Let’s talk about Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs). With recent events further exposing inequality and bias in the workplace, many organizations are seeking DEI leaders across levels to help spearhead diversity and equity initiatives. While these positions came on the scene a few years ago, within the context of this current social climate, the demand for CDOs and other DEI leaders is exploding. More than just having a CDO in place, though, it’s imperative that we are setting them up to succeed.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story detailing the high turnover of CDOs at many companies, with contributing factors being “a lack of resources, unrealistic expectations, and inadequate support from senior executives.” Other factors setting CDOs up to fail include: a lack of empowerment within their organizations; having them report into department leads (rather than to the CEO); the organization’s lack of internal data transparency, and a lack of internal support. So, what can we learn from all this? We conferred with some good friends of our firm -- experts in the field -- and we’ve compiled a list of key ways to ensure you’re empowering your Chief Diversity Officers to bring about true organizational change:

1. Be clear about what Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion really mean: message the strategy, and identify resources and goals accordingly.

It’s important to recognize that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are three separate areas of focus in the workplace:

1) Diversity focuses primarily on representation. In order to address this, your CDO requires the power and senior support to ensure an inclusive hiring practice.

2) Inclusion focuses on creating an internal culture where people from all backgrounds feel like they belong. This requires the budget to support advancement initiatives, Sponsorship, Employee Resource Groups, and other company-wide initiatives.

3) Equity focuses on removing systemic barriers to achievement. A large part of equity is combatting the idea that a meritocracy exists--there is no such thing as a true meritocracy in corporate America. The myth discounts the unconscious and systemic barriers that so many of our colleagues face. Often, the fear of backlash leads to situations that unintentionally perpetuate these inequities.

Take, for example, the senior (male) partner who does not want to be alone with a younger (female) associate: he may avoid staffing her on client work that would require late nights or out of town travel. As a result, she may have less exposure to stretch opportunities or high impact projects, making it less likely that she will progress as quickly as her male colleagues.

You have to acknowledge that these are three separate areas, and you have to make sure you empower your CDO to impact all three.

-Alison Isaacs, Senior Manager of People and Organizational Effectiveness, PhotoShelter

2. Have CDOs report directly to the CEO or, if in a larger company, a member of the executive leadership team with P&L responsibilities. Ensure vision alignment, as well as explicit vocalization of support and empowerment.

My company, PhotoShelter, is the first organization I’ve worked for where, when I started talking about DEI, I didn’t have to fight for anything. I didn’t have to build the business case. I said, “we need to create a more inclusive hiring practice,” and I had support from every single leader. Andrew Fingerman, our CEO, immediately acknowledged how important it was, put it into my Q3 OKRs, and added an entire DEI section to our monthly all-hands. This level of support is helping me focus on the implementation and impact of our initiatives instead of trying to navigate internal barriers. It’s nice to say we care about DEI as an organization, it’s transformational to embed it in our organizational goals.

-Alison Isaacs, Senior Manager of People and Organizational Effectiveness, PhotoShelter

The best and most effective way for leaders to ensure success with their D&I efforts is to give practitioners a meaningful seat at the table with senior executives who are willing to listen and act on the guidance provided. Some of the best leaders I’ve worked with are supportive of the different and sometimes unfamiliar initiatives it takes to truly move D&I forward in their organizations.

-Ronald Taylor, Managing Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Mizuho Americas

3. Establish clear and attainable goals, broken down further into incremental goals. Make sure the entire team is aware of and on-board with these targets.

To be an effective D&I leader, it is critical to ensure there is buy-in and active engagement from the CEO and senior leadership more broadly, that the business case and social case are clear and known to all leaders and employees, that D&I is woven into all processes linked to talent and the employee lifecycle, and to have metrics/KPIs in place to track progress and measure success.

-Head of D&I, global financial institution

4. Create a discrete budget line for the role, and make sure they have the resources they need to achieve their diversity-related goals.

What typically hinders an effective D&I strategy is lack of sustained commitment, passive engagement on behalf of leaders and managers in making decisions on talent with a D&I lens, and appropriate resources and budget to achieve success.

-Head of D&I, global financial institution

5. Work with your CDO to build DEI goals into your leadership team’s Objectives and Key Results, and make sure performance and pay are tied to these OKRs. In order for these goals to be attainable, everyone should have some share in the accountability.

People will do what they are incentivized to do, what they are rewarded for. Human behavior is to continue with the path of least resistance. If you’re unintentionally rewarding unproductive behavior, then you’re undermining your own efforts. Having explicitly stated DEI goals in your OKRs shows your leadership’s commitment. But it doesn’t stop there: The DEI goals need to be a shared responsibility across every department and included in every individual’s performance review. It’s not the sole responsibility of your CDO to ensure an entire company is being held accountable, especially when there is no incentive for teams to change their behavior.

-Alison Isaacs, PhotoShelter

6. Ensure access to essential data (e.g. pay gaps, demographic turnover differences, talent pipelines), and enable CDOs to collect and update data to fill gaps in the information.

7. Allow ample time to achieve results. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We’re attempting to change hundreds of years of practices, so trying to get it all done in a single quarter, or even a single year, is a little lofty. Think in five-year terms (we know that’s forever in corporate years!), and then break up goals incrementally from there.

There’s an expectation of doing too much too fast. A single person (or small team) is tasked with a lot--from cultivating inclusive organizational processes and systems, to challenging and changing group behaviors, all the while fighting for resources. They’re sometimes expected to address everything at once. Culture change takes time: Think in smaller, incremental goals.

-Alison Isaacs, PhotoShelter

8. Don’t sideline your DEI efforts when the going gets tough. Just as you wouldn’t do away with a marketing department, you shouldn’t assume DEI is something you can ditch when revenue drops.

Treat your DEI goals like you would treat any other strategy. If you have barriers, revenue restrictions, a global pandemic...you have to innovate. You have to get creative about your DEI efforts the same way you’re getting creative about revenue generation. An organization’s true values come to light in times like these: not just in how they navigate the business landscape, but also in how they treat their employees in pursuit of those efforts.

-Alison Isaacs, PhotoShelter

Are you currently building out your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy? As recruiters, talent consultants and career coaches, we’ve spent the past 47 years helping organizations to attract, hire, and retain diverse teams, also working with organizations to help them develop and advance their internal DEI initiatives. If you’re in need of a sounding board, or an extra hand, please reach out to us at careersteam@cfwcareers.com. We’d love to help!