Diversity Executives are Rewriting Corporate Organizational Practices

Corporate organizations are built to achieve growth and profitability for shareholders employee satisfaction is a secondary consideration DEIB initiatives go a long way to rewrite organizational theory and put empathy humanity and employee satisfaction at center stageDEIB executives recognize that the typical decentralized corporate structure is not built to foster a sense of quotbelongingquot for employees or to provide a safe space where people can support and learn from one another amp8212 to empathize listen and understand behavioral issues that fall outside of the narrow performance focus of corporate organizationsDuring Advancing Diversity Week September 2023 Shelley Zalis CEO of The Female Quotient moderated a panel titledamp160quotSpotlight on Leaders Effectively Using Their Influence to Champion Inclusivityquot in which executives discussed DEIB innovations that could overcome the limitations of corporate cultures Some of their thoughts and innovations are noted below You can view the panel in its entirety in the video at topDominique Worship Vice President of Diversity ampamp Inclusion at National Basketball Association NBA promoted Employee Resource Groups ERGs and Employee Resource Teams ERTs that quotcreate safe spaces where employees can come together to process and support one another and have meaningful dialogues about really tough issues that they may not have otherwise been talking about in their daytoday workplacequot Dream in Color the black ERT at NBA was established in the summer of 2016 in the wake of the number of police shootings of unarmed black men and women quotERGs and ERTs are the best practices we have and we certainly take pride in themquot Worship notedquotWe have something similar in our Affinity Groups at Citiquot remarked Chinwe Esimali Managing Director and Chief AntiBribery Officer at Citi quotWe have a black heritage Affinity Group a veteran39s group and many others and senior members of the Citi organization oversee these groups and make sure that they are accountable They are both bottomsup and topdown to make sure we have a very integrated endtoend approach ERGs are also essential for younger team members to use as resources for sponsorship and mentoring We encourage individuals to leverage these groups and build relationships with seniors that they might otherwise not have established in their normal management workings Our new CEO Jane Frazier has made it clear that quotempathyquot is now integrated into our core values and leadership principles at the bank She recognizes that as we come out of the pandemic individuals are navigating various personal circumstances and it39s important for managers and leaders to have the ability to listen and understand We strive to see employee satisfaction rise to higher levelsquotMarcien Jenckes President of Advertising at Comcast Cable confirmed that Comcast had ERGs as well and he added that they have introduced quotInterview Alliesquot to their recruiting processes quotWhenever we are in the process of hiring a new employee we bring people in from outside the direct reporting chain in order to check for unconscious bias and to make sure we are not going for an easy quick hire After a hiring the ally picks up the role of being an ongoing mentor once he she is brought into the organization We make better decisions this way and provide ongoing support for new hiresquotAline Santos Farhat Chief Equity Diversity ampamp Inclusion Officer at Unilever weighed in on the need to create quotInclusive Leadersquot who see their jobs as going beyond meeting performance goals quotWe have to have leaders who understand the importance of inclusion At Unilever we attack this issue on four fronts 1 We create policies procedures and practices to improve the employee experience 2 We lead with our brands because the way we communicate our brand values demonstrates how we deal with diversity and inclusion internally 3 We choose our suppliers carefully and we invest in underserved communities 4 We work on community equity which means investing in initiatives that promote a fair and inclusive societyquotTaken as a whole it seems clear that corporate organizations which were originally focused profit centers that strove only for improved performance are being humanized through DEIB initiatives that add empathetic and humanistic dimensions to their frameworks Diversity equity inclusion and belonging contribute to increased employee satisfaction across existing structuresWe owe our DEIB executives and their CEOs a vote of thanks for their organizational innovationsClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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Diversity Executives are Rewriting Corporate Organizational Practices

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Michael Farmer

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