USA 
United KingdomCalla Devlin
Managing Director, Open to All
Corporate America is running scared of critics that demand an end to DEI initiatives in the workplace according to the headlines. It seems like one way traffic at the moment as company after company bows to the pressure and declares an end to attempts at creating a more diverse workforce. Plenty of companies are still fully commited to making DEI work, so where is the reaction to this pushback?..
Calla Devlin
Managing Director, Open to All
Corporate America is running scared of critics that demand an end to DEI initiatives in the workplace according to the headlines. It seems like one way traffic at the moment as company after company bows to the pressure and declares an end to attempts at creating a more diverse workforce. Plenty of companies are still fully commited to making DEI work, so where is the reaction to this pushback?..
Corporate America is running scared of critics that demand an end to DEI initiatives in the workplace according to the headlines. It seems like one way traffic at the moment as company after company bows to the pressure and declares an end to attempts at creating a more diverse workforce. Plenty of companies are still fully commited to making DEI work, so where is the reaction to this pushback?
Calla Devlin is managing director of Open to All, an organisation that seeks to work with corporates such as Adidas, Gap, Ben & Jerry's, Mars and other non-profit partners to promote and highlight businesses and retail locations that support diversity. She explained to us why now is the time to double down on DEI and ensure that knee-jerk reactions to social media campaigns are the wrong strategic direction to take...
This is what we know: Organizations and companies with diverse employees and leaders succeed and innovate at higher levels than their less diverse peers. They are better able to adapt to an increasingly diverse, global customer base, including Gen Z, and to compete more effectively by attracting top employees from the greatest pool of applicants. But to achieve authentic inclusion and belonging requires business strategies and personnel policies that are centered in the values of inclusion and belonging
Because there is no standardized way to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion into a workplace, it should be no surprise that some missteps have been made somewhere at some point. Those who attack DEI may be cynically seizing on isolated instances of overreach to falsely characterize the entire framework and to keep underrepresented employees from competing with them by leveraging their full potential to the benefit of their company.
Greater commitment to DEI—not less—is the better response, along with clear goals and how to measure them, a mechanism for ongoing feedback and adaptation, and a full, cross-departmental integration of DEI into an organization
Among those who bring good-faith support for the ideals of DEI, there has also been some criticism that, as implemented, it is for only for appearances or amounts to feel-good measures that bring little meaningful benefits. If that is the case, then greater commitment to DEI—not less—is the better response, along with clear goals and how to measure them, a mechanism for ongoing feedback and adaptation, and a full, cross-departmental integration of DEI into an organization.
What gets lost in the political debate is the simple fact that most people support DEI. More than half—56%—of employed adults in the United States say focusing on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion at work is a good thing, according to a Pew Research Center survey. That number jumps to 68% for those aged 18–29, an age group that will be in the workforce for a long time to come. Supporters of DEI among Gen Z will be making decisions about where to devote their talents and will look at whether an employer is inclusive.
Support for DEI must come from the top. Smart company leadership recognizes the critical competitive advantage of having a diverse workforce that is prepared to appeal to diverse customers. When the C Suite supports DEI, those values are integrated across departments and leadership levels. The chief diversity officer should not be the lone advocate. Nor should DEI work be housed exclusively in Human Resources.
When companies cave to anti-DEI political pressure, they tell us they have a limited and outdated understanding of the world and only a short-term plan for business success. They are also telling us that they are not serious about competing in the market. Consider that McKinsey & Company found that “the most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.” On matters of cultural and ethnic diversity, McKinsey found that “top-quartile companies outperformed those in the fourth one by 36% in profitability, slightly up from 33% in 2017 and 35% in 2014.”
When companies cave to anti-DEI political pressure, they tell us they have a limited and outdated understanding of the world and only a short-term plan for business success
Companies that retreat from DEI will almost certainly find themselves struggling and playing catch-up. Shunning employees and leaders with diverse demographic identities correlates to less innovation, smaller market share, and a more limited talent pool. These companies should prepare to lose business. The vast majority of millennials and Gen Z prefer brands that “have a point of view and stand for something,” according to Kantar Consulting. And, by the way, Gen Z is more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation.
A smaller talent pool from which to hire necessarily means lower quality hires. It is easy to understand why: The bigger that applicant pool, the greater likelihood of landing top candidates and forming a team with an array of strengths. Building a team with a variety of identities brings diverse experiences, perceptions, and skills, increasing a company’s ability to appeal to increasingly diverse customers, collaborators, and citizens. The US Diversity Index—a measure of the chance that two randomly chosen people will be from different racial or ethnic groups—was 61.1% in 2020, rising 6 points over 10 years, per Tableau.
Workers should speak up to company leadership about the importance of maintaining a workplace where everyone has a sense of belonging. Talking heads on TV or social media influencers driven by an anti-DEI political agenda should not have more say over a particular company than the people who work there. An organization that gathers feedback and meaningfully acts on it is one that retains employees, competes for talent, and thrives in an increasingly pluralistic world. Open to All, a nondiscrimination nonprofit, offers an inclusion and belonging playbook for deepening support for DEI within the workplace.
There is much myth-busting to be done: DEI is not about taking something from one demographic group and giving it to someone else. DEI does not give people jobs for which they are not qualified. And it does not involve shaming people from one group for what their ancestors did to others. The debate has become political, which unfortunately has led some companies to retreat from DEI in order to not “seem political.” The values that underpin DEI—empathy, inclusion, and a belief in the power of community—are traditional American values and should be part of every company in no small part because of their role in driving business success.
DEI is intended to allow everyone to meaningfully contribute to an organization’s mission—to feel respected, safe, and free to be their authentic selves, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation, and gender expression, and all of the ways we differ. Whether through employee resource groups, apprenticeships, mentoring programs, pay transparency, expansive recruitment processes, and other steps toward creating an inclusive climate, a workplace with DEI is one where we all can thrive and contribute.
