Getting quick wins from diversity and inclusion (part 1)

Over the next three months, IDC Consulting will be speaking at several conferences in Europe on best practices in D & I. The content of the October and November viewpoints will cover the key themes and findings. This month, IDC Consulting will look at key actions to enable organisations to obtain quick wins from their initial D & I efforts. The quick wins have been grouped against the four D & I change drivers: leadership message and example, communications and engagement, education, training and coaching, measurement.

The practices listed are based both on IDC's experience and research carried out in Europe. IDC's consultants are all highly experienced in these practices and the use of the diversity change drivers to generate an inclusive culture which delivers real D & I business benefits.

Leadership message and example

• Establish a D & I council to advise the leadership on the D & I strategy and its implementation. This should be chaired by an influential business director.
• Appoint senior manager diversity champions to champion the needs of women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, LGBT individuals, and older and younger people.
• Require each senior manager to include D & I objectives in their business/function plan.

Communications and engagement

• A clear face-to-face line management communication of:
  • the findings from a diagnostic conducted to inform the D & I strategy
  • the business case for D & I
  • the immediate actions to address the findings from the diagnostic
• Establish employee networks to advise senior management on the barriers to inclusion and progression for different diversity groups, e.g. women, ethnic minorities, carers, disabled people, etc.
• Reinforce the D + I business case message in all director business presentations and communications.
• Make the content of internal and external communications inclusive. Generally, communications tend to use masculine language.
  

Education, training and coaching

• Set-up a diversity awareness workshop for senior managers to enable them to understand what is good and bad D & I behaviour. The use of drama is often powerful in enabling senior managers to obtain a clear picture of the D & I behaviours for which it is imperative that they set an example.

Measurement – hard and soft

• Define D & I objectives and associated milestones for the first 12 months.
• Identify the critical behaviours for which the leadership needs to set an example to drive the D & I strategy (90 percent of the behaviour in any organisation is influenced by the example set by the leadership).

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Getting quick wins from diversity and inclusion (part 2)

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