DEI: An Undervalued Initiative

The ineffective DEI models

DEI stands for diversity, equality, and inclusion. As its name, this strategy focuses on building a diverse workforce and creating equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, age, race, or culture.

However, the application of the DEI model is just going through the motions as shown by the low workforce diversification within organizations and some even pretend to be diversified. According to a review of the 50 US. most valuable public companies, The Washington Post found out that only 8% of C-suite executives are Black, although these businesses pledged to incorporate DEI into their main strategies..

Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hương, Deputy CEO of Talentnet shared: “It may seem effortless to adopt and implement DEI, yet businesses will find that the issues are no less than intricate and demanding to be effectively dealt with. The biggest challenges lie within the process to minimize and eliminate unconscious bias in recruitment and employee evaluation regarding gender, race, culture. Leaders should acknowledge employee capacity and performance through quantitative measurements. To embed DEI framework on a larger scale, business leaders need to allocate with the differences in generation, personality and working style of their employees.“

3 ways for HR to apply DEI in recruitment

Applying the DEI model to business operations brings many positive change as it can increase profits by 120% annually according to the Diver Research report. In addition, the same report also found that employees working in culturally diverse businesses are 35% more productive. To bring a substantial change to your organization, Talentnet experts recommend HR with these 3 following solutions:

Measure workforce capability through quantification: Providing objective criteria for employee evaluation can resolve gender, race, and culture related problems. Skill-based pay is an example of workforce quantification measurement. Before making any decision on recruitment or payment, providing skill sets and scales in advance will be helpful in assessing employee ability more objectively.

Developing equity employee development initiatives: Be helpful and supportive can keep your employees to be productive and motivated. For example, besides the maternity benefits, HR can provide other benefits for female employees such as paying for childcare services. Or for employees that are lack of skills, the HR department can also provide training sessions to develop employee skills and technical abilities.

Using HR consulting services: Internal employees sometimes do not realize the backlog problems within the organization. Therefore, HR consulting services will help businesses realize the gaps in the compensation and benefits, thereby making suitable decisions.

According to Talentnet, embedding DEI into HR strategy is not as simple as it might seem. However, businesses can gradually apply this framework with the support of many modern tools and methods. More importantly, leaders should have the right mindset and vision.

Mr. Phạm Phú Ngọc Trai – Founder & Chairman of Global Integration Business Consultants (GIBC) and member of Vietnam HR Awards 2022 judging panel shared: “A business can be seen as a pharmacy with a variety of medicines, tools, and solutions and the pharmacist has the responsibility to provide the right treatments and approaches. The same thing happens to leaders and businesses. Leaders need to develop plans and approaches that can solve employee problem as well as increase business growth.”

Companies can consider HR consulting services with experienced experts to have a better overview of the DEI framework as well as embrace a long-term and sustainable business development strategy.

Source: Dân Trí