When Nicole Hughey was hired as VP of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Sirius XM in July 2020, she joined executives at hundreds of other companies who were tasked with effecting “real change,” according to a memo from Sirius XM.

Now, across corporate America, that “real change” may be headed in the opposite direction.

“I’m seeing colleagues laid off, entire teams wiped out, and DEI budgets are being slashed because folks are focusing on other things,” said Hughey, now a senior VP. “That’s the biggest obstacle right now.”

The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 led to a surge in businesses and organizations across the country pledging an increased focus on DEI efforts. In the past year, however, that momentum has been stalled by corporate austerity, “diversity fatigue” among some members of the workforce, as well as political backlash.

How can DEI leaders and advocates adapt? In one sense, the push to foster a more understanding and accepting workforce has evolved from leaders wanting to teach employees how to be inclusive to current strategies based on listening to the experiences of individual workers.

“We should listen with curiosity and not listen to solve,” Hughey said. “If you listen, you get data, and that can help us directionally with where we need to go.”

Hughey and four other DEI leaders spoke during a panel moderated by New York Times deputy managing editor Monica Drake as part of From Day One’s live conference in Brooklyn.

Funding DEI and its Profit Potential

As businesses experience economic headwinds spurred by the aftereffects of heightened inflation, DEI funding has been caught in the crosshairs as companies look to preserve profits.

Atrium’s VP of people and engagement Cara Zibbell said it’s essential for executives to understand that DEI efforts can bring monetary value to a business, albeit indirectly.

“This is about employee engagement and DEI is part of a pillar in that,” she said. “I think we all stand to achieve both goals — people goals and profit goals. Marry the two and run them parallel.”

Keeping experience on the payroll by maximizing employee engagement benefits companies in the long run, says Heather Tinsley-Fix, senior advisor for financial resilience at AARP. “The Mercer Workforce Sciences Institute released a study last year that said tenure is directly related to business success,” she said. “There are two implications I take from that: Experience does, in fact, matter, and the other is it’s important to have employees who are employees rather than consultants or gig workers. Bringing employees in and keeping them there has a real impact on the bottom line.”

Saks VP of DEI Alicia Williams said her team uses the acronym CAPS to operate under budget restrictions and said it’s important to remember that not all problems must be solved for DEI efforts to be worthwhile. “We go into “All CAPS” mode,” she said. “CAPS stands for collaboration, asking, prioritizing and strategizing.”

Williams says her team is always looking for other businesses to combine forces to achieve a common goal, and said they’ve also learned that sometimes a solution can be found just by asking company executives for help.

“Prioritizing is learning to have a realistic conversation with yourself — hey, we may want all of this, but what are the priorities for this year?” she said.

Identifying Goals and Tools

Since creating a DEI-focused program in 2021, NAF, a nonprofit that supports career academies within traditional high schools,  has embraced an internal and external strategy for helping its leaders create a feeling of safety among its employees, said Tara Bellevue, VP of diversity, equity and access strategy.

“We’re a lesser-known company, but we’ve made progress in the last few years,” she said. “We talk about brave spaces and invite people into it. This is where we’re sharing and have that happen not just once, but on a regular basis.”

Panelists agreed that both formal and informal avenues of employee engagement should be considered.

“They’re both really important,” Hughey said. “Not every structure you set up will get you the information you might want or need, so those informal conversations are critically important.”

About 70% of executive senior leaders fear showing empathy because it is often perceived as a weakness, Zibbell says.

“How do we bridge that gap?” she asked. “Listening is not just tuning in or taking information and putting yourself in their shoes. It’s stopping and understanding that I can’t just know what it’s like in your shoes.”

Taking a Top-down Approach

While adverse conduct exhibited by employees in organizations is often the result of ingrained behaviors, Drake asked panelists if it is possible to be taught how to appropriately speak, listen and engage more productively.

“Yes, you can, but it starts with creating an environment within a space,” Bellevue said.

Hughey agreed, “But with anything you learn, it takes time to get it right. I ask leaders to give themselves grace and give themselves permission to go into something that is uncomfortable. Two or three years ago when I first joined Sirius XM, we forced leaders into conversations about race. I know they thought I lost my mind, but it was important for me to say, ‘As leaders, you must lead the way. I need you to show up authentically as yourself.’”

Tinsley-Fix, who focuses on generational biases that may lead to the pushing aside of older Americans in the workplace, says it’s key for employees to have humility.

“You have to have a balance of people with different levels of experience. Older white men do have something to bring to the table, but you must have that humility. Recognizing the explosion of all of these different aspects of diversity is important, but it also makes it challenging.”

Noting that in the beginning of the DEI movement it was referred to as EDI, Williams said more shifts will occur as the initiatives continue to evolve.

“We must stay up on trends, on how communities are impacted and use inclusive language libraries. DEI shouldn’t just be in HR, it should extend to marketing, finance and merchandising — not just during holidays and heritage months. In the future, think about how you will restructure DEI in your organization, so it remains relevant.”

Hughey concluded, “We all have egos, but at the end of the day, if I leave my organization and they think DEI has gone away because I left, I have not done my job.”

Tim Zyla is the managing editor of a community newspaper in Pennsylvania and has a strong interest in business and finance.