Why better reporting on racial and ethnic equity can improve diversity and inclusion outcomes

Since private and public organizations began centring, monitoring, and evaluating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over 60 years ago, the corporate environment has seen many gains for historically marginalized people. Women’s representation, for example, has increased across the entire corporate pipeline over the last five years. These advancements result from businesses placing a similar emphasis on DEI strategy as they do for their business strategies.

Though corporations generally acknowledge DEI as an intrinsic part of a thriving business culture and operations, racial and ethnic equity remain among the most challenging issues to address within the DEI space. Again, this is most obvious when we look at women in leadership in the corporate space. One fifth of C-suite leaders in the US are white women, but only 4% are women of colour. In light of persisting racial and ethnic equity gaps companies are challenged consider the effects of their customs, policies, and systems on historically marginalized groups.

A global pandemic and increased criticism of structural racism and ethnic discrimination worldwide have highlighted the historical disparities in accessing resources and opportunities for racially and ethnically marginalized communities worldwide in the last few years. Leaving these disparities unaddressed presents a risk to all who have benefitted from the substantial progress made through DEI efforts in the workforce over the last half-century, especially to those who identify as racially or ethnically underrepresented. Companies can seize this moment to re-envision and contribute to a fairer and more inclusive society for all.

We asked global DEI leaders for their perspective on how effective racial and ethnic equity strategies are distinct from existing, broader DEI efforts and how can they best complement them?

Lucia Melcore, HR Director Equality and Inclusion Europe, P&G

Key challenges in establishing racial and ethnic equity are quite unique and require tailored strategies that can be inspired from broader equality and inclusion work but need to be highly customized to:

This will require us to develop new skills and approaches that will benefit the broader DEI work by bringing depth of understanding and adapting to different cultural nuances.

Carolanne Minashi, Global Head of Inclusion, HSBC

As a global organization, with major employee populations in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and MENAT, we’re mindful that ethnicity means different things in different markets. The way that groups define themselves differs from region to region; and the groups that are typically under-represented in the workforce varies as well. Even the language used around ethnicity differs around the world. In some places we cannot even collect ethnicity data for legal or cultural reasons, although this list might be shorter than you’d think.

Globally, we take a consistent approach to DEI strategies. The context might be different for ethnicity, but the approach is the same. All effective DEI strategies begin with evidence-based decisions, based on real data. Data enables us to target our actions, measure progress and hold ourselves to account.

So, where we can, we compare our employee diversity data with available external census data in each market to identify any representation gaps and take specific action. Then we seek to improve representation by setting ambitious goals and focusing on hiring, promoting and keeping our underrepresented talent. And, as always, that means enabling markets to set locally meaningful data-driven goals and take focussed action.

Karyn Twaronite, Partner, Global Vice-Chair, Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness, EY

The events of the last few years have spotlighted long-term disparities in access to resources and opportunities, especially among marginalized communities, and the risks of leaving those gaps unaddressed. Now is the time to reimagine a better, more equitable world where everyone – particularly those facing greater barriers to success – can thrive.

Equity is about recognizing that everyone has different starting points and needs, and that structural and systemic advantages and disadvantages impact a person’s access to resources, how they are perceived and evaluated, and whether they experience a sense of belonging.

The real change begins when we start to deconstruct potential systemic barriers - taking a closer look at the structures and processes that are sustaining inequities, not only within organizations but across society.

We’re complementing our broader DEI efforts with an accelerated focus on social equity by:

Ultimately, the aim is for a more equitable working world where everyone can thrive, which means all of us do better.