Stop Making the Business Case for Diversity

Eighty percent of Fortune 500 companies explain their interest in diversity by making some form of a business case: justifying diversity in the workplace on the grounds that it benefits companies’ bottom line. And yet, in a recent study, the authors found that this approach actually makes underrepresented job candidates a lot less interested in working with an organization. This is because rhetoric that makes … [ Read more ]

To avoid hiring bias, orgs need cybervetting rules

Organizations need to develop and implement clearly defined rules regarding how they use online information about job candidates, a new paper on cybervetting says.

Inclusion Isn’t Just Nice. It’s Necessary.

Improving employees’ experience of inclusion in the workplace is one of the most actionable levers companies have to attract and retain talent. When done right, inclusion can slash attrition risk in half.

In today’s fiercely competitive environment, inclusion is akin to a hidden superpower, so why do so few companies view it as a business necessity? The answer is simple: workplace inclusion is hard to define, … [ Read more ]

Gender Pay Gap: Valuing Women’s Work

A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour sheds light on the role of within-job pay differences in the gender pay gap.

Measuring What Matters in Gender Diversity

How do you know if your company is making progress on gender diversity? This article discusses five areas where tracking metrics and data will help leaders know if they’re making wins—or falling short.

How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation

A recent BCG study suggests that increasing the diversity of leadership teams leads to more and better innovation and improved financial performance. In both developing and developed economies, companies with above-average diversity on their leadership teams report a greater payoff from innovation and higher EBIT margins. Even more persuasive, companies can start generating gains with relatively small changes in the makeup of their senior teams. … [ Read more ]

Fixing the Flawed Approach to Diversity

We recently surveyed roughly 16,500 people worldwide to identify the most effective diversity and inclusion measures. Our investigation builds on previous research into gender diversity. For our current analysis, we broadened our lens to include diversity in two additional dimensions: race and ethnicity and also sexual orientation. Through that research, we identified specific solutions that companies can implement to accelerate their progress on diversity.

Research: How Ranking Performance Can Hurt Women

When it comes to gender equity in the workplace, many organizations focus largely on hiring more women. But to achieve more equitable representation, it’s also critical to examine disparities in how employees are evaluated and promoted once they’re on board. In this piece, the authors discuss their recent research on this topic, which found that competitive evaluation systems in which employees are ranked against one … [ Read more ]

How to Advance Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Gender diversity can be a profound business challenge —or a source of competitive advantage. But it’s not women who need to change. It’s the workplace.

Author Talks: Flex Your ‘No Muscle’

Nonpromotable work profoundly affects women’s careers and lives. In her new book, Lise Vesterlund explains why women so often agree to it—and how they can say no.

Gabrielle Novacek, Jean Lee, Matt Krentz

First, companies need to take a step back and reframe the way they talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion. They must start with a new basic premise: that they will understand the needs of every individual, look for patterns of difference that cut across the whole organization and matter the most in driving positive outcomes, and devise solutions that holistically address those differences. When viewed … [ Read more ]

Aneeta Rattan

When we’re at work and someone says something biased, it affects how we feel in the workplace and how we feel about that workplace. You can have all the inclusion practices in the world, but if they are not translating into the everyday experiences of your people, they are not yielding positive outcomes. Inclusion is what you do as a company to invite people in, … [ Read more ]

Dan Grafstein

Many diversity and inclusion (D&I) solutions keep companies on the defensive. That is, they primarily address concerns such as promoting compliance and diversity in race, age and ethnicity.

That’s not enough. Wide demographics alone won’t make a difference to an organization’s bottom line unless the people within those demographics feel authentically welcomed.

In other words, leaders need both a diverse workforce and an inclusive workplace culture to … [ Read more ]

Steven Berger, Neeti Bhardwaj, Ira Gaberman

Organizations are shifting their focus to inclusion and equity in order to advance beyond the state in which the workforce is demographically diverse, but opportunities remain unequal and voices go unheard. In an inclusive work environment, employees feel included and valued as their authentic selves, actively engaged in the organization and recognized without judgment for their contributions. Equity means that systemic barriers and unfair advantages … [ Read more ]

The Unlikely Upside of Mergers: More Diverse Management Teams

Mergers shake up the status quo at companies and help women and people of color move up the ladder. Research mines data from 37,000 deals.

Roger L. Martin

We are not taught how to take advantage of a diverse thought—diverse in the sense that your thought conflicts with mine—rather than saying, “I have an idea. Yours is different than mine. I must make sure mine triumphs,” which is generally what we’re taught to do, to advocate for our point of view. We’re not going to get where we need to be on diversity … [ Read more ]

How to Measure Inclusion in the Workplace

In an era where companies are paying more and more attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), inclusion remains the most difficult metric to track. From new research, Gartner developed the Gartner Inclusion Index to measure what true inclusion looks like across an organization. The authors outline how to use the Gartner Inclusion Index to measure employee perceptions of inclusion, what effective action looks like … [ Read more ]

Unapologetically DEI: Designing Equity and Inclusion Into the New Era of Work

As a new era of work emerges in a post-pandemic world, leaders must take proactive action to avoid undoing decades of progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It’s Time to Reimagine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

A great deal of noble and important work has been done on DEI in recent years, but we have hit a ceiling.