In the era of 'Intense focus on D&I'​ and #MeToo...

It's 2020 and we still seem to be needing organizational initiatives to make ~50% of the human race feel "included"! Wonder why... Walk into any organization and it's a stunner if the business leader, the budding high-potential mid-management exec, the well-established technologist and the unsuspecting HR lead are not at logger heads for their share of the pie called D&I (whooops I&D is a cooler way to address it, no?)

Setting insane targets for Attracting & Retaining Women (esp at senior roles), Person With Disabilities and people with differing sexual orientation (to exhibit organizational support to the LGBTQ community) seems to be the mantra..

And yet year after year, the actual vs. target numbers fail us and the reasons remain similar - "Oh she was not as good as she was in her previous role - She lost the plot (and the Gravitas too perhaps!?) ever since the promotion!"... "Oh, his issues were beyond the disability he mentioned during the interview - moreover he didn't find the right company to express himself - We should have hired couple more with the same condition as him!" OR "The team sneered behind her back ever since she came out - she couldn't handle the stress and left without another job in hand".. So what's not working!?

Let's take the goal of 'achieving 30-35% Gender Diversity' as an example - It's been over a decade that some of my friends and me have been helping organizations meet this target as HR professionals and here's what we see & hear..

• We launched the 'Women in Leadership Programs' - We nominated 50 women every year to a program that in 3 days claims to boost her confidence (vs. her orientation for the past 23/ 35/ 42 / 27/ 33 years!) - Yet we forgot to track & govern what happens to them the next year, the year following and 3 - 5 years on! We merely report - "She attended the WIL yet does not seem to have built the networks and/or confident enough to lead org-wide projects".. no mention of whether there was an organizational need and/or sponsorship.... We annually report "42% of those that attended WIL in the past 3 years have exited"
• We also created a 'Women Leader Network' so women help women over a period of time - Why!? Whatever happened to the other 85 - 88% leaders i.e. Men - Since when has 12-15% of the population impacted how we sponsor the next in line positively?

And if we're not certain why the 85-88 of the 100 leaders aren't enthused enough to sponsor this topic, why the lip service!?

"By the way, what is HR doing? Have they analyzed Attrition? Why are women at junior levels leaving us stating personal reasons - Let's revise our policies and make them on par with the best-in-class organizations."

• Wait a minute, have you considered - Is it even natural that 40%+ women are stating "personal reason" rather than "better salary", "growth opportunities" OR "managerial practices" unlike less than 20% of their male peers.
• Further correlation indicates that the former group's average tenure was significantly higher than the latter's - Could it be that they're not even confident of speaking up/ escalating the unconscious biases they encounter year after year when "their outstanding dedication, loyalty, competence and reliability" doesn't take them even to the bank, forget climbing the so-called ladder!
• What about how people in my organization think and act!? Has anyone checked with my peers, the team leads, managers or even the sub-BL unit heads how they feel when these "aggressive, non-negotiable goals" are set to further increased the numbers!? The jokes on the floor? The behaviors and the day-to-day ways of working?
• What's the actual CULTURE in the organization - Is it conducive to reaching these goals? What kind of policies do we have? What is the nature of exceptions we make? How often? How empowered is the first line manager to enable the employee who brings up a unique challenge s/he's faced with? How do we handle it when s/he fails since s/he didn't wait for the bureaucratic policy implementation to take its course...

Rather than let the lack of meritocracy and/or opportunities further diminish their confidence they walk out seeking newer pastures!- (I'm still a mere "Senior Analyst" while he's now an "Ops Manager", it's yet another thing that he couldn't clear one viva or job interview in college without my help ain't a good feeling to live with!) - At least the new organization is closer to my home, it saves me the travel time they reckon with their managers and HR - hence "personal reasons"!

Use these instances as a litmus test and replace the cause for 'gender diversity' with 'PWD', 'LGBTQ' or any other cause you're trying to make a positive difference toward. You will realize that the key and the 1st step is building an ECOSYSTEM that ENABLES and ENCOURAGES these goals in the first place!

An Ecosystem that

1. Educates employees, esp managers & leaders on what's okay and what's not in order to reach the goal - Explain the actual purpose - the WHY, the Goal - the What and the How! Do also tell them "No sire, those boys' club jokes & whatsapp forwards are an absolute no-no and it's not my lack of humor that makes me tell you this!!"#ProTip - Train everyone on unconscious bias + raise the overall level of managerial capability so we have empathetic people who proactively resolve potential issues, rather than react defensively when serious issues crop up (blow up)!
2. Allows for people to speak up without the fear of reprisal- Create the right forums for people to bring up issues and maintain utter confidentiality. (I seriously wonder HOW it's remotely OKAY for someone in HR/ Compliance to share employee stories and not be in trouble!) And remind me again, why should the neutral panel seek inputs from the manager/ business leader on the outcome - Isn't it better the latter focus time & energy on overall Operations and team well-being while the "neutral" ones (with an educational degree and/or specialization on this topic) deal with it in the best manner!?
3. Sifts the untrue from the truth - The number of fake complaints in the wake of #MeToo is any HR professional's and manager's nightmare I can bet! ("Was he even there at the Dinner where you claim he made a pass at you using what you deem as offensive/ sexually colored language?"... "No actually, I got it mixed up! It happened in the lift lobby where there are no eye witnesses - I hope you will check the CCTV footage and establish this!".. "Oh Absolutely - That MUST BE the main reason my parents aspired for me to specialize in HR at a premier B-school - so I could gauge words spoken in a CCTV footage with his back to the camera!!) ; Not to forget how individualism (thanks to the helicopter parenting skills of the earlier generation!) has made every Tom, Dick & Harry get so offended at the smallest of instances and needing "management help" to resolve issues (non-existent in some cases)..
4. Addresses the real situations/ challenges in a fair & consistent manner with a long-term view - Rather than deal with genuine / senior concerns and complaints using the #WillSheGoViralOnSocialMedia OR #WillHeTakeUsToCourt litmus test, how about we resolve these employee grievances with a genuine solutioning mindset - i.e. we make the right decisions that will stand the test of time and be acceptable to just about anyone who (irrespective of heierarchy et al!)
5. And once all these cultural elements are intact, go ahead and take off the physical inhibitors and /or invest in facilities - Taking off the turnstiles so the wheelchair can pass, provide feeding rooms, build a ramp, enable braille & audio in elevators and get the special guest to inaugurate the gender-neutral washrooms!

For now, we're talking - The mental blocks are indeed off, the walls have been razed and now we're indeed speaking and understanding equality! And that's what D&I (or I&D - however you adddress it) and #MeToo originally aims at - not what the media and the so-called crusaders make of it!

And you, my dear respectable HR professional, please don't come up and/or approve pooh-pooh ideas that dilute the whole cause!

1. Please think thrice (not twice) before mimicking some fancy product firm's policies that promises embryo cryopreservation (yep that's the term buddy!) and/or transporting expressed breast-milk across continents as additional non-monetary benefits! Let's look within and ensure we can safely get the pregnant women transported to and back from work for the next 3 years without cost-cutting impacting this initiative!
2. Let's then have a suitable (less-stressful) role available for them as they return back to work from Maternity Leave AND ensure that the ecosystem enables and additionally supports them in the first 3-6 m as each of them settle in after a HUGE life event!
3. Educate (and equally reprimand!) the managers & peers if this point ain't clear to her (for it's been a long long time since she's underwent this phase and may/ may not have been supported!!); Equally when any of these additional benefits / privileges are abused (we all know examples), pull up these individuals so it takes guts before someone else repeats it and the goodness stops. For if you don't nip it in the bud, the benefit will be withdrawn in turn negatively impacting scores of future women who truly need these enablers to settle in!

This is a good start in enabling D&I in organizations as HR - The initiatives will be here to stay and so will the women! In turn, the numbers will stay afloat, and increase (aggressively) over a healthy period of time! We will also respond in a healthy manner and NOT need to draft policies that ask the likes of Steve Easterbrook to walk out in an inauspicious manner after investing 26 years in the organization and being involved in a mutual healthy relationship like mature adults do!