Moving Beyond Checkbox Diversity

Over the past years, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become an increasingly important topic among organizations. Good intentions and outside pressures have led companies to “checkbox” approaches to address the DEI agenda. While these measures may play an important role over the first years of diversity strategies implementation within companies, DEI must be understood as a core business strategy rather than an HR-exclusive obligation to create sustainable strategies, agreed industry experts.

“DEI is not exclusive to HR; it concerns the entire organization. Companies must create a council that incorporates business leaders. The council must work in-depth to create a sustainable, long-term DEI strategy for the company. Diversity is no longer an HR priority, but a business priority,” said Cristina Mesón, VP Human Resources, Heineken.

Companies will not meet their DEI objectives following a so-called Checkbox Diversity model without first attempting to understand and embrace people’s differences internally, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review: “When the social sector employs checkboxes to increase the representation of the underrepresented, it ultimately misses the point of deeply understanding differences for genuine, impactful collaboration. It also causes unintended and lasting harm, and ignites frustration and disappointment when a ‘diversity hire’ ends up not working out, failures that get explained away in several ways that reveal the inadequacy of checkbox diversity.”

The rise of social action groups like Mexico’s Feminist Movement and the US’ Blacks Lives Matter have successfully forced companies to come to terms with their social responsibility in advancing DEI in and outside the workplace. Following these movements, companies have rushed to advertise their solidarity and commitments to advancing gender and racial justice, but upon review, these efforts have fallen dramatically short of their intended purpose, as reported by MBN.

Companies must embrace diversity and inclusion as part of their core business strategy, said Lilia Nahon, Human Resources, Smurfit Kappa: “It is essential to make DEI part of the core strategy. Having leaders lead by example to create a solid DNA within the company to remain consistent is crucial.”

Failing to implement effective DEI strategies could result in damage to companies. In Mexico, the alignment of personal values on diversity, transparency and sustainability with prospective employers was an important deciding factor before accepting a job for workers, according to Randstad’s Workmonitor 2022. Eclipsing a global average of 41 percent, over half of Mexico’s survey respondents indicated that they would turn down a job opportunity at a company that was not trying to improve its diversity and equity. In other words, stale and superficial DEI initiatives will not go unnoticed by new talent, an important differentiator as the war for specialized talent becomes increasingly competitive.

Ultimately, DEI matters are no issues that can be prescribed through performative checkbox initiatives, as this approach fails to truly understand the biases and behaviors that contribute to the entrenchment of institutional barriers. Once established that DEI initiatives cannot be achieved without internal introspection and education, it serves to shift their emphasis on accomplishing a quota and toward understanding the challenge. This relieves organizations from pursuing immediate results and toward observable benefits and results that come from substantive DEI initiatives.

“Representation quotas and measurement of numbers work for certain stages, but cannot be the long-term metric. It is important to connect the DEI agenda with the business metrics, translating the diversity strategy and connecting it with the business strategy,” said Daniel Berino, VP of Human Resources LATAM, Clarios.

DEI is an ongoing, ever-evolving effort that involves every individual in an organization and touches nearly every aspect of work. To see long-term change, we need to keep moving forward, measuring results, learning from past results, and course correcting as needed, reads Lever’s The State of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts 2021 report.

According to Lever’s report, measuring DEI success is essential to know where companies stand. Among the popular measurement metrics, hiring results, employee experience surveys and employee demographics are the most common. Although it is difficult to measure a company’s “culture,” these metrics help to understand where the organization stands, said Mesón.

While it is important to leverage data analytics to measure the formal progress of DEI efforts within companies, leaders must be close to their people and ready to listen to them, said Verónica Pantoja, Human Resources Director, LeasePlan: “Leaders must forge DEI policies into the DNA of the company. Although big data remains important for formal reports, leaders need to get a close grip on these issues and live the company’s day-by-day.”

Although there is still a long way to go for Mexican companies to become diverse, several of them are already facing the challenge and breaking paradigms. “Companies must understand and accept the diversity they have within the organization,” concluded Hannah Töpler, Founder and CEO, INTRARE.