

WD: Organisations will often hire a DEI leader and tick the box – but how far away is that person on the org chart from the CEO? If they are 10 levels down then that company doesn’t care. I would say a DEI lead needs to be a maximum of two-to-three steps away from the CEO.

The other thing is the budget for DEI. You have appointed the lead, but what are they going to do? Do they have a budget for events, initiatives and training, for example? All of that needs to happen and, often, companies fall into the trap of not thinking about the bigger picture because they are focusing on ticking the box.

CG: Organisations aren’t very good at using data to measure if what they’re doing is working. People tend to get really passionate on this subject – and they will get involved and lead the agenda – but that in itself isn’t enough. If all of those passionate people stopped, would progress stick?

Organisations need data to see if what they’re doing is really working, and they need to embed changes into policies, processes, systems and decision-making. This also needs to be linked into organisational ambition and ESG strategy – if DEI isn’t tied into these things it will always be a weak point and can end up creating fatigue in the organisation, and the passionate people stop trying; then there’s a real risk that progress will stop.

The best way to measure inclusion is to see how valued, heard and involved people are and you can usually use existing questions in an engagement survey for this. Questions about empowerment, recognition and believing that action will be taken on results are great examples. It’s better to ask questions about personal experience rather than DEI specifically; then disaggregate the scores by demographics to see what’s really happening.

WD: Another point would be focusing on employees. You can have a diverse mix of people but, when you go up the management levels, do you see the same level of diversity at the top? Another trap would be to focus on gender at senior management level – but gender isn’t the only thing; there is so much more to diversity than that.

What’s the one thing that we could each do to positively impact DEI?

WD: Empathetic leadership is really important. Imagine a time when you felt embarrassed, or pushed to the side-lines, or when you’ve been making a really good point in a meeting and someone interrupts you because they have a bigger and louder voice. I’m sure you’ve all experienced that and you know how you felt at that particular point. You have to ask yourself, ‘Is this happening in my team?’ And if it is happening, ask yourself ‘What can I do so it doesn’t happen?’ You could be the empathetic leader who says ‘Wait a second; this person is trying to say something here.’ Slowly, this can have a positive impact.

CG: I think organisations sometimes put too much influence on ‘fixing’ under-represented groups, whether that’s through a women in leadership programme, or a programme for people with mixed heritage. There is a place for this, but it is also important that the over-represented groups know what they can do, every day, in order to create more equitable experiences for everyone, and more equitable outcomes.