Still Working Off a DEI Strategy from 2020? It’s Time for a Refresh
In 2020, organizations across the world rushed to implement DEI strategies, initiatives, statements, and reports. While 2020 represented a unique and powerful moment for organizations to embrace equity, recent backlash against DEI has proven that not everyone has continued to invest in, protect, and ambitiously expand the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workplaces.
It can be daunting to consider updating or reworking an outdated DEI strategy—especially given the lack of social, cultural, and political support that exists for DEI today versus in 2020. The good news is, you don’t necessarily have to start from scratch. At Justice Informed, we approach DEI strategy creation and review work with our clients by looking at the way the actions and values of DEI show up in the following five areas:
1. Team Culture
A crucial part of any DEI strategy is the ability to both understand the true experience of the workplace culture for staff and to mend any harms or challenges that exist. DEI strategies should leverage employee data that is gathered in a safe and accountable manner to build processes, structures, and healing practices that center the safety, inclusion, and belonging of those who hold marginalized and minoritized identities in the workplace.
To get started in this area, try answering the following questions:
Do members of your team or organization experience cultural challenges related to dominant privileges and systemic inequities (e.g., white supremacy, ableism, sexism, assimilation, etc.)?
To what extent are instances of microaggressions and bias in pay, promotions, hiring, and termination reported across your organization? What processes, systems, or tools do you have in place to support individuals who report these instances?
2. Governance & Leadership
A good DEI strategy should seek to establish and maintain clear, transparent, and accountable ownership and management over the work of DEI in a manner that understands and takes into account the perspectives of staff, particularly those who hold marginalized or minoritized identities. It is also important that a DEI strategy speaks to the levels of trust that exist between leadership, staff, and management, and the impact this has on organizational culture.
To get started in this area, try answering the following questions:
Who leads, manages, and ‘keeps the ball rolling’ for DEI at your organization? How is that individual or team being empowered to make decisions? Are they being justly compensated for their efforts?
To what extent do staff trust organizational leadership generally? How much do they trust leadership’s commitment to the work of DEI and their ability to carry out the work in an inclusive manner?
3. Marketing & Communications
An important aspect of DEI work is the organizational ability to promote accountability via transparent communication of DEI efforts and values at the organization, both internally and externally. This aspect of a DEI strategy also entails a robust understanding of how to center a diversity of voices, perspectives, and faces in marketing materials without tokenizing individual staff or inaccurately reflecting the demographic makeup of the organization.
To get started in this area, try answering the following questions:
How is your team or organization reporting externally on its DEI efforts and progress? Do you feel this communication accurately reflects the work?
How is your team communicating about DEI efforts internally within the organization? Do staff have opportunities to provide input and direction on the work?
4. Primary/Core Services
An effective DEI strategy should understand honestly how an organization's core services, work, and/or products work to uplift and/or diminish the values of DEI in various areas. An honest reflection of any potential inconsistencies can create an opportunity for imagining new ways of carrying out services in ways that can model ambitious change to other organizations in the industry.
To get started in this area, try answering the following questions:
In what ways (if any) do the primary or core services of your organization uplift the work and values of DEI (i.e., working to dismantle systems of oppression, providing resources to historically underserved communities, etc.)? How can you fold DEI more explicitly and ambitiously into these areas to serve as a model for others in the industry?
In what ways (if any) do the primary or core services of your organization promote values that are antithetical or separate from that of DEI (i.e., profiting off of systemic inequities, promoting exclusion)? How can you begin to name and combat the inequities and inconsistencies that may exist within your work?
5. Policies & Practices
A DEI strategy is incomplete without a deep and nuanced look at how DEI can and should show up in various organizational policies, practices, and procedures, ranging from structures for meeting agendas to an employee whistleblower policy to parental leave policies. Further, structures for tracking the overall goals of the DEI strategy should be formally codified to create a more concrete system of accountability for the work.
To get started in this area, try answering the following questions:
How is your organization or team embedding the values of DEI into all its policies and procedures (i.e., decision-making structures, parental leave policies, employee handbooks, etc.)
Is there a gap that exists between the policies that support marginalized and minoritized employees at your organization and their awareness of those policies/likelihood to use them?
A lot can change in four years—for the world, the country, organizations, and individuals. Organizational and team DEI strategies have to be updated to account for these new realities so that the goals and outcomes of these strategies are best positioned to tackle the unique challenges and opportunities of the moment.
Is your organization or team still relying on a DEI strategy from 2020? Do you want to revamp your organization or team’s DEI strategy, but are unsure where to start? Contact us at info@justiceinformed.com or visit our website today to see how we can help.
