“Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.” – Doris Kearns Goodwin***
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) roles are on the rise in organizations across the world. Demand for the role has surged considerably in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and of course the U.S. over the last two years given the devastating impact that Covid19 has had on communities of color and women, and the George Floyd murder and the social justice movement that ensued. With this rise comes new excited workers and newly formed DEI teams, committees and advisory boards. So everyone roles up their sleeves and puts on their thinking caps to develop new strategies to forge new inroads in their DEI efforts and initiatives. So where do they start?
The First Order of Business in Establishing a DEI Initiative
The first order of business in starting a new initiative is placement and insuring that the top DEI role is strategically positioned in the organization. I have not ever made my opinion on this matter a secret. This position should report to the highest level executive in the organization but no less than one position away if that is the best you can do. Now if it is truly the best you can do, I would challenge you by asking, why this is the best you can do? Chances are, the reasons for this are really indicative of individual fears on the part of top level executives in the decision making process; not necessarily the top level executive but possibly others.
If the organization is determined to send a clear message that it values diversity and inclusion and has every intention of tackling equity issues at every level of the organization, then the top level DEI professional… executive… should report directly to the CEO.
Now that I said it clearly and plainly, allow me to explain why.
The job description can be nice and neat, allowing for creativity, ingenuity and vision. It may be detailed in describing what the individual can do, should do and is expected to do. It may also be written so as to extend an advanced authorization for the freedom of leadership and maneuvering necessary to do whatever the person deems necessary to get the job done. The DEI role, however is much more challenging than it may appear on paper.
Typical Structures & Duties of a DEI Professional
The Chief Diversity Officer role is usually the highest level diversity executive in an organization or educational institution. Other roles that could report up through this individual would be Executive Director, Director or Manager.
Some organizations struggle to add both a CDO and a director or manager because it may seem too top heavy, but this is really no different from any other important division typically existing in organizations today. Generally, there is a Chief Financial Officer and under this person’s leadership one will find multiple directors, managers and possibly supervisors before getting to the staff level. There is usually a VP of Human Resources or a Chief HR Officer, under which we find directors or managers. We might be less likely to find multiple layers of leadership in this particular division as it is usually among the first to streamline its staffing but nonetheless, there is the executive level followed by directors or managers. In most organizations we would also see a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who oversees all general areas of operations. This person usually has several vice presidents who have a multitude of executive directors, directors and/or managers who report to them. So organizations should view diversity, equity and inclusion functions just as seriously.
The job duties that are generally outlined for such DEI professionals is usually a “reach for the stars and grab every one of them” type of listing, but at least most organizations are unbelievably consistent in their expectations for the individual. The reality is, each of those stars are more likely to be captured if there is a team of individuals dispersed to go after them in the quest for DEI success. In other words, it would be impossible for one person to achieve all that is expected of such a professional, so intentional thought must be given to how this can best be addressed. Volunteers, committees and affinity groups are extremely helpful in garnering, training and developing additional change agents and message carriers throughout the organization but paid staff holds much more weight in the area of accountability.
Duties in a (very large) nutshell include:
- Lead the DEI committee and develop a strategic plan, lead implementation, activities and initiatives to advance the committee’s efforts
- Serve as content expert on DEI functions, programming and inclusion efforts within workgroups, departments, divisions etc.
- Provide educational programming, development options for leadership and staff and ongoing learning opportunities for staff and possibly customers/partners
- Work with leadership and others to respond to bias or discrimination concerns through investigation and recommendations
- Partner with Human Resources to facilitate opportunities for new employee training, enhance recruitment, hiring, promotion and retention of diverse staff and leadership and provide support and mentorship to employees representing diverse perspectives and backgrounds
- Collaborate to develop Supplier Diversity strategies and goal attainment to support DEI goals and objectives
- Maintain knowledge on current and emerging developments/trends in DEI
- Serve as DEI subject matter expert to other leadership in the organization and their respective projects and programming
- Oversee affinity groups (groups of individuals linked through common dimensions of diversity, ie women, African Americans, Male Nurses etc)
- Monitor materials, programming and activities to ensure diversity is reflected, ie marketing materials, websites, social media, community activities etc.
- Relationship building with other leaders
- Collaborate with the marketing department to ensure consistency in messaging of organizations’ commitment to DEI and spread commitment to community audience
- Work with and partner with external community organizations to represent the organization, its message and help drive DEI goal achievement within the organization
- Develop tracking strategies to monitor and evaluate the impact and value and effectiveness of all DEI initiatives
- Design & implement metrics & reporting systems to benchmark organizational progress in DEI
- Build DEI strategically into the underlying structures, policies, procedures and functions of the organization
- Provide strategic oversight of the Language Access Department to ensure the provision of high quality, accurate interpretation and translation services through trained interpreters, translators, and the effective use of technology
- Oversee Affirmative Action Plans, educate unit leaders and develop goals.
I’m tired just typing out those responsibilities. Now think that through. Can one person carry out all of this work without a dedicated team or staff to assist? I say no. Has anyone done it? Of course we have. Could more have been accomplished with more staff? Yes. I personally was one who utilized a dedicated group of leadership and staff members who were given the freedom to work with me and several executives to get this laundry list done. There were definitely times that people had to get their own work done, so I always had to be respectful of their time but I appreciated the dedication and their management’s willingness to allow their ongoing participation.
This route lends itself to a slower pace of achievement, which can lead to change agent fatigue and some levels of frustration when things do not appear to be changing fast enough. This can be counter-productive to your efforts and warrants ongoing communications with internal and possibly external customers who will often inquire as to why things are not done yet or whether something is still in the works. If you happen to be part of an organization that maintains lengthy timeframes to get anything done, rest assured this will be worse. Having ample staffing… that makes sense of course… will help keep things moving.
Revisiting the Reporting Relationship
As you review the above list of duties, you will notice that many of the responsibilities that most DEI leaders are charged with, require making changes to long standing processes and structures that may have operated the same way, in the organization for decades, if not centuries. Changing how an organization recruits candidates and where they sources those candidates; who an organization gives million dollar service and supply contracts; investigating bias complaints; implementing education requirements for staff and leaders etc.
Basically this person is being asked to break barriers, shatter glass ceilings and upset the status quo. In every organization, in every division and in every department there are official and unofficial leaders. Some will support DEI efforts and some will support its demise. Regardless of who they are and what they believe about DEI, if the refuse to help advance the work but choose to obstruct or do nothing, the DEI professional will find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place; particularly if the obstinate individual is a key leader whose partnership and support are needed. When the DEI professional reports to the CEO, people are more likely to cooperate than if the DEI leader reports to someone else. It sounds like an excuse but if the obstinate person reports to someone who is indifferent to the whole thing and the DEI professional reports to someone who is indifferent or who doesn’t believe there is any obstinacy, then what? Though the CEO could take on this attitude as well, chances are the other two anti-change agents are really not likely to want the CEO to ever hear of their lack of cooperation. They therefore will not render such behavior because it would be self-defeating. The top DEI position should report to the top level executive in the organization to ensure the position can leverage the authority and strategic license they have been given.
Concluding Thoughts
I had differing reporting relationships in fulfilling diversity roles. A dotted line reporting relationship to the CEO worked effectively as I had access to both individuals as I needed. When I hit a brick wall, the CEO was able to remove the barrier that I as a lower level leader was unable to get through. It was, still challenging nonetheless when I was at the mercy of key individuals who were not concerned about the overall DEI efforts and the CEO was not within reach. When faced with such challenges, I still have to try to get the work done, even if I have to work around those who are in the way. I have also reported one title away from the CEO, and this individual that I reported to was as committed to the work as I was. I was able to accomplish a great deal under this structure based upon who I reported to.
The thing to remember when setting up your initiative is that everyone does not have the best intentions, while most others do. If your organization is serious about its DEI efforts, and I’m sure they mean to be if they are hiring dedicated staff to carry out the work, then it is important to set up the structure of the position in a way that will yield the best possible results. It’s not worth the gamble.