Implementing DEI – where to begin?

The goal of DEI work is the wellbeing of all personnel and each individual, the sustainable development of the company and good productivity. In order to carry out this work in an organisation, it is important to know the employees, the organisational culture and all the practices and approaches related to employees.

Here are five tips to help you get started with DEI work. You can also apply them if it feels like your organisation has not made sufficient progress through previous measures.

1. Identify challenges

When it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, the challenges are often specific to each organisation. When your organisation gets started with DEI work, it is important to identify these challenges comprehensively. This will allow you to find the right solutions to the particular challenges that exist in your organisation.

The most common challenge is a low level of awareness. Awareness can be raised through common information sessions, focusing on topics such as terminology and the basics of DEI.

Various employee surveys that have already been conducted will provide useful additional information. It is essential to address any opinions and emotions related to equity, acceptance, possible discrimination, appreciation and respect within the organisation.

If such information does not exist, you can obtain answers through a separate survey and a DEI audit. An expert partner can create a summary of the responses in which the challenges are identified. After this, you can start thinking about solutions. 

For example, if the recruitment process reveals that recruiters are prejudiced against certain types of applicants, it would be important to organise training for recruiting individuals on unconscious bias and change the recruitment process in this regard.

Another example of a challenge that can be identified in the audit is bystanders. This group may need intervention training to help them learn how to intervene in inappropriate behaviour and adopt appropriate practices.

Addressing each prioritised challenge in this way is an effective way to promote DEI.

2. Measure and monitor data

Transparent metrics that are known to all employees are important. They increase trust in DEI work and also help to engage and motivate individuals.

Metrics allow companies to constantly monitor the achievement of DEI goals. Communicating progress to stakeholders and employees in the same way will save time.

You can obtain good, measurable data from employee surveys and regarding the achievement of the goals of equality plans. When getting started with DEI, it is a good idea to identify the starting point for diversity, equity and inclusion. When selecting new metrics, it is useful to consult an expert specialised in measuring DEI and take the time to measure the right metrics. 

The continuous promotion of DEI will affect the entire organisation and its culture, and its results can be seen in the long term. It is often a matter of changing attitudes, learning new things and unlearning prejudices. For this reason, performance measures such as KPIs alone are not enough. 

3. Sufficient resources, shared responsibility

Since DEI is a broad concept and lasting results can only be seen over a long period of time, resources must be allocated carefully and systematically. DEI work must be assigned an owner, a separate budget and a sufficient number of employees in relation to the size of the organisation. Various studies show that organisations tend to underestimate the time, money and human resources required to achieve visible results in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion.

A cost-effective approach would be to involve DEI experts already when gathering information, before deciding on the budget. DEI experts can help the organisation form a realistic idea of the necessary timeframe and budget. At the same time, it is easier to delegate responsibility to experts when they are involved from the start. 

4. Choose an expert partner

The expert who will help you get started with DEI should be chosen carefully. Here, it is important to consider your organisation’s work culture, size, number of employees and industry. The expert you choose should be familiar with these things so that they know where to start.

It is a good idea to ask other organisations in the same industry, your stakeholders and partners what kind of experts they have chosen to work with and what references they have emphasised.

It is important that you are committed to the fact that more than one expert may be needed as the work progresses. This will give you a stronger guarantee that your DEI efforts will produce extensive, lasting positive results for the organisation in the long run.

5. Get everyone involved!

You should include your entire personnel in DEI work. You can engage them, for example, by integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into everyone’s work in small ‘doses’ and while providing reasons.

It is a good idea for your organisation to incorporate DEI content into your discussion culture and existing approaches. This ensures that DEI topics are known and applied in everyday work.