How to Weave DEI In At Every Level of Your Company

There’s a general misconception that diversity, equity, and inclusion is a people concept that only applies to the HR department. While HR does need to incorporate core DEI values into the employee experience lifecycle — from hiring, development, and advancement to succession planning — that’s too narrow an interpretation. HR activities alone cannot transform an organization into a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. It has to be a companywide transformation with buy-in across the board.

DEI isn’t a separate set of ideals that runs parallel to an organization’s business strategy. The best DEI strategy — and one that yields the many results-oriented proven benefits of DEI — is one of integration. DEI shouldn’t be what an organization does, but instead a core value that is a fabric of how the organization functions. Think of DEI concepts as you would creativity, innovation or collaboration: They should be widely understood and leveraged as a core value rather than just an initiative or training facilitated by human resources.

This is the first in a series of articles digging into DEI Beyond HR. In this series, we’ll examine how different organizational functions can understand and integrate diverse, equitable and inclusive habits into day-to-day business activities — starting with Operations.

Operations

By definition, the Operations department is typically responsible for core activities that produce the goods or services a company offers to its customers. While the nature of the operations department will vary widely depending on factors like company size, industry and the overall nature of the business, there are several key operational areas where it is essential for organizations to incorporate DEI into daily activities.

Customer Service

Incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion values into your customer service strategy can give your company a competitive edge and increase brand loyalty.

Regardless of the types of products or services your organization creates or sells, consumer behaviors and demographics are changing. A Forbes survey of 8,000 customers found 94% reporting they will do business with purpose-driven companies. In the US, each generation has more multiracial, cultural and ethnic representation than the generations before. Your customer service processes should reflect the changing needs of consumers.

Hiring a representative workforce that mirrors the needs and values of your customer base is important, but it’s also just the tip of the iceberg. Elevate the inclusiveness of your customer service function with these other tactics:

Assess the inclusivity of your internal processes. Who is typically involved in creating your end-to-end operating procedures and processes? Obtaining feedback from employees at all levels — not just supervisors or managers — can help identify gaps in your processes.
Incorporate inclusive communications. Do your customer service scripts reflect a gender-neutral tone? Use inclusive language in your communications and be sensitive to cultural norms and practices. Avoid making assumptions about customers based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or other characteristics.
Integrate cultural competency training and practices as part of the customer service processes. Learn more about the cultural diversity of both your workforce and your customer base and ensure diverse perspectives from a consumer lens are woven into all customer service-related training, not just a standalone competency training. Incorporate accessibility practices to account for different physical capabilities, different languages spoken, and neurodivergent employees and customers.
Ensure broader representation in customer groups for process improvement. Do you intentionally incorporate representation as a basis to collect feedback or create beta testers to improve your products and services?

Procurement

You can incorporate DEI into procurement by sourcing goods and services for the organization in a way that promotes these core values. Here are some essential tactics to incorporate into your procurement function, regardless of whether you have established a supplier diversity program:

Assess the procurement lifecycle to identify ways to infuse inclusion. Do your policies around sourcing or bidding ensure inclusion and accessibility to all suppliers, regardless of their size or resources? Make sure your procurement explicitly promotes DEI in procurement practices and make these policies known to all stakeholders. Regularly review your supply chain processes to assess their diversity and inclusivity and identify areas for improvement.
Incorporate DEI-related concepts into buyer process training. Provide training for procurement staff on the importance of DEI and how to incorporate these values into their decision-making.
Embed DEI into your criteria for evaluating suppliers. Consider the cost and quality of their goods and services and their commitment to DEI within their own organization. Be aware that biases within your vendors can impact the products and services you procure, which can have unintended consequences down the line. To avoid this, seek out diverse suppliers across all buying categories. Actively reach out to diverse suppliers, engage with them, and provide them with information about your procurement processes and opportunities.

Related Article: 5 Reasons Your Company Should Be More Inclusive

Considerations Across All Business Functions

Every function or sub-function should seek to do the following:

Define what success means for your function. What do you want to achieve by incorporating DEI into your function? Do you want to reduce unconscious bias in your decision-making? Once you know what you want to achieve, you can develop a plan to make it happen.
Understand your function’s current state. You need to measure your baseline. Where are you starting from? What are your current strengths and weaknesses in terms of DEI? Once you understand your current state, you can start identifying improvement areas.
Create a DEI component within your functional strategy. The DEI section of your strategy should outline your goals, objectives, and priorities to foster inclusive practices. It should also include metrics for measuring your progress.
Implement your plan and track your progress. Once you have a plan, track your progress — use those metrics! — to learn what is or is not working so you can make adjustments.
Communicate progress while celebrating successes. This is the most underrated step of all. Take the time to communicate progress to your employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, no matter how big or small. Creating an inclusive culture and function requires transparent visibility into progress, creating momentum, adoption and excitement around DEI.

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