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Many companies begin their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts with the best of intentions. They want to ensure that their employees feel included and supported, that the company has diverse points of view at the table and that customers feel represented in their marketing. But this doesn’t always mean these efforts are going to be successful.
To help shed some light on why that is, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share their insights on why many companies’ DEI efforts fail and what leaders can do to ensure they actually succeed.
1. Unconscious Bias Was Never Addressed
Leaders must recognize that unconscious bias can lead to systemic barriers and, as a result, fail diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. To combat unconscious bias, consider diversifying recruitment practices, implementing anonymous resume reviews and providing unconscious bias training to employees at all levels. These strategies can increase awareness and understanding of biases and help mitigate their impact on hiring and promotion decisions. Ultimately, addressing unconscious bias requires a sustained commitment from leadership and a willingness to challenge the status quo. By prioritizing DEI efforts, allocating sufficient resources and implementing best practices to mitigate unconscious bias, leaders can create a more equitable and inclusive workplace for all employees. – Devesh Dwivedi, Devesh Dwivedi
2. There Was A Lack Of Commitment To The Program
A huge reason DEI efforts fail is lack of commitment to the program. For a DEI program to succeed, leadership must be committed to implementation, from start to finish. Leadership must create a plan for implementation, complete with specific indicators of success, team touchpoints and more. All in all, for DEI efforts to thrive, a specific and trackable plan must be followed. – Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
3. Barriers To Success Were Never Resolved
Hiring people from different cultural backgrounds won’t magically change your organization’s culture overnight. An inclusive culture and top-to-bottom diversity take time and effort. Achieving diversity is a good step, but do all your employees feel welcomed and included? Everyone has different barriers to success. As an entrepreneur, it’s your responsibility to identify those barriers and work on ways to resolve them. This happens when you create a safe space in your organization so everyone can express their needs clearly and without feeling embarrassed or judged. Talk to your employees, explain to them the benefits of having a diverse working culture and set up a long-term strategy to achieve it. – Candice Georgiadis, Digital Day
4. The Effort Was Treated Like A ‘Check-Box Exercise’
Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts can fail for several reasons, despite good intentions. One reason is that DEI is often treated as a check-box exercise without leaders recognizing the need for a fundamental cultural change. Also, DEI initiatives may not be inclusive of all groups and may focus on surface-level changes without addressing systemic issues. Leaders must approach DEI as a long-term cultural shift, not a quick fix, and must invest in the necessary resources, such as hiring diversity officers, providing training and creating inclusive policies. Leaders must approach DEI as a long-term cultural shift, invest in necessary resources and infrastructure, include and engage all stakeholders, prioritize fostering a culture of psychological safety and be accountable and transparent. – Tonika Bruce, Lead Nicely, Inc.
5. The Company Didn’t Understand DEI’s True Importance
I think that oftentimes DEI initiatives fail because companies may not fully understand the importance of these efforts or how to make them successful. Leaders need to start by taking a hard look at their own organization and understanding the underlying systems that maintain the status quo of inequality. Once they have this understanding, they can start to implement change within their organization by setting goals and objectives and also by focusing on the key values that will guide the DEI efforts. At the same time, leaders must also understand that this is an ongoing process and not a one-time initiative. It can take time to do things right and it’s worth the effort. So, leaders need to keep trying and making improvements and they’ll reach their DEI goals eventually. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
6. Management Didn’t Take The Time To Listen
At its core, a DEI effort fails because there isn’t enough listening taking place on the part of leadership. When you want to include more people, you must also be willing to listen and learn. Leaders need to be willing to listen to different perspectives and points of view. It’s also important to allow for different communication styles. This means learning to listen actively and without judgment. It also means leaders need to be willing to recognize and address their own biases, as these can often lead to unintentional homogenization in the workplace. – Blair Williams, MemberPress
7. Employees Resisted The Change
Even when planned with the best of intentions, DEI efforts often fail due to resistance from the team—especially the perpetrators of said issues themselves. These people are allegedly the beneficiaries of the current system. So, it’s normal for them to revolt when they fear losing their privileges or authority. In situations like this, leaders have no other choice but to confront the issue head-on and be open about it in discussions. You may see a few abrupt departures and even have to make a few harsh decisions yourself, but to do what’s right—and compared to what you’ll achieve—it’s a small price to pay. – Chris Klosowski, Easy Digital Downloads
8. The Root Causes Of Problems Were Never Identified
Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts may often fail even when the companies plan with the best of intentions. There can be a number of reasons for this outcome. But, I believe the most significant one of them all is a company’s inability to identify the root causes for the DEI problems. To make things work, companies will have to be a bit more proactive than reactive when it comes to addressing DEI issues. The best way to ensure success here is to create a dedicated team that specifically looks into DEI matters and gains a deep understanding of the issues in the company. The core responsibility of this team would be to explore any intentional or unintentional biases in the company and come up with effective remedies that suffice. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
9. There Were No Clear Goals Or Success Indicators
Despite the efforts of the leaders, diversity, equity and inclusion efforts often fail due to a lack of accountability and an evaluation of the efforts against the outcome. Without clear goals and appropriate indicators that help assess your efforts, it won’t be possible for you to know whether or not you’re headed in the right direction. DEI is a complex matter, so you can’t simply come up with a strategy and expect it to work. It demands trial and error until you come up with a flawless plan to achieve the set goals. For that, it’s mandatory that you assign responsibilities, set clear assessment guidelines and hold the key stakeholders accountable for the DEI initiatives. – Jared Atchison, WPForms
10. There Was Too Much Focus On The ‘Rules’
The issue is that not everything can be planned and implemented purely through rules. Inclusion and equity come from the grassroots, as it is ultimately your employees who need to cooperate and socialize openly without bias. So, it is ultimately about the company culture you build as a leader. Building such an inclusive and equitable culture involves employee training, orientation, joint interactions and rewarding every team member for cooperating with each other without bias. Naturally, you must also apply hiring rules and organizational structures that eliminate any scope of managerial discrimination in the long run. In conclusion, a synergistic combination of regulatory and cultural approaches will create an environment where diversity thrives. – Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz
