A YEAR AFTER GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH – WHAT HAS CHANGED IN YOUR ORGANIZATION?
Measuring the Impact of Your Company’s Response to Racial Inequality
The focus this past year on global racial inequality has triggered organizations to dedicate attention and resources in diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts. Many organizations have ramped up their efforts to improve the work situation for people of color and all employees, but the increased effort does not seem to be translating into impactful progress.
Black employees felt the effects of the company’s revamp this past year as their employers often asked them to lead task forces to solve racial injustice at the organization, requiring the effort to reside with the black employees of the company rather than the executive management and the board. While addressing racial inequality has been a welcome and timely discussion in many organizations, leadership failed to identify their alignment to racial inequality from the foundation up, thereby creating less impactful initiatives which resulted in the below findings.
SURFACE LEVEL ACTIONS DID NOT ADDRESS COMPANIES’ ALIGNMENT TO RACIAL INEQUALITY
EFFORTS TO ADDRESS RACIAL INEQUITY DID NOT CREATE CHANGE AND IMPACT ON BOARD AND EXECUTIVE LEVEL
COMPANIES INCREASED THE WORKLOAD OF STAFF OF COLOR BY CREATING GROUPS AND COMMMITTES TO LEAD THE ORGANIZATION’S EFFORTS
By overlooking a review of their company’s structure and alignment to the racial inequality gap, organizations often did not create impactful and lasting efforts to address racial inequality gaps across all areas of the business and for all their stakeholders.
Successful D&I initiatives require a top-down approach. The results of racial inequality permeate through your customer, staff, contractors, and partners and require dynamic and innovative solutions that can create impactful and lasting change.