Over the past two weeks, we’ve discussed why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) should be considered core tenets of the Future of Work movement. Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the strategy-led Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become top-of-mind priorities for businesses in regard to their workforce. New and exclusive Ardent Partners research finds that:

• 94% of businesses are focused on transforming their workplaces to be more flexible and inclusive.
• 62% of businesses have injected DE&I and workforce culture into their plans for future innovation.
• Nearly 65% of businesses plan to, over the next two years, create a “Chief Diversity Officer” role within their enterprise.

I once again spoke with several technology leaders across the contingent workforce, digital staffing, and HR arenas for their unique perspectives on DE&I as core Future of Work tenets:

Dan Beck, COO and Co-Founder, Utmost

“I’ll take this one step further: DEI needs to be more than just a future of work tenet, but it needs to be a core business strategy. In the same way that enterprises have focused on purchasing from diverse suppliers, we’re seeing a trend of enterprises looking at the DEI composition of the workers themselves. 

While HR certainly plays a role, DEI is an overall organizational initiative that requires investment from all teams and especially leadership. To truly reap the performance gains of an inclusive workplace, it needs widespread adoption and not just from the workforce management side of an enterprise.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“When we have conversations about DE&I, I begin with questions, a lot of questions. First: “What is the core problem we trying to address?” Once an organization hones in on the problem statement, a plan can be developed to move forward. The most common problem statements include “How do we hire diverse talent, treat diverse talent equally, or ensure we are inclusive?”, “Is the new generation of workforce going to evaluate an organization based on the organization’s approach to DE&I?” Therefore, to be successful organizations must make DE&I core tenets of their culture and policy. Is awareness one of the problems to solve? Immersive training for all employees with scorecards to measure progress is key.

DE&I is more of a people, process, culture, and policy problem to solve as opposed to a technology problem if you exclude reporting, delivery, or training/measuring, and eliminating bias in AI.

From that standpoint, I am also having a lot of conversations around bridging the income gap.  Regardless, if it is this question or one I have already mentioned, I believe addressing the supply of diverse talent starting at ground zero is at the core. Building, nurturing, and growing a diverse talent pipeline should be a key pillar in an organization’s DE&I strategy. This means making investments in facilities and infrastructure; providing affordable access to education and training; etc. Hiring diverse talent contributes towards this, but at that point an organization is dealing with qualified talent – finished product, so to speak. Impactful DE&I strategies focus on talent at its origin and not just the finished product.”

Patrick Dunn, Chief People Officer, Bluecrew

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion remain an essential component of any elastic workforce strategy. These qualities reinforce a culture that attracts and retains quality talent, the foundational catalyst to drive forward looking innovation and strategy. For an elastic workforce, the diversity of perspectives that come from strong DEI initiatives can ensure the workforce prioritizes the right work and delivers productive results. The studies that offer compelling evidence that DEI improves team performance have reinforced personal experiences where monocultural teams suffered from blind spots and tone-deaf messaging. And because anti-diversity forces are so pernicious and self-reinforcing, you can’t make progress without conscientious commitment to DEI. Only prioritizing these goals with a core tenet encompassing empathy and DEI, will set an organization up to do the right thing and maximize opportunities.

It is also important to recognize that diverse hiring is impacted at every level by unconscious bias. Data-driven hiring practices, which de-emphasize traditional human-to-human interviews, put everyone on an even playing field and leverage the data that workers provide as part of their behavioral assessments and screening questions to evaluate their potential. Scientifically crafted assessments have proven to be better at determining worker performance than human interviews and using these techniques can remove bias and interference in the hiring process. In doing so, workers are judged only on their performance with the complete removal of factors like race, gender, or other protected class.  We are proud that Bluecrew is made up of Crew Members with a wide range of skills, experiences, cultures, and viewpoints. The diversity that they represent is a genuine strength that can only be leveraged when they can bring their authentic selves to work everyday.”