I recently spoke at an HR & Benefits conference on how to begin and/or refine your DEIB efforts in order to actually be successful in moving the needle in this important work. I will share some of my ideas over several posts. Contact me if you want to know more!

First let’s lay the foundation of some definitions. I adapted this Bank of America graphic and added the Belonging information. So if you start with these definitions and develop outcome goals from there, you will focus on the right outcomes and the right problems so that you design the right solutions. When developing your strategy, know your starting point and what you want the future state to look like and achieve.

A few other things to think about as you develop a strategy:

•Know the power dynamics at your organization.

•Know what you will measure and how.  How do we know we have met our outcome goals?

•Establish a baseline-employee satisfaction, engagement, retention, turnover, demographics, surveys.

•Identify resources: Internal/ external.

•Budget: You need one!

•Define terms so that everyone understands.

•Create a playbook.

•Don’t try to take on too much.

I’ll stop there. My next post will continue the conversation on developing a DEIB focus at your organization. Leave a comment if you have any other ideas when developing a strategy.