3 Steps Forbes Councils Members Take To Drive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts

This is the third in a series of articles that highlight the diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies Forbes Councils members are implementing in their companies.

As more and more leaders realize the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion we turn to one another to uncover strategies for moving forward. In this series, we've written about how Forbes Councils members are building inclusive company cultures, overhauling hiring practices to reduce bias, and partnering outside the company, and we've discussed the benefits their DEI efforts are producing.

In this article, we’ll consider three more pieces of the DEI pie. When we asked about the strides they and their companies are making toward a more equitable future, 20 Forbes Councils members mentioned efforts to train and educate their staff, the creation of oversight teams, and the importance of measuring results.

Here’s what they had to say.

Implement DEI Training and Education Opportunities

In many companies, employee training is fundamental to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Many Forbes Councils members described educational initiatives in their organizations, from informal discussion to onboarding efforts to certificate programs. Among them:

Claudia Wasko, Forbes Business Development Council, says her company recently hosted a global virtual diversity week “to strengthen international networks, learn from the many experts at Bosch, and show off how associates can benefit from our diversity.” 

Albert L. Reyes, Forbes Nonprofit Council, has “introduced books and articles to my executive leadership team for us to read together and discuss key issues. I plan to invite other CEOs who are ahead of us in terms of creating a culture of acceptance and affirmation of race and equality.”

Roohi Saeed, Forbes Communications Council, says his  company has “been promoting workplace psychological safety through team exercises and more unconscious bias training…. We also introduced new resources, tools, and training to better equip managers and employees to have crucial conversations.”

Bryan Neider, Forbes Business Council: “We have developed and implemented ongoing training sessions to educate all of our team members and our board members why diversity, equity and inclusion is foundational to our organization's culture, and how it furthers our mission and values.”

Jay Johnson, Forbes Business Council: “As a training and talent development company, we have incorporated design thinking workshops to promote diversity and inclusion… These workshops have helped bring awareness to unconscious bias, develop solutions to accessibility issues, and promote psychological safety amongst our team.”

Mike Ford, Forbes Finance Council, says, “we have always had an informal diversity and inclusion program. But recently we asked our HR team to get ‘diversity and inclusion management certificates.’ We now have a more formal policy in place, and as part of that we are scheduling mandatory annual training for our employees.”

Suzanne Ogle, Forbes Nonprofit Council, describes “a targeted curriculum that includes a variety of resources on how to create a diverse and inclusive culture, a member onboarding track for all new member employees, a short 30-45 minute video inclusion and diversity moment before each virtual training, and a competency-based ‘women and leadership certificate program’ to help women in a male-dominated industry gain the competencies required for leadership.”

If you want to ensure that all your employees have a solid understanding of the company’s DEI goals, implementing educational sessions may be helpful. Such training gives all staff, at the very least, a common ground for discussion.

However, James Hewitt, Forbes Finance Council, has an opposing view. He says, “I do not believe large-scale D&I training leads to meaningful, inclusive corporate cultures. To me, most such programs are a fad in HR training: a hollow exercise done simply because every other HR organization is doing it. Change comes from personal interactions and by examples led at the board level. Said simply: workplace diversity, understanding and equality do not come through PowerPoint.” He recommends approaches focused on hiring and open communication within the company culture.

So who decides what efforts to pursue?

Empower a DEI Committee To Make Change

As with any project, someone has to manage DEI efforts. Although this work could easily be delegated to HR, several Forbes Councils members said their companies have created teams and committees to address DEI progress. Many include not just C-suite executives, but rank and file employees, to ensure a variety of perspectives.

Each company has a distinct approach to the naming and organization of its oversight group. Examples:

• Scott Harkey, Forbes Agency Council: a “‘Community of Change’ (CoC) committee, which creates “positive ‘forward movement’ content both internally and on our social channels, along with activating programs that allow us to use our agency talent to help accelerate the growth of Black-owned businesses within our local communities.”
• Suzanne Ogle, Forbes Nonprofit Council: an “inclusion and diversity council… who are working together to develop a competency-based inclusion and diversity roadmap… The roadmap includes elements such as... Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), [a] list of internal projects (such as ERGs, internal webinars, training), and a publicly-available resource list.”
• Bryan Neider, Forbes Business Council: a “DEI committee composed of staff and managers; they have been chartered to inform, guide, and prioritize our DEI efforts going forward.”
• Brian Stafford, Forbes Technology Council: a “‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Intersectionality’ (DEII) task force… Among the task force’s initiatives is an internal site that enables and supports an ongoing dialogue about anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, and investment in community engagement focused on diversity.”
• Bob Fabien Zinga, Forbes Technology Council: the U.S. Navy’s Command Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) Program “promotes positive morale, quality of life, and an environment of equal opportunity to aid in the prevention of harassment or unlawful discrimination.”
• Ed Adams, Forbes Technology Council: a “D&I committee with representatives across the globe who contribute well-rounded, thoughtful programs and suggestions to the company.”
• Katherine Jackson, Forbes Finance Council: an “I.D.E.A. committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Awareness). We leveraged our existing diversity by inviting a broad spectrum of associates to participate to ensure we have relevant input… It has been a wellspring of initiatives and strategy for improving our hiring, engaging our community, and exploring our diversity in a way that creates bonds and enhances our appreciation for the individual.”
• Olivia Friedman, Forbes Business Council: a “multi-departmental, multi-country think-tank” for consideration and discussion of “the meaning of the actual words, ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ and what these words mean to us as an entity and a work family.”
• Albert L. Reyes, Forbes Nonprofit Council: a “PARE Effort (Plan of Action on Race and Equality) as well as a task force to lead the way.”

No matter what you call the committee, be sure to clearly state its goals in order to maintain focus.

Per Charlie Ginzburg, Forbes Business Council: “We formed groups at a local and national level to encourage discussion and action change. These groups meet monthly and have sponsorship at board level. It’s important to pick a goal/mission statement for these groups.”

Without clear intent, committees run the risk of devolving into gripe sessions or getting lost in tangential discussions instead of creating productive change.

Measure and Report on DEI Initiative Progress

How do you know if your oversight and education efforts are contributing to real progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion? You measure progress.

Several members emphasized the importance of data and reporting to their companies’ DEI efforts. As Bob Fabien Zinga, Forbes Technology Council, says, “If diversity and inclusion are essential to an organization, its effects will be measured across the organization with frequency.” And Kimberly Lewis, Forbes Nonprofit Council, points out that “some efforts can and should be tracked. We measure and report to the board a comparison of staff, clientele, and community diversity. What gets measured matters.”

Georgette Zinaty, Forbes Coaches Council, says, “as a visible minority and practice lead at my company, I have developed tools that organizations can use we call 'diversity dimension worth measuring'. What we measure and how we measure impacts the 'arc of change' in our growth, organizational culture and DEI accountability and results.”

Jay Polaki, Forbes Human Resources Council, says her company “built a dashboard to analyze the diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics for our clients. Organizations can measure their success with diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and create a meaningful data-driven impact in addressing inequality. This is a new project and we are diving deeper into the data as it presents itself.”

Sadhana Somasekhar, Forbes Coaches Council, says her company measures “not just the numbers, but the diversity index (viz. gender, generational, geographic, cultural, thought, orientation, PWD, skills, and any other diverse-ness that we can ‘include’) of the team as a strategic measurement.”

Charlie Ginzburg, Forbes Business Council, uses data to ensure an equitable hiring process: “For hiring we needed to start with data. What are our goals? Where do we currently stand? How can we measure progress and when do we need to re-assess and adjust?”

Janét Aizenstros, Forbes Agency Council, offers evidence that data makes a difference. She explains that her company, “won Employer of the Year with Canadian Business (Canada's Fortune Magazine) for our DEI initiatives. Our metrics were outstanding." Aizenstros says the company is data-centric and makes decisions based on data.

When you take the time to measure outcomes, the efficacy (or not) of any program becomes clear. Emulate these Forbes Councils members by measuring, reporting, and iterating on your DEI efforts to ensure that they actually make a difference.

So there we have it: three steps you can take to steer your company toward a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive future. Take a moment to consider your efforts at 1) educating your employees; 2) creating a team to take charge of DEI efforts; and 3) measuring results and learning from your DEI data.