5 Steps You Should Take To Build A DEI Team In The Workplace

If you want to have a diverse and inclusive workforce then you need to have a team that specializes in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

What do I mean when I say you need to prepare with numbers? If you want to make a successful team, you should compile data and have your organization’s figures and statistics in front of you. Pull up your employee demographics including age, ethnicity, gender, family, education, status in the organization, race, sexual orientation, religion, and physical characteristics, etc. Use your HR resources to capture this data. If you don’t have enough information, do the internal surveys. But, make sure you have a bigger picture of your organization’s workforce in front of you. Moreover, pull up the information on your current company culture concerning DEI as well.

Engage with your team members and gauge their interest. Allow active participation of your current employees. Invite your staff to sit with you, share the vision of your DEI team, and see if they will be the right fit or not. Initiate conversation throughout the company. Ask your network for referrals that can help you achieve this mission of starting a DEI team.

Building the team isn’t only about hiring a few people. When you have the stats and numbers to provide the data and a team to thoroughly analyze them, you need to identify the needs and areas of concerns so the people and their tasks can be structured accordingly. Define the problematic areas that need immediate attention. Is the C-suite full of white males? Are only males being promoted in the organization? Are women of the same education and experience underpaid when compared to their male counterparts?

Ask yourself these hard questions, so your CDO and the team can work on finding their answers and putting up solutions. Before you start your DEI team from the ground-up, it is significant that you have a broad picture of the problematic areas of your organization. You and your current team know them better than anyone else. Here, you can bring a CDO along, to professionally analyze and assess the situation before your DEI team starts working on them.

Provide the team with successful case studies. Give them the liberty to study, do surveys, interviews, and hold training within the organization. All the while, you need to be open to the feedback you receive and honest about the suggestions and potential policies for implementation being put forth.

If you want to hire and sustain a DEI team, you must remove all the obstacles from their path. Believe me, there will be so many of them. When your team starts identifying the practices and policies that are affecting your big vision to create a diverse and inclusive team, you must take action. Work on all the policies that must be eliminated and practices that have to be eradicated.

Do a thorough analysis of the company culture yourself and see which areas require immediate attention. Look for unconscious biases deeply ingrained in your company culture. Find all the ways through which you can help the DEI team get rid of limiting policies and work on the change you want to bring in your organization.

If you follow these five steps you won’t only create a specialized DEI team but will sustain it for the betterment of your company.

“You need to provide the necessary support to your DEI team to bring the change in your organization. Waste no time in creating this team if you want to launch a successful diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. They aren’t fancy terms anymore, but the utmost requirements or you will fail in what you do. Think carefully! Act intentionally!”

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