In today’s evolving corporate landscape, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) have become crucial components of business strategy. However, economic challenges have led some organizations to scale back these initiatives.
The Horton International blog of August 3rd 2024 “The Rise and Fall of DEI: Navigating the Shifting Landscape”, described that even though Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives have been at the forefront of global corporate strategies in recent years, the current uncertain time with slashed budgets as organisations grapple with economic challenges has entailed a significant decline in the DEI efforts.
The McKinsey & Company report of December 2023, “Diversity matters even more: The case for holistic impact” concluded that the business case for DEI was the strongest it has been since they had been tracking. It also concluded that leadership diversity was “associated with holistic growth ambitions, greater social impact, and more satisfied workforces”, i.e. essential factors for global overall organisational success.
Therefore, DEI is as important as ever even in uncertain times with economic challenges, and consequently, it cannot be emphasized enough how critical DEI is to the well-being, innovation ability, productivity and success of companies and organizations.
DEI is often prioritized and professionally managed by HR but is so business critical that the commitment from top management must be most genuine. DEI needs to be an overarching ambition throughout the company and permeate all business decisions, as it drives engagement, innovation and foresight, and is crucial to attracting and retaining the skills needed in an ever-changing world and ever-ongoing transformation of business.
Diversity does certainly not only include the parameters of gender and ethnicity. Diversity has to be seen in a broader perspective also including additional parameters such as age, religion, competence and skills, experience, personal characteristics, etc. Equity can be regarded as a prerequisite for diversity in organizations to flourish. Inclusion can be considered as the glue, or the embracement of all individuals in the organization, that enables the entire organization to reach its full potential.
To achieve the DEI success factors that drives sustainable growth and long-term success as well as creates agile, flexible organizations capable of withstanding global risks and future challenges in your company, we summarize some key recommendations:
- Anchor a well-defined inclusive leadership, a leadership that continuously strives for openness, sensitivity and curiosity for diversity and broader perspectives.
- Secure a long-term strategy with requirements and goals for your future management composition and management supply.
- Make sure that individuals in the organization have equal opportunities and support to identify their strengths and potentials.
- Ensure the high quality and professionalism of your recruitment processes to include the entire skill and competence base on the market, even outside your own industry.
- When using external executive search, request a deep understanding of your company’s situation, goals, needs, challenges and opportunities, and require a distinct diversity of relevant candidates.
Then great business success will be within reach!
