Finding the Most Accurate and Enlightening Ways to Measure DEI
BY Valerie Schloredt May 05, 2023Your organization aims to embrace diversity. But is there an accurate way to measure how your DEI efforts are working? What does the data look like when individual workers feel they belong? That was the theme of “Finding the Most Accurate and Enlightening Ways to Measure DEI,” a panel at From Day One's live conference in Seattle, moderated by Puget Sound Business Journal’s Cathy Duchamp. You know you have an inclusive, culturally relevant workplace if people there are thriving, said Leann Pereira, senior director of people and learning sciences at Emtrain. Her company sees cultural knowledge and inclusion as a learned skill, she explained. “Our model is focused on people first learning to stay grounded and be self-aware, and then learning to connect and build relationships with others who may not be exactly like them.” Emtrain offers assessment at different levels: to help people understand the quality of their individual relationships; to assess team dynamics; and to assess organizational systems and processes. “We provide a way for DEI practitioners to speak to executive stakeholders and board members and develop strategies because they have data and analytics that can inform programs.”Elizabeth Umphress, a professor and faculty director of the Consulting and Business Development Center at the University of Washington, has spent 25 years researching training. Her work includes finding out what doesn’t work as well as what does. For example, she cites a meta-analysis of studies showing that making diversity training mandatory may be counterproductive. Voluntary training is better. “I see an incredible amount of promise with civility training, which is learning how to treat one another with respect and dignity. If I was an organizational leader, that's what I would look to. I certainly wouldn't look to mandatory diversity training, and I would definitely not make it online. Civility training is amenable to different formats and much less costly.”The current period is one of well-known challenges related to burn-out and workforce retention. Gloria Ngezaho, senior human resources manager for workforce & workplace equity for King County, Wash., points out that, at the same time, a generational shift in the workforce has begun. Gen Z is coming in with different desires and expectations. Interviewees often make it clear they’re attracted to inclusivity and more interested in projects than in long-term security. So, ways of creating workplace culture need to shift, too, says Ngezaho. Delay planning for your changing workforce, and you're going to struggle to attract the type of talent that you need.Cathy Duchamp of the Puget Sound Business Journal moderated the conversation (photo by David Ryder for From Day One)The next generation is not just motivated by a paycheck, Ngezaho said. They’re interested in how they feel at work. “Do they feel comfortable, do they feel safe? Do they feel like they’re happy in the space? Do they feel like they’re contributing something beyond Monday to Friday, 8-5? We're just starting to understand them, because they're just starting to show up in data points.”Mardia Shands, chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Swedish Health Services, agrees about the importance of looking to the future. Organizational preparation now has to go beyond DEI discussions about race to consider the needs of every demographic within an organization, including parents of young children and caregivers. The question is, “How are you creating a culture so that people can come into that organization and thrive as their whole, true, authentic selves?”Trust and SurveysThere is such a thing as survey fatigue. But Pereira says that the right survey can help you understand the way people experience work. “Where our surveys need to go is to assess risk and to understand the experience and then to inform strategic actions.” In decision-making, Umphress recommends asking the opinions of those who are going to be most impacted. “We have really smart people who are working for us,” she said. “And if they trust you, they will tell you what they think.” Her research demonstrates that employee distrust is generated not just by experiencing unfairness but also by observing it. So, she encourages people making decisions about layoffs and pay cuts to think about long-term consequences for their workforce. “You need to probably expect a performance reduction. And you might expect turnover, too,” she warned. “The people who are going to leave are going to be the ones who can leave, which are going to be the ones who are the high performers.”Beyond surveys, “We get data every single day that we overlook,” said Ngezaho. That data can come from one-on-one conversations, through the interview and feedback process, and from internal data: on harassment and discrimination, and from employee assistance programs, affinity groups, and disability programs. “There's a lot of data that's already there, that people have been sharing all the time.” Pereira observed, “The clients who have the most successful human resources practices, I think, are the ones who understand that it’s qualitative data. I'm hearing my colleagues say, ‘Use all your stories and all your numbers. Don't just do surveys.’”It also helps when employees believe that surveys lead to action, notes Umphress. A best practice she sees within organizations is transparency regarding salient outcomes like salary. Looking at data by gender, race, and ethnicity will reveal significantly unequal outcomes, owing to the prevalence of implicit bias. Several panelists underlined that point: unconscious bias is real. But the growth mindset, says Umphress, is to accept that reality and take it on. “There's data-demonstrated interventions that we can do in order to change that.”In tightening economic times, how does one make the pitch to managers to maintain or grow teams? Shands reflected, “We as a society have to get to a place where we recognize the humanity in people. In order for us to thrive, we have to invest in ourselves, and organizations are no different. That's why we invest in making sure that the organization is diverse and inclusive. And we have to have a sense of belonging in order for us to be able to bring our best performance.”Valerie Schloredt is a writer and editor living in Seattle. She is the former books editor for YES! magazine.
Inclusion on Purpose: Making Workplaces Where Everyone Can Belong
BY Valerie Schloredt March 10, 2023Ruchika Tulshyan lives in Seattle, where people often tell her that the challenge of bias and discrimination is not an issue in this liberal part of the country. But after working as a business reporter in different countries and cities, Tulshyan moved to the Seattle area to work in tech, where discrimination and bias are “writ large” in the industry, she said.Her experience got her thinking about defining what makes certain workplaces better than others for people of historically underestimated identities. Now, as CEO and founder of inclusion-strategy practice Candour, Tulshyan is a noted speaker on what it takes to create workplaces where everyone can belong. She describes those practices and behaviors in her book Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work.At From Day One’s Seattle conference, Tulshyan talked with journalist Naomi Ishisaka, assistant managing editor for diversity, inclusion, and staff development at the Seattle Times, as well as a columnist there on race, culture, equity and social justice.Ishisaka began by pointing out that the inclusion may be widely accepted as a cultural value in places like the Seattle conference, but “we struggle turning that value into action.” Tulshyan talked with journalist Naomi Ishisaka of the Seattle TimesThe biggest barrier to change, said Tulshyan, which she addresses in her book, is when people rely too much on their self-image of being a good person with good intentions. Instead, we should allow ourselves to experience discomfort, asking ourselves questions like, “Who do I hire on my team? Who am I promoting into those who get to speak in meetings, whose ideas carry weight and influence and power?”“I think we forget that in every moment, it's a very active process,” said Tulshyan. She frequently coaches organizational leaders to move past the barrier of their self-image to put diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into practice on a daily basis. One way to begin to engage with the work, she says, is to start consuming media, like Ishisaka’s column, that presents a wider focus.Tulshyan and Ishisaka agreed that the burden of driving cultural and organizational change should not be on the people who have experienced marginalization, exclusion, and bias. For example, much of the narrative around women’s leadership emphasizes individual performance and strategies, urging women to “lean in,” negotiate better, and shake off the lack of confidence and self-doubt described as “imposter syndrome.” Instead, a social-justice lens sees how workplace discrimination is systemic. Tulshyan offered an example, saying she had recently heard similar anecdotes from friends involved in the hiring process in four different organizations. In each case, when someone involved in hiring expressed preference for a job candidate “because they could imagine going out for a drink with them,” that candidate matched the speaker’s racial identity, and in many cases, their gender identity as well.“Intersectionality,” the term coined by author and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes how people of more than one marginalized identity can face discrimination multiplied. Tulshyan found her experience as a woman of color in the tech industry differed from that reported by her colleagues who were white women. “I started noticing when I was in the tech industry that I would get left out of invitations, social invitations to connect after work. That kind of thing had a material impact on my career.”Part of the solution is to put the role of ally into practice. “I talk about allies not as a noun, but really as a verb,” said Tulshyan, who prompts colleagues and leaders to ask themselves, “What does it look like to practice allyship in every moment?” What could make leaders care more about putting DEI values into action? Tulshyan mentioned the McKinsey data showing that companies with diversity in leadership teams outperform their peers. Centering people of color and marginalized people makes good business sense, “but honestly, at the core of it, it’s the right thing to do.”Valerie Schloredt is a writer and editor living in Seattle. She is the former books editor for YES! magazine.