In countless boardrooms and executive offices, leaders are feeling a sense of urgency around their company’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives. These leaders want to do the right thing for their employees — and they’re feeling additional pressure from investors, regulators, and customers.
According to new research from Gallup, 84% of CHROs say their organization’s investment in DEIB is increasing. We surveyed 122 CHROs of large companies in the spring of 2022, who told us that they’re implementing everything from systemic changes to local-level mentorship for managers. CHROs reported that they have active DEI-focused employee resource groups (77%), analytics teams (46%), and listening posts (37%). Many CHROs are also providing specific DEIB training for managers (73%), as well as training on recognizing unconscious bias (85%), hiring and promotion (62%), and mentoring and sponsorship programs (57%).
But if you ask employees, most feel their DEIB needs are not being met. This was a core finding of another new Gallup study, also conducted in the spring of 2022, that examined employees’ perceptions about DEIB at their workplace. Only 31% of employees say their organization is committed to improving racial justice or equality in their workplace. Even fewer (25%) say issues of race and equity are openly discussed where they work, with 37% saying they participated in a training program on D&I, and 30% saying they participated in a town hall on the subject.
Juxtaposing the results of the two studies makes it clear that HR leaders and employees have vastly different perceptions about how well their organizations are doing in this area.
To make progress, leaders must understand employees’ core DEIB needs — and where alignment is lacking. Below, I explain our findings and offer advice on what actions leaders can take to turn the tide.
10 Employee DEIB Needs that Aren’t Being Met
1. Employers say they’re making DEIB changes — but employees don’t see meaningful progress.
In our survey, 97% of HR leaders say their organization has made changes that improved DEI. Unfortunately, just 37% of employees strongly agree that their workplace has made changes to improve DEI. Even more troubling, an additional 34% of employees say they “don’t know” whether their leaders are making changes related to DEI.
2. Employees still report discrimination at work.
While no one is immune, leaders are much less likely than employees to experience discrimination. Nearly two in 10 (16%) employees have experienced discrimination in the past 12 months, while just 5% of HR leaders say the same.
3. Employees want equal opportunities for advancement.
Providing fair, equitable opportunities for career growth and development is key to creating a diverse and inclusive work culture. All employees want to receive the same opportunities as their colleagues.
Gallup data show that only 33% of employees believe they have the same opportunity for advancement as everyone else in their organization — and an even lower 21% of HR leaders believe the same.
4. Few employees — or HR leaders — describe their workplace as “fair.”
Just 30% of employees strongly agree they are treated fairly at their company. The same low percent of HR leaders (30%) also believe that employees are being treated with fairness.
5. Employees don’t feel respected.
Being treated with respect is a fundamental employee need and expectation. Unfortunately, employees do not feel nearly as respected as leaders believe: While 60% of HR leaders say employees are respected at work, only 44% of employees feel respected. Further, Gallup research shows that 90% of employees who don’t feel respected say they have experienced some form of discrimination at work.
6. Employees want managers to recognize their strengths.
When leaders celebrate each employee’s unique strengths, they support a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment.
This is a significant area of opportunity for leaders, who think they focus on employee strengths far more effectively than employees feel they do. Almost half (44%) of HR leaders say they are committed to building the strengths of each employee, but only 29% of employees agree.
7. Employees aren’t confident their companies will do the right thing.
There is a dramatic divide between leaders and employees when it comes to their confidence that the company will do the ethical thing. Most HR leaders (86%) are confident the company will do the right thing if someone raised a concern about ethics or integrity — but only 35% of employees feel the same.
8. Employees want to feel comfortable being their authentic selves at work.
A culture of belonging is one where everyone feels accepted for who they are. This is an area of strength for many workplaces: 41% of employees feel comfortable being themselves at work. However, only 27% of HR leaders believe employees at their organizations feel comfortable being themselves at work.
9. Employees want their managers to be comfortable discussing DEIB.
Employees and managers agree that there’s room for improvement when it comes to managers’ confidence in discussing DEI. Only 39% of employees said that their manager had discussed DEIB topics with them in the last 12 months. This aligns with the 41% of managers who reported that they were prepared for these conversations.
However, only 8% of HR leaders said they felt their managers were prepared for these conversations. Gallup data shows that managers are more than twice as likely to strongly agree that they’re prepared to have DEIB conversations if they’ve attended a listening session, town hall, or company-wide meeting on the topic in the past 12 months.
10. Employees don’t think employers care for their wellbeing.
Only 24% of employees say their company cares about their wellbeing, while 65% of HR leaders say the same.
How Leaders Can Address the Disconnect
If employees feel that current efforts aren’t working, how can leaders move the needle? Before they can improve DEI, leaders need to understand employees’ needs and their lived experiences.
Unfortunately, leaders are not listening as well as they could. Only 40% of CHROs in our survey said they include the employee voice on ESG issues, such as DEIB-related topics. Further, only 9% of leaders have developed “journey maps” of the employee experience for various employee groups in their organization.
To achieve progress, leaders need to initiate a dialogue with employees about their true experiences. These 10 strategies can help.
Uncover your diversity blind spots. The best leaders share consistent and frequent updates about DEIB initiatives. Even if progress reports seem obvious to you, your employees need you to point out change. Regularly discuss DEIB efforts, including activities, goals, and progress. Then, use pulse surveys and other listening posts to track whether employees recognize those efforts and the difference they hopefully make.
Communicating clearly with managers is particularly crucial. When managers feel like the company is committed to DEIB, they are more likely to feel prepared to have a conversation about these topics with their teams.
Clarify how your workplace handles discrimination. To encourage reporting, leaders need to communicate that they value employees’ concerns, the process for addressing complaints, and the steps they take to protect confidentiality.
Find sources of unfairness and track your progress. Conduct a fairness audit of your culture and processes. Benchmark key equity issues such as promotion rates, pay gaps, development gaps, and more with external best practices. Measure employee perceptions about equity issues to understand what’s working and what isn’t, and hold managers accountable for changes.
Take steps to increase fairness in your hiring and promotion processes. Follow best practices, including anonymizing job applications, standardizing interview questions, and creating diverse interviewing panels. Make sure your job descriptions are focused on the skills the person will need to do the job, and that you’re using inclusive language.
Discover trust gaps. Identify where employees have the lowest levels of confidence in their workplace doing the right thing if they raise a concern about ethics. Share examples of appropriate ways to speak out and make it clear you will do the right thing.
Help employees develop their strengths. Incorporate strengths-based development in your employee development offerings. Managers should be taught to grow their people rather than trying to fix them.
Take a closer look at who does — and doesn’t — feel respected in your organization. To isolate gaps in perceptions of respect, you can use proven metrics, such as employee engagement surveys or an inclusion index of questions. You can compare these over time in your own organization and measure them against competitors, using external benchmarks and paying particular attention to what your best teams and worst teams do differently from one another.
Upskill managers on inclusion. Train and develop managers to cultivate trust and respect locally with their teams. The best managers focus on each employee’s unique strengths — and they need the right learning opportunities to do this well.
Train managers to have conversations about DEIB. Leaders should invest in proven manager development, then rest assured that those managers have the skills to succeed. Don’t let your negative feelings about manager capabilities scare them away from having conversations with their teams.
Encourage managers to regularly check in on employee wellbeing. Hold managers accountable for translating how much you care about employees’ wellbeing. Teach them to discuss wellbeing consistently through the everyday conversations they should already be having with their team.
The Bottom Line
Even leaders who genuinely care about DEIB can waste countless resources and squander opportunities for lasting change. The good news is you can make your DEIB work count by maintaining a dialogue with employees about 1) their perceptions and real experiences and 2) the changes you’re making to address those concerns.
Remember: Your managers play a pivotal role in DEIB efforts — from relaying DEIB updates to asking about employees’ wellbeing needs during moments that matter. By investing in manager development, you can set them up for success.
No workplace is perfect when it comes to DEIB. But the strongest have something in common: They listen to their people and see beyond their own worldviews before they start trying to solve a problem they do not understand or even see.
