Editorial
Today’s post-pandemic economy is raising concerns over whether organizations are doing enough to improve their diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) efforts. Business executives are also realizing their need to urgently address and implement more effective social and corporate governance structures through the intersection of DEIB practices and technology.
As the social landscape continues to evolve, investment in DEIB remains an admiral effort for organizations. A Diversity Wins Report by McKinsey & Company shows that despite diversity hiring among ethnically and gender-diverse companies remaining a slow process, these organizations continue to outperform their marketplace competitors.
Through the appropriate implementation and effective positioning, decision-makers are directing their attention towards technological advances that can help improve DEIB efforts, considering how these tools can further enhance their diversity performance during the hiring and onboarding process of new employees.
Moving the Needle of Change
In an ever-evolving dynamic workplace environment, weaving corporate governance, inclusion, diversity and equity into the fabric of company culture requires leaders and decision-makers to effectively move the needle of change.
Proprietary frameworks developed by institutional organizations could potentially help develop a platform through which companies and businesses can better understand how the intersection of DEIB initiatives and technology can help them bring these crossroads closer together.
Related Article: DEI Beyond HR: How to Weave Inclusion Into Operations
The Center for Creative Leadership, a nonprofit leadership research think-tank, developed a proprietary framework model that enables organizations to evaluate whether they are actively doing enough to address internal DEIB problems.
The REAL Framework aims to Reveal relevant opportunities, Elevate equity, Activate diversity and Lead inclusivity — which can set direction and generate alignment for the organization towards their DEIB commitments.
Although the proprietary frameworks remain an antidote for the workplace environment, removing the illusion of inclusion may lead to companies focusing on technological advancements that sees them taking more ownership and accountability for their DEIB initiatives.
The Crossroads of Technology and DEIB
The potential intersection of technology and DEIB achievement allows digital capabilities to help improve company culture, increase effective team and workplace management and further enhance the organizational experience.
Furthermore, DEIB technology, as understood in the context of corporate governance, also lends itself to providing more efficient employee insight. It helps to support organizational efforts to improve DEIB initiatives at an individual and corporate level.
DEIB technology is an ever-changing ecosystem, from monitoring employee inclusivity during the onboarding process to initiating data-driven analysis of organizational diversity.several practical examples of how technology can further these developments.
Recruitment Inclusivity
Technology enables organizations to create an in-depth analysis of their company onboarding and the necessary requirements for employees.
This establishes relevant communication channels, ensuring that new employees — whether in-office or remotely — can equally access the necessary documentation or information required during their onboarding.
Furthermore, through these use cases, companies can guarantee that all new candidates have equal access to the appropriate information, but it can also lay the foundation for clear interactions among existing and new employees.
Harvesting Employee Diversity Data
Collecting employee data through the use of capable digital tools leads to better oversight of their existing company structures, employee diversity and overall inclusivity.
These efforts can further highlight their need to make necessary adjustments to annual or quarterly pay analyses and provide relevant insight for setting new workplace policies.
The consideration here is to ensure that companies can develop more fair and equitable opportunities within the workplace for existing employees, but also further adjust their recruitment intentions and oversight of new hires.
Fair Communication Practices
Centralized communication between management and employees helps establish a fair, inclusive and efficient understanding among teams. Additionally, technology can bridge the gap among employees, both in instances where teams are working in-office and remotely.
With digital platforms in the workplace, employees can actively collaborate on projects, share information and directly contribute to the decision-making process, minimizing the potential of exclusion and further emphasizing employee participation.
Related Article: You Need Both Tech and People Working Together to Boost DEIB
Equal Work and Joint Efforts
Operated and optimized digital dashboards, can deliver accurate data analyses of fair work opportunities available to all employees. Creating public archives allows new candidates to equally access job vacancies posted by companies, minimizing barriers that are often caused by personal preferences.
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Internal digital platforms can help increase the scope of work practices, allowing existing employees to have equal opportunities in project collaboration, scheduling and team communication formalities. It also minimizes biased decision-making among team members and executive leadership.
Employee Flexibility
Again, the need for accurate employee data analyses can help shape a more flexible working environment and project delegation among office-bound and distributed teams.
Using technology lets team leaders assign work based on employee skills, experience, and expertise. This allows companies to complete tasks more effectively, using data as a key indicator that helps pinpoint employee strengths and weaknesses.
Technology may create more room to develop a flexible working environment where tasks are not solely assigned to a designated group or individual without considering their skills and expertise. This makes it easier for team leaders to develop workplace schedules that suit the needs of their team members while allowing them to monitor progress and have more measurable analyses of their performance.
Identifying Problem Areas
Building more fair and inclusive workplace opportunities requires companies to have a direct understanding of where their organization may be experiencing any potential shortcomings.
Through technological adoption and digitization, companies can further distribute the necessary resources among their workforce to resolve pain points and improve employee performance.
This results in further optimization of employee efficiency, helping to identify areas of improvement for new and existing employees. Another facet could see technology providing in-depth analyses and real-time performance records for managers, leading to improved oversight to see which employees require more attention or access to different resources.
Related Article: The HR Metrics You Should Be Watching
Adjustment metrics
While DEIB technology helps increase the scope of workplace inclusivity and diversity, a further look shows its ability to effectively monitor change and deliberate improvements related to equity and belonging.
Organizations can use appropriate metrics to review and readjust their DEIB strategies. This is not only crucial for companies looking to achieve near-term DEIB change but helps shape forward-looking strategies that consider the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion among workplace practices and onboarding future employees.
Companies and teams can use these metrics to access records that not only enables them to make improvements where necessary, but further help them fine-tune the process along the way.
The Future of DEIB Technology
Effectively utilizing DEIB technology requires companies to see areas of improvement and use digital tools to adjust their forward-looking strategies.
Prioritizing diversity and inclusivity, among other things, mitigates the opportunity for potential workplace bias, but it also creates an active environment that sees more deliberate collaboration between managers and employees.
Thus, the experimentation with DEIB technology enables companies, managers and employees to have clear oversight of their forward-working efforts, and allows them to visualize their DEIB targets.
It’s also important to consider how technology plays an integral part in the business dynamic; lending it to establish insight into company diversity, equity, inclusivity and belonging can help organizations become active drivers of change and remove barriers of bias in the workplace.
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