DEI trends all companies should watch out for in 2023

Trend #1: Data-centric DEI

Tracking diversity, equity, and inclusion is becoming more common. Stakeholders’ demands for accountability and transparency combined with the need to translate high investments in DEI into impact make collecting and analysing data paramount.

For a DEI strategy to work, however, simply doing a one-shot survey does to suffice. You need to collect data regularly, establish a baseline, define key priorities and metrics, and identify the owners of each goal. Only then will your DEI decisions be informed and backed by data.

According to a study from Harvard Business Review, most companies use one or more metrics to support their diversity and inclusion strategy. But you need to use the right ones in a combination of outcome and process metrics.

Outcome metrics indicate a problem whereas process metrics find out where attention is needed to bring about meaningful change. Outcome metrics indicate body count – e.g. the number of women and men in a company – and are vital to creating a baseline. 

Process metrics, on the other hand, can showcase employee turnover or the speed at which employees who are also parents move up the corporate ladder. A company should use both outcome and process metrics in its plan for achieving inclusion and diversity goals. 

Moreover, the use of data has helped diversity managers get other managers on board for DEI programs. The reason is that you can mode the discussion from opinion and ideology-based to fact-based, whilst tracking your progress. 

The diversity chief at a Georgia food firm, for instance, shared that their workforce demographics did not match the local demographics. Monthly metrics allowed her to see when and where the firm is losing ground and get out in front of the problem.

Trend #2: Inclusion as an enabler of diversity

“Diversity wins: How inclusion matters” was the title of a McKinsey report in 2020 – and rightly so. Their research has shown that the benefits of having a diverse workforce can only be leveraged through inclusion. And the reason is fairly straightforward. 

If you are the only person from a historically marginalised group in your team and the company culture is not inclusive you will hardly feel comfortable sharing your views and opinions. 

Increasing diversity does not, by itself, increase effectiveness. What matters is how an organisation leverages diversity and whether it is willing to reshape its power structure. Having an inclusive workplace culture will not only help you attract a diverse set of talent but also help you retain the diverse talent you attracted in the first place.

So, instead of increasing diversity and then working on inclusion, do it simultaneously. Inclusion can lead to more employee motivation, and, therefore, better performance. But it can also boost diversity in an organisation or team and unlock its great benefits such as increased innovation and employee retention.

Spotify is one of the companies that has seen this happen. After adopting an inclusion policy that allows employees to work from anywhere in the world, Spotify registered a 13% growth of African-American employees and 18% of Hispanic employees. In leadership, the female population increased from 25% to 42%. And the attrition rate of employees dropped by 15%, saving the company both a time and money.