Building Resilience in Diversity and Inclusion Programs

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs are essential for building resilient workforces and organizations, particularly in response to racial violence, yet these programs are often taken for granted. In recent years, D&I professionals have become the “first responders” for racial trauma and other crises. At the same time, D&I is often among the first initiatives on the chopping block during times of great upheaval. As a result, the question remains: How can organizations create sustainable initiatives that can weather disruptions while also supporting employees — particularly women of color — to help them avoid burnout?

In this article, we examine how, in order to build resilience in organizational and individual D&I initiatives, companies must invest in and formalize programming that supports employees.

Rethinking Resilience for Members of Underrepresented Groups

Current concepts of resilience, whether as an individual trait, an emergent property of relationships or networks, or a team characteristic, fail to center the experiences of employees who are members of underrepresented groups. Pre-pandemic, many of these employees got involved in creating D&I programming to help one another in the face of workplace barriers and setbacks. As a result, responsibility for D&I activities often falls squarely on the shoulders of the individuals who experience the most marginalization. These individual practices to recover from daily forms of bias and discrimination, whether paying inclusion taxes or identity taxes, help improve the diversity climate of their workplaces. Their efforts at building resilience are a form of invisible and/or uncompensated labor that adds to their formal responsibilities.

The reorganization of work and family dynamics that occurred during the pandemic has intensified the burden on women, particularly women of color. From navigating parental responsibilities during Zoom calls to being called on to discuss the racist events that received national attention, the range of setbacks and the efforts required to address them — such as deciding whether to voice concerns around companies’ anti-racism statements or anti-racist-inspired behaviors — have become more complex. Also, employees’ roles have shifted in their homes and extended families, in many cases causing them to leave the workforce entirely. Managing the combination of workplace responsibilities and family needs, and the culmination of race, gender, and homophobic events that persist, has imposed a heavy mental strain on many employees.

Recognizing these additional burdens, we pose a new question: How can organizations shift mindsets and recognize the importance and value of this labor? Explicitly rewarding and valuing D&I efforts through promotions and pay, along with inviting D&I professionals to be part of decision-making, are a good start. Below, we outline additional steps organizations can take to build resilience even more deeply into their programs.

Rethinking Resilience in D&I Programs

Given the impact COVID-19 has had on employment, productivity, and inclusion, organizations must spread the responsibility for D&I activities among more than just a few key change agents to avoid weakening the initiatives. Distributing responsibility will help retain valuable talent and provide accountability across the organization.

Change must go deeper than talk or performative acts without impact — it must alter the day-to-day business and experience of employees. That level of change requires managers to get involved. In order to integrate D&I initiatives throughout the organization, leaders must hold their direct reports accountable for D&I goals and devote financial resources toward achieving those goals. These actions send a message to the rest of the organization about what is essential and what isn’t, and they move D&I beyond the “nice to have” and into a business imperative so that D&I programs will be resilient in the face of challenges.

Organizations must also measure and reward team successes rather than solely focusing on individual achievements. When D&I programs are seen as individual projects and efforts that belong primarily to marginalized groups advocating for themselves rather than as a shared organizational priority and mission, key change agents are likely to experience burnout and turnover.

For companies and managers, the key then becomes linking strategies that foster individual and organizational D&I resilience.

Strategies Toward Resilience

To design robust D&I initiatives that truly support employees, organizations must recognize the nuanced value of the invisible labor employees engage in to develop their resilience and create a shared sense of responsibility for D&I across the organization. As organizations continue to evolve plans for post-pandemic reentry and a return to the office, and they develop new practices around virtual and hybrid work, it’s critical to center on the needs of employees.

Creating organizational change takes time, and a “small wins” approach is another key dimension of facilitating gender and racial equity in the workplace. Focusing on small successes that create momentum toward larger change can propel organizations forward without overburdening key change agents.

Companies can build sustainable D&I programs that empower collective engagement by implementing strategies that empower individual resilience. Employees who feel respected and valued in the workplace are more likely to have the energy to be productive and are more likely to stay at their jobs. Examples of strategies leaders can use with their teams include the following.

1. Create space for storytelling. Individuals have a fundamental need to share their experiences, challenges, and needs. Some employees may not feel comfortable sharing their experiences in larger groups. Other employees, on the other hand, might feel safer being vulnerable in larger groups. As a result, organizations must create spaces for employees to share their experiences — and provide feedback on ways to enable their success — with colleagues and leaders. For example, are you structuring team meetings to accommodate different types of storytelling — by scheduling time for large-group check-ins, small-group breakout sessions, and one-on-one meetings? Are you sending out regular pulse surveys to assess and track how your employees are feeling, what their challenges and needs might be, and how best to accommodate them? What opportunities are you giving employees to bring their whole selves to work and communicate what would make them most effective?

2. Recenter human needs by sharing responsibilities. People are central to the essential work of businesses. By seeking ways to share the load across employees and teams, organizations can recognize and validate people’s needs both within and outside work while also ensuring that essential work doesn’t fall through the cracks. Boston Consulting Group successfully experimented by building planned time off into team scheduling and found that increasing communication within teams enabled them to work more seamlessly in the face of employee absences. Spreading responsibility will not only reduce employee burnout and turnover but also build more effective D&I programming by making it more stable and sustainable.

3. Create psychological safety by building a teamwork culture. Building a culture of teamwork with regard to diversity programming helps protect and value the social-emotional needs of employees — especially members of underrepresented groups, who often feel particularly unsafe. Employees need psychological safety in order to be themselves at work, speak up about potential conflicts, enjoy a sense of trust and belonging with colleagues, and ultimately be successful. Instead of rewarding employees solely for individual achievement, which can detract from team goals and fuel a competitive environment, make sure to value team accomplishments and successes.

Questions to consider when evaluating team culture and psychological safety: Are teams rewarded for their successes in performance evaluations? Are there incentives that encourage active executive sponsorship of employee resource groups (ERGs) or other forms of informal leadership roles taken on by underrepresented groups? Are employees who engage in creating and advocating for diversity programming recognized and compensated for their contributions and efforts toward creating a safe environment?

For example, LinkedIn recently began paying global cochairs of ERGs. Incentivizing team achievement around diversity programming can help combat the bias and microaggressions that contribute to a lack of psychological safety on teams and ultimately cause top talent to leave their organizations.

4. Validate employees by treating employee wellness as a business imperative. Rather than treating programs that are designed to support employee wellness as merely “nice to have,” employee wellness must be seen as an essential component of a healthy, thriving, well-functioning, and financially solvent business. For example, Stanford University created a COVID-19 Family Resources site, a conversation guide for managers, and a COVID-19 manager toolkit site as part of its multidimensional effort to support employees. Leaders must demonstrate support of employee wellness by prioritizing it in meetings, checking in with direct reports, and creating accountability structures that hold all team members accountable. Ensure that a zero-tolerance policy is created and enforced for behaviors that minimize employee wellness.

By taking steps to foster employee resilience, recognizing and centering collaborative efforts toward improving workplace culture, and building sustainable D&I initiatives, organizations can create workforces ready to tackle the uneasy road to post-pandemic recovery.