Some businesses appear to be backtracking or weakening their stance in the face of a backlash against DEI policies led by politically motivated figures in the US. Such shifts in HR policy will be counterproductive, writes David Rice at People Managing People.
In the US, diversity, equity, and inclusion has been weaponised into political rhetoric – particularly by Republican party figures. It’s easy to see their intention behind doing so: to belittle the achievements of others. With the Democratic presidential nomination being secured by Kamala Harris, some have claimed the candidate has only risen as a national figure because of her identity as a black woman. Tennessee congressman Tim Burchett called Harris a “DEI hire”, while Wisconsin’s Glenn Grothman said the Democrats “feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background”.
Admittedly, others in the Republican party – notably House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson – have warned colleagues against such rhetoric. Johnson told the press: “This election … is going to be about policies, not personalities. Her ethnicity, her gender, has nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
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But Donald Trump’s rhetoric querying Harris’s ethnicity and around “black jobs” suggests the Republican nominee hasn’t quite got the memo.
VP Harris has an impressive career in law and politics and is a merited candidate for the office of the President. How can a former district attorney for the country’s most economically important state (California), turned senator and then vice president not be qualified, but a businessman who led a fraudulent university and who is a convicted felon is qualified?
DEI should be defended but one senses that organisations are now lacking conviction in their defence of it. We’re even seeing major businesses pandering to the rhetoric about DEI, their HR teams now changing the acronym to I&D (inclusion and diversity) to try to avoid the equity conversation. This shows an incredible amount of weakness and only backs up the notion that this is all vanity.
Central component
What should be done, by businesses and leading HR organisations, is to acknowledge where DEI needs improving and rethinking, and what needs to be done to fix it. But it still needs to be a central component of every business’s purpose and talent strategy.
There are several proven benefits to DEI strategies. First of all from a financial perspective, companies with diverse leadership teams often outperform their less diverse counterparts. Diversity allows for enhanced creativity, with different perspectives and viewpoints comes better problem solving and innovation.
And, when it comes to employees, diversity enables every individual to feel included and valued, which in turn creates a more engaged and productive workforce.
Yes, DEI is rightly criticised by some for falling short or only being used as a marketing tool or for social capital, but that doesn’t mean its aims are wrong or unmerited. It should be upheld and efforts should be transparent in their purpose and intention. It needs to be backed by data and business-focused. Those are its biggest shortcomings.
In terms of how to defend it, it’s the same as it ever was, you stay committed. It’s always been about actions, not words. You can call it whatever you want, whether it’s inclusion and belonging, DEI, D&I, I&D, it doesn’t matter. Settle on a term and commit to its principles in an unwavering fashion.
Don’t be complacent
Your workforce should represent the communities in which you do business, your workers should be paid equitably and feel as though their insights, skills and experiences are included in how you do business and how leaders think about and structure the workforce.
If you think we’ve come so far and no longer need DEI, you only have to look at the recent riots across the UK to see that racism, xenophobia and the “othering” of groups of people is alive and well. And then there were the racist comments made by political donor Frank Hester back in March – which the Conservative party in the UK did not consider serious enough to return his money.
Prejudice and discrimination live on and to think they don’t pervade our institutions is naive at best. Business leaders must ask what their organisations stand for if they are to attract the best talent. Depending on what study you look at, somewhere between 77%-83% of Gen Z and 63% of millennials say a company’s commitment to DEI plays a role in their decision whether or not to take a job.
We shouldn’t still be having issues around DEI in 2024, but in order to continue to drive change, it is the responsibility of all businesses to get it right and strive for equality.
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