Advancing racial equity needs more than good intentions

Before May 2020, advancing racial equity was not a usual topic on corporate agendas globally or in the US. That changed in the wake of George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Facing pressure from employees, shareholders and consumers, many made long-overdue commitments to racial justice. Inclusion Diversity and Equity (ID&E) positions surged. According to McKinsey, “The rate of new Chief Diversity Officer hires in 2021 was nearly triple the rate of hires in the previous 16 months. In fact, among Fortune 500 companies… more than 60 have, since May 2020, appointed their first ever diversity leader.”

While ID&E has been a core value at The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) for 20+ years, we established the Equity and Engagement Center of Excellence and created the role I hold today in 2021: Senior Vice President, Equity and Engagement.

We set a bold racial equity agenda and we are proud of our outcomes and progress. Every day, we work hard to expand and embed our progress — not just towards racial equity, but equity for marginalised populations across our ELC community.

We’ve more than doubled our hires from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We’ve increased spending with Black-owned suppliers by 115% and distributed more than $12 million to racial justice organizations since June 2020. We’re also better serving Black consumers with improved products, greater creative representation and more Black talent influencing our offerings, from concept to campaign to counter.

About two years into my new role, we've learned lessons both motivating and daunting. Even at ELC, where ID&E is in our DNA, advancing equity is hard — and the energy is hard to sustain. Each day brings new challenges, from global economic uncertainty to competitive markets for talent. And, when equity efforts compete for attention and resources, they too often lose out.

Realizing racial equity takes more than good intentions. Equity cannot be an initiative. It must be integrated into policies, practices and procedures. To maintain momentum, I've embraced four approaches:

In 2020, many companies set ambitious equity goals. At ELC, one of ours was to reach US population parity for our Black employees at all levels by 2025. But moves of this magnitude are complex and, in this case, span recruiting, career advancement and retention. It’s important to take it one step at a time.

When reviewing your company’s hiring practices, there are a few important questions: Are the requirements in your job descriptions, e.g. degrees or certifications, necessary for success? If not, why discourage promising candidates with different experiences from applying? Is your slate of candidates diverse? Are you creating barriers by prioritising candidates referred via pre-existing networks? From recruiting people with varied experiences to hosting diverse interview panels, we can bring greater equity into these processes.

Being intentional about our recruiting and hiring practices has helped to increase the number of Black candidates hired to 19.5% in fiscal year 2022 from 14.2% in fiscal year 2021. Now, we’re investing even more on retention, increasing listening sessions with employees and creating mentorship and sponsorship groups tailored for Black employees to encourage learning and career growth.

It will take time to reach our parity goal — but we’re headed in the right direction.

Like many other global businesses, while our racial equity efforts were rooted in the US, we recognize the importance of applying a global lens to this work. Equity should matter to everyone. For companies to expand this work around the world, we must start with education.

Leaders must keep in mind that equity won’t mean the same thing to everyone. The policies and laws in one market may not apply to others, so approaching our work with nuance and cultural sensitivity is paramount.

This means we should provide tools and training to cultivate an equity mindset. Leadership accountability is indispensable for progress and it is critical to continue to develop and hone these skills.

Advancing racial equity requires a willingness to refresh programmes, even those that work. As new doors are opened, new barriers may be uncovered. That’s okay — as long as you are willing to address them.

At ELC, for example, we’re deeply proud of our From Every Chair Program, an initiative that provides sponsorship and mentorship opportunities to Black employees at every level. Between January 2021 and January 2023, 34.4% of employees who went through the programme were promoted. Now, two years in, we’ve realized we can make a good thing better, by shifting from offering a universal programme to one that is tailored to meet individual employees’ roles and needs for advancement.

If you’re driving this work, you know it can be taxing, especially if you’re a member of a marginalised group. When change doesn’t come as fast as it should, there’s a risk of disillusionment or burnout. If that happens, everyone loses. So, how do we sustain our own strength?

I’m a lawyer by training. For much of my career, I measured my success through wins and losses. But bending the arc of the moral universe doesn’t lend itself to those metrics. In my current role, my new metric is, “Did I put something in motion to move us a little further along?”

If each of us — whatever our role — can answer 'yes' to that question, then we can build a more equitable future for our companies, our countries and the world.