As the world’s largest companies and their CEOs increasingly embrace a new leadership role in advancing racial equity, they face a confounding question: What really works?
Despite decades of research and a growing corporate focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the past few years, many executives are unsure what actions are most effective at increasing diverse representation, improving feelings of inclusion, or making progress on other DEI goals.
To that end, we have launched a report that is based on a thorough review of more than 100 research sources, primarily academic literature, and informed by our experiences supporting our clients and engaging with DEI thought leaders. Through this study, we developed a shortlist of the strongest evidence-based DEI actions.
Ultimately, we found ten actions worthy of increased employer attention and investment today:
- Express C-suite commitment and formalise accountability
- Adopt a skills-first approach to talent acquisition
- Diversify talent pipelines through work-based experiences
- Provide family-sustaining wages and benefits
- Communicate skills-based career pathways
- Offer voluntary DEI training for all
- Listen to and learn from experiences of employees
- Invest resources in cross-training and upskilling
- Create mentoring and sponsorship programs
- Build a diverse supply chain
Each of the actions above resulted in one or more positive outcome for an organisation’s diverse or underrepresented talent, including:
- improved rates of recruitment and hiring
- increased levels of representation in an organisation
- increased feelings of engagement and belonging
- increased rates of retention and internal promotion
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Many employers have already articulated or expanded a commitment to diversity over the past year.
We also examined how widely implemented these actions are, and, for those not yet widely implemented, we examined the biggest barriers to accelerating adoption. We evaluated these actions within a framework that spans all the core areas of business operations.
Our analysis also revealed that half of the 10 actions are not yet mainstream, despite the strong research behind them. Employers should prioritise these actions and explore how to overcome potential barriers to implementation. The remaining actions are already quite common, yet companies need to be aware of important nuances in order to implement them effectively.
While many employers already have experience with these actions, there are ways to connect them more effectively to DEI strategy and outcomes.
How employers can take action
Many employers have already articulated or expanded a commitment to diversity over the past year. There are several concrete ways employers can fulfill those promises.
1. Connect and learn: Consider joining a local or national business coalition committed to adopting actions such as the ones articulated here. Many corporate coalitions engage in frequent peer learning, knowledge sharing, tool development, and, in some cases, technical assistance on implementation.
2. Assess and invest: Explore which of the key actions are ripe for further investment at your company. While these actions are defined to be universally applicable to companies of all sizes and industries, DEI looks different at every company, and each company is at a different place on its DEI journey; individual context remains essential in analysing what to do from here.
We encourage employers to conduct a self-assessment on progress against goals using the Opportunity Identifier and to explore ways to apply the evidence-based actions described here to their organisations.
3. Measure and report: Similar to most business strategies, DEI comes with continuous learning and improvement. There is still much to discover about the nuanced approaches to these actions that are most effective in driving results.
We encourage employers to rigorously measure outcomes of each intervention and, where possible, report on those outcomes to employees, researchers, and other employers to help inform working knowledge in this field.
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A global outcry for greater racial and gender justice has resulted in increased scrutiny from investors, consumers, and other stakeholders on ESG factors.
How investors can take action
Investors are increasingly interested in, and demanding, meaningful human capital data as one means of assessing a corporation’s total value. Over the past two years, a global outcry for greater racial and gender justice, coupled with the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, has resulted in increased scrutiny from investors, consumers, and other stakeholders on environmental, social, and corporate governance factors that help paint a picture of a company’s total social impact.
We encourage investors to measure key human capital actions and their outcomes among the companies in which they invest and to use their position to influence companies to be more transparent on DEI data.
We hope that other stakeholders, including members of the philanthropic community, grassroots organisers, and policymakers, also find value in the findings summarised here and will take the opportunity to share relevant insights with their networks.
Investments into DEI have positive effects that go far beyond the four walls of a corporation; they ultimately lead to greater community and national prosperity and well-being.
Julie Coffman, chief diversity officer, Bain & Company Chicago; and Anne-Laure Malauzat, partner, Bain & Company Middle East, in collaboration with Grads of Life.
By Julie Coffman and Anne-Laure Malauzat
More of this topic
Ten ways to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion
Despite decades of research and a growing corporate focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the past few years, many executives are unsure what actions are most effective at increasing diverse representation, improving feelings of inclusion, or making progress on other DEI goals
As the world’s largest companies and their CEOs increasingly embrace a new leadership role in advancing racial equity, they face a confounding question: What really works?
Despite decades of research and a growing corporate focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the past few years, many executives are unsure what actions are most effective at increasing diverse representation, improving feelings of inclusion, or making progress on other DEI goals.
To that end, we have launched a report that is based on a thorough review of more than 100 research sources, primarily academic literature, and informed by our experiences supporting our clients and engaging with DEI thought leaders. Through this study, we developed a shortlist of the strongest evidence-based DEI actions.
Ultimately, we found ten actions worthy of increased employer attention and investment today:
Each of the actions above resulted in one or more positive outcome for an organisation’s diverse or underrepresented talent, including:
We also examined how widely implemented these actions are, and, for those not yet widely implemented, we examined the biggest barriers to accelerating adoption. We evaluated these actions within a framework that spans all the core areas of business operations.
Our analysis also revealed that half of the 10 actions are not yet mainstream, despite the strong research behind them. Employers should prioritise these actions and explore how to overcome potential barriers to implementation. The remaining actions are already quite common, yet companies need to be aware of important nuances in order to implement them effectively.
While many employers already have experience with these actions, there are ways to connect them more effectively to DEI strategy and outcomes.
How employers can take action
Many employers have already articulated or expanded a commitment to diversity over the past year. There are several concrete ways employers can fulfill those promises.
1. Connect and learn: Consider joining a local or national business coalition committed to adopting actions such as the ones articulated here. Many corporate coalitions engage in frequent peer learning, knowledge sharing, tool development, and, in some cases, technical assistance on implementation.
2. Assess and invest: Explore which of the key actions are ripe for further investment at your company. While these actions are defined to be universally applicable to companies of all sizes and industries, DEI looks different at every company, and each company is at a different place on its DEI journey; individual context remains essential in analysing what to do from here.
We encourage employers to conduct a self-assessment on progress against goals using the Opportunity Identifier and to explore ways to apply the evidence-based actions described here to their organisations.
3. Measure and report: Similar to most business strategies, DEI comes with continuous learning and improvement. There is still much to discover about the nuanced approaches to these actions that are most effective in driving results.
We encourage employers to rigorously measure outcomes of each intervention and, where possible, report on those outcomes to employees, researchers, and other employers to help inform working knowledge in this field.
How investors can take action
Investors are increasingly interested in, and demanding, meaningful human capital data as one means of assessing a corporation’s total value. Over the past two years, a global outcry for greater racial and gender justice, coupled with the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, has resulted in increased scrutiny from investors, consumers, and other stakeholders on environmental, social, and corporate governance factors that help paint a picture of a company’s total social impact.
We encourage investors to measure key human capital actions and their outcomes among the companies in which they invest and to use their position to influence companies to be more transparent on DEI data.
We hope that other stakeholders, including members of the philanthropic community, grassroots organisers, and policymakers, also find value in the findings summarised here and will take the opportunity to share relevant insights with their networks.
Investments into DEI have positive effects that go far beyond the four walls of a corporation; they ultimately lead to greater community and national prosperity and well-being.
Julie Coffman, chief diversity officer, Bain & Company Chicago; and Anne-Laure Malauzat, partner, Bain & Company Middle East, in collaboration with Grads of Life.
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