Diversity Lives in HR

Diversity Lives in HR

by Deanna Hartley

Today's talent conversations can't happen without some mention of diversity and inclusion. At least, they shouldn't. Not if an organization plans to leverage the varied perspectives that exist in today's talent pool and promote innovative decision making.

Today's fast-paced, dynamic and uber-competitive business environment demands that HR professionals be savvy in more than just day-to-day talent management functions. Amid a constantly changing global landscape, it is imperative for them also to be attuned to other business drivers - such as diversity and inclusion - in order to strategically advance their companies' long-term goals.

Diversity and the HR Executive

HR professionals have a stake in the success of an organization's diversity and inclusion efforts.

"Oftentimes, people try to compartmentalize diversity and inclusion and think of it as a completely separate process that gets bolted to a company's initiatives," said Melissa Donaldson, senior manager of inclusion practices at CDW Corp. "[It should be] integrated into everything you're already doing - all the other considerations you think about when you're planning your corporate strategy [or planning to] go out into new markets or new regions - that's as much of a human capital consideration as it is an operational consideration."

For instance, HR professionals must take into account the diversity component when considering expanding operations to different locations around the world.

"One of the key expectations around [HR leaders] helping decision makers [and] executives is partnering with them to think of some of those cultural or regional nuances that would help us to enter this new market or region and minimize our mistakes as well as increase our returns as efficiently and quickly as possible," she said.

Such strategic planning becomes even more important when a company decides to undertake multinational ventures.

"[HR professionals must consider] what are some of those things that impact a co-worker's ability to work as a team and get their job done. Things like religious differences are human capital components that HR executives would be expected to bring to bear," Donaldson said.

The role of the HR leader is to include diversity and inclusion as a key element of any people strategy or people program, explained Betty Thompson, senior vice president of people services at Booz Allen Hamilton.

"When we think about the life cycle for any employee, diversity has to be embedded and integrated into those processes and in those conversations, otherwise they end up being this thing that's on the side as opposed to, diversity, that's how we do our business," Thompson said.

One of the HR executive's primary roles should be to ensure these connections are being established.

"The HR executive is essentially focused on the talent aspect of diversity - we want to make sure that we're managing and attracting talent as effectively as we can, and diversity and inclusion is a key part of that," said Ronald K. Andrews, vice president, head of human resources, U.S. businesses at Prudential Financial.

"The reason I position it that way is because I've found [if] the focus is directly on diversity, there is this subtle [perception] that you are somehow sacrificing talent and ability and capability," he said. "It's much more effective to have your magnetic north be managing talent effectively, and you can't do that without focusing and pushing and promoting diversity and inclusion strategies."

Further, HR professionals' role in diversity and inclusion is dynamic and often requires them to wear different hats.

"As a seasoned HR professional, you have to determine what is the appropriate strategy to employ depending on where your business is," Andrews explained. "In some instances, you're going to be the enabler through coaching, education, sensitivity building and those kinds of interventions to help them get more comfortable creating an environment where talent can thrive. In other instances, the HR executive has to be the enforcer, where through performance management you highlight deficiencies in diversity and leadership, or through compensation programs that you might design where folks are either penalized or rewarded depending on how well or poorly they're contributing to the right environment based on qualitative and quantitative metrics."

Two Interdependent Functions

In many ways, diversity and HR are intrinsically interconnected; one function serves to advance the other.

"Human resources, by its very nature, is making sure that you have the right people [onboard] - [ensuring] the right talent for the right job at the right time," CDW's Donaldson said. "HR is always thinking about the people; what diversity and inclusion does is say: 'OK, let's talk about the people, but let's also talk about how people can be leveraged in certain situations to maximize business results.'

"One question I often ask business unit leaders is: 'What perspectives are you missing that will help you maximize your results? I'm not saying anything's wrong with the team, but there may be some areas where you haven't necessarily maximized perspectives that could be impactful to you being able to make a solid business decision.'"

In fact, as the talent pool becomes increasingly diverse, the HR professional must consider the business implications of diversity as early as the recruiting process.

"To be competitive in attracting the right talent, we have to be an organization that reflects the diversity that's out there as well as embrace it and represent an environment where diverse talent can thrive," Thompson said. "Having an environment that fosters the valuing of diversity creates more opportunities for all people to develop and therefore contribute the most that they have. It also plays into retention. If you've got an environment and a culture that supports the development and advancement of diversity, people can see themselves reflected in the leaders in the organization. Then it's more likely that people are going to stay and contribute and build their careers based on the role models that are there."

Navigate the Intricacies of D&I

Although the concept of diversity isn't new to the corporate world, inclusion was not part of the vernacular for HR competency development in the past, Donaldson explained. Therefore, many HR professionals face an uphill climb to ensure inclusion is taken into consideration and promoted at all levels within the organization.

"Compliance has been around for a while with affirmative action, but now it's really: How do we make that diversity work for our organization? That's the inclusion piece," Donaldson said.

"Sometimes the challenge [lies in] reminding HR executives [to not] just do things to check a box today; we've got to make sure all our efforts behind hiring these [diverse] talent pools are successful and any stigma around 'Oh, they just got hired because they're black' is lifted because [these individuals are] talented, valuable contributing professionals," she said.

Despite visible strides in the diversity and inclusion field, however, many HR professionals struggle to successfully integrate HR and diversity and inclusion.

One of the most fundamental challenges is trying to get executives or others in the company to believe there's a credible link between excellence in talent management and valuing diversity, Andrews explained.

"[We have to] make sure that as we're developing our pipeline of talent for future leaders, diversity is part of that conversation, and [we must] do it in a way that doesn't make it sound like we're compromising, but that it's about the richness of the pool we're trying to select from and the value that's going to bring to our clients ultimately," Thompson said.

The HR professional must be willing to bring up diversity as part of ongoing business conversations if it doesn't get raised.

"Whether we're talking about putting together a team to go after a major initiative or campaign or whether we're looking to go after a particular business or solve a particular problem, introduce the value [of] diversity and [how it] will benefit the company as we serve our clients.

"We have to be a driving force in embedding diversity in the culture," she explained. "People react to what's rewarded, so [we must] ensure diversity is part of those conversations where we're holding people accountable for looking for ways to attract, develop and retain diverse talent."

Demonstrate Business Impact

Aligning a company's diversity and inclusion strategy with its HR strategy can lead to tangible business results.

"The diversity and inclusion strategy is cross-cutting and a driving force in all of our people strategy efforts, [including] the way we recruit, engage and develop [employees as well as] measure performance and recognize success," Thompson said. "Because [our company is] about people, our ability to attract the best talent is critically important to the success of our business, and having that diverse talent creates more innovative solutions for the clients that we ultimately serve.

"When we bring a team together that's supposed to be coming up with the best solutions and ideas for our clients, we need to do that with the best people and reflect the diversity of our clients so they look at us and see how we can relate to them and bring diverse perspectives."

Ultimately, the focus should be on attracting and retaining the best talent from the highly qualified diverse talent pool that exists.

"[We engage in] tactics that are specifically linked to diversity efforts, [such as] going to various educational institutions to attract diverse talent [and] participating in panel discussions for different professional organizations that might cater to women or people of color," Andrews said.

"Our work is directly linked to the advancement of the diversity strategy through the talent focus," he explained. "Every leader in every business needs to manage and develop talent, and our HR strategy is in direct support of that. Many of our tactical measures are aligned to what we're doing to promote the development, attraction and retention of talent."

In many ways, diversity and HR are intrinsically interconnected; one function serves to advance the other.

[About the Author: Deanna Hartley is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]