Diversity + Equity + Inclusion = Employees’ wellbeing! Find out how this formula is a surefire way to success. [Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
The workforce landscape is never constant. It is always changing in ways you could never imagine.
In March 2021, MBO Partners conducted a roundtable discussion series titled, “MBO Future of Work Roundtable March Series.” In these events, we invited some business leaders and experts to discuss some fundamental strategies for an effective workplace system.
One of the topics we talked about was bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into the future of work.
You may listen to the recording and view the transcript of the discussion here.
Continue reading to know more about DEI in the workplace. Today’s article will also highlight what our firm is doing to bring diverse, equitable, and inclusive opportunities to thousands of business owners and independents in the US.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Mindfulness by Miles
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
These elements are vital to creating and maintaining a happy and successful workplace. They’re founded on the principle that people of different backgrounds can thrive personally and professionally.
According to an article from BuiltIn.com, an online community for startups and tech companies, DEI is an ethos that recognizes the value of diverse voices in the workplace and focuses on inclusivity and employee wellbeing as central facets of success.
To bring these values to life, companies must implement programs and initiatives that make their offices more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
One of the firms that made a commitment regarding this?
MBO Partners!
On March 11, 2021, the firm conducted a roundtable discussion titled, “Bringing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Future of Work.”
In this event, MBO Partners CEO Miles Everson spoke with Kanarys, Inc. CEO Mandy Price, Pymetrics CEO Frida Polli, and MBO Partners Vice President of Talent Marketing Aassia Haq regarding the importance of DEI.
The discussion opened with Everson saying that in 2020, MBO Partners made a commitment they called, “Opportunity for All.”
He explained that this commitment aims to increase awareness of diversity inside the independent workforce and discuss some of the challenges that business owners face when trying to grow their diversely owned firms.
Price, Polli, and Haq also talked about key stories of successful DEI initiatives inside large organizations. They highlighted what these elements mean for various firms as part of ongoing labor conversations.
Let’s get into the highlights of the discussion one by one…
Creating a Workplace where Everyone Belongs
Photo from the I-Sight
As main speakers at the roundtable, Haq and Everson said that as more organizations focus on fostering a sense of belongingness in the workplace, business leaders, managers, and recruiters need to understand that individuals aren’t the only ones they have to look at.
They also have to look at system-wide approaches to analyze how companies are tackling DEI-related issues to effectively create a space where everyone is welcome, feels safe, and has a chance to thrive.
Meanwhile, Price stated that oftentimes, organizations want to do something better—they want to move towards diversity and inclusion, but they don’t know how.
She mentioned that she and her team at Kanarys, Inc. often experience clients coming to them to ask if they can do unconscious bias training.
[Unconscious Bias Training: This is one of the steps companies take to help employees recognize, understand, and manage hidden biases that could lead to poor decision making and undermine DEI initiatives and goals.]
Here’s the thing: Price said this training isn’t the best way to approach DEI-related issues. She explained there are lots of research that show unconscious bias training can actually cause more harm to a firm.
So… what does she and her team do?
Instead of just agreeing to clients’ requests, Price said what they try to do is help business leaders diagnose the actual issues that exist within their organizations. According to her,
“Having someone come and do an off-the-shelf training is not going to lead to impact within your organization. You have to have a prescribed prescription plan that’s going to ensure success within your organization.”
… and what comprises that prescription plan?
Diagnosing the issues, doing a workplace equity assessment, understanding how a firm’s talent acquisition, performance management, and pay policies are working, and conducting employee assessments!
According to Price, these steps will ensure more success for businesses than simply conducting unconscious bias trainings.
Let’s now move on to another segment of the roundtable discussion…
Aside from Haq, Everson, and Price, Polli from Pymetrics also shared her thoughts about DEI in the workplace.
She said all tools and automated systems used in hiring workers need to report disparate impact—policies, practices, or rules that result in a disproportionate impact on or unintentional discrimination towards a certain group of people.
Why?
Polli believes disparate impacts are a significant hiring issue and there’s a need to address them. This will help ensure companies can properly bring DEI into their offices.
According to her, automated hiring systems are becoming more prevalent today. She said businesses should maximize these technologies in the recruitment process to drive widespread changes throughout organizations.
Here are a few of these hiring tools:
- Allie
- Applied
- Blendoor
- DBSquared
- Diversio
- Entelo
- GapJumpers
- GapSquare
- Gender Decoder
- HRx Technology
… and more.
Polli said that while using these hiring tools on their own will not be enough to execute a DEI strategy, they can still support a company’s strategy in a number of ways, including:
- Helping uncover and avoid bias during the recruitment process
- Training employees on recognizing bias
- Tracking an organization’s progress towards its goals
Measuring Employee Wellbeing in an Extended Workforce
Another topic that Everson talked about in the roundtable discussion was that early on in his career, he was fortunate to meet Don Clifton, the founder of Select Research Institute, a company with MASSIVE amounts of data on human behavior.
Everson said one of the pieces of advice Clifton gave was to focus on the number one reason why employees stay at a company: Having friends and not just a high salary.
According to Clifton, workers who don’t have friends in the workplace will leave regardless of how high their salary is. This is a basic yet significant factor in the perspective of a company’s DEI strategy.
Simply said, firms must always take into account the wellbeing of their employees. They should not only give workers training on methods and policies but also make room for the celebration and encouragement of being heterogenous in the office.
This is what Everson thinks about whenever he hears the words, “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” For him, inclusion is not having to be like someone else to fit in at work. It’s embracing the differences employees have and using these unique qualities to everyone’s advantage.
—
Everson said one of the huge factors that determine whether or not a company will successfully bring DEI into its workplace is the authenticity of a leader.
He stated that as a thinker and speaker, he’s pragmatic… and for him, there are still lots of DEI-related progress that need to be made in the future of work.
According to him, great and responsible leaders encourage advancement towards more equity and inclusion in a diverse workforce. He said a DEI strategy will only be successful and authentic when leadership, management, and recruitment teams are taking action that’s actually driving transformational change.
We hope you gained a lot of great business insights from Everson, Haq, Price, and Polli’s roundtable discussion!
May their advice inspire you to provide “Opportunity for All,” welcoming workers of different backgrounds and celebrating the differences you, your colleagues, and your workers have.
It’s time to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion into your own company or team!
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles”
High-performance businesses are run by people who think and act differently.
In other words, these are people who are high-performing individuals.
Companies and individuals of this kind have found ways to escape the grind of commoditization and competition by focusing on the RIGHT goals.
High-performing businesses and individuals are also “return driven” businesses and “career driven” individuals. They conscientiously develop unique capabilities and resources that allow them to deliver offerings in ways no other firm or individual can.
Every Friday, we’ll publish tips and insights from MBO Partners and The I Institute’s “The Business Builder Daily” newsletter.
These will help you gain knowledge on the things that Miles Everson, the CEO of MBO Partners, often talks about regarding the future of the workforce.
We’ll also highlight other mindfulness advice on how you can be a high-performing individual both in your career and personal life.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
Powered by Valens Research
www.valens-research.com
