Summer 2019
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CTDO Magazine

Diversity Disconnect

Monday, June 17, 2019

Don’t let mini-me syndrome and diversity fatigue undermine your diversity and inclusion efforts.

Mounting evidence suggests that a more diverse workforce is a more productive one. For instance, women-led teams scored slightly higher than male-led teams in a recent Peakon study. Peakon, a platform for measuring and improving employee engagement, found that employees from female-led organizations answered in the affirmative more often to statements like “I'm inspired by the purpose and mission of our organization” and “Our organization does a good job of communicating the goals and strategies set by senior leadership.”

Likewise, a study from findcourses.com, a corporate learning search engine, found that employers that experienced financial growth during the past year were 72 percent more likely to advocate strongly for diversity and inclusion (D&I).

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But there’s a disconnect. Although the Women in the Workplace 2018 study, which McKinsey conducted in partnership with LeanIn.org, found that diversity programs are commonplace, progress has stalled. Based on four years of data from 462 companies employing more than 19.6 million people, women—particularly women of color—remain underrepresented.

This aligns with a 2019 Boston Consulting Group study that examined workplace diversity—gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. BCG surveyed 16,500 people worldwide, including 8,600 women, 3,200 racially or ethnically diverse employees, and 1,650 people identified as LGBTQ. The study found that 98 percent of respondents report that their companies offer some type of diversity program. Yet, only one-fourth say they have personally benefited from those programs.

Why are companies struggling to make inroads with their D&I efforts? Some experts cite the mini-me syndrome—that is, that leaders typically tap talent who remind them of themselves. According to the Center for Talent Innovation, 71 percent of sponsors admit their protégés are the same race and gender they are.

Another problem is diversity fatigue. This is not a new problem; the term diversity fatigue took root in the 1990s with the expansion of equal opportunity initiatives. A 2017 article in The New Yorker explains that managers used the phrase to describe the stress and exhaustion they felt trying to constantly recruit from diverse pools and nurture opportunities for women and minorities. Today, diversity fatigue complaints cite that it takes a lot of energy and resources to solve complex problems surrounding D&I and that it’s difficult to stay committed when progress is slow or nonexistent.

Sadly, because far too many diversity programs are irrelevant to everyday workplace demands, diversity fatigue will likely continue to grow. “Corporate leaders need to step back and look at their companies’ diversity programs, asking whether those programs are truly effective for all employees, across gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation,” says Miki Tsusaka, a senior partner at BCG and a co-author of the study.

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To halt the spread of diversity fatigue, organizations must move away from superficial training and events that focus on building awareness toward emphasizing skills building. Initiatives also need to avoid a punitive approach in favor of accentuating what everyone has to gain from more diverse and inclusive workplaces and communities.

Organizations need to take a more strategic approach and tackle diversity the way they address other business opportunities and challenges—by assessing the situation and forming metrics for measuring accountability. Those metrics must go beyond counting the number of diversity events and meeting diverse employee quotas to measuring the correlation between diversity initiatives and other strategic measurements like employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and innovation.

Read more from CTDO magazine: Essential talent development content for C-suite leaders.

About the Author

Ryann K. Ellis is an editor for the Association of Talent Development (ATD). She has been covering workplace learning and performance for ATD (formerly the American Society for Training & Development) since 1995. She currently sources and authors content for TD Magazine and CTDO, as well as manages ATD's Community of Practice blogs. Contact her at [email protected]

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