Step 1: Ask if your focus on DEI is a strategic imperative.
The business world is in the midst of a foundational shift: Until recently having a diverse workforce was seen as a desirable but not necessarily essential management objective, a goal that could be acknowledged with a handful of initiatives to make progress for the future. But now, there’s no question that having a diverse workforce is a competitive advantage as it can catalyze great innovation and fuel a more robust culture for success.
A broad representation of worker gender, age, race, sexual orientation, and cultural identity is an established predictor of success, major studies increasingly show. The employers thriving in the emerging economy are the ones able to attract and retain a population of talent that most closely mirrors the wide-ranging population. In addition to these perhaps more traditional diversity categories, leaders know having team members who have different geographic, experience-set, education, religious, and other backgrounds, also adds to the diversity and growth of a team.
Far from being a box to be checked, diversity is actually the key to survival and foundational to any organization’s ability to sustainably thrive ongoing. It's not hard to understand why. Click to read the entire article