It’s time for a bit of a reality check when it comes to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), says Christie Smith, PhD, former vice president of inclusion & diversity at consumer electronics giant Apple and founder of The Humanity Studio.
DEI has had its ups and downs over the years but now is a very dangerous time to question this concept, says Smith. “When we look at the skill scarcity as well as the half-life of skills, combined with the economic impact of low employee engagement, we are at a crisis situation in the workplace.”
That isn’t the ideal time to be giving up the values of DEI and risk not attracting talent to our organizations, especially if companies want to meet their revenue and growth goals, she says.
One needs to look no further than the reality of demographics. Millennials and Gen Z are the most diverse workforce this country has ever had, Smith points out. And companies need to draw from this pool of talent, which views DEI in the workplace as essential, if they want to be successful.
Another characteristic of these groups is that they represent the fastest growing segment of workers called fractional workers. “These are workers who are fine with not joining a major corporation and are building their own companies,” Smith says. “Are companies going to risk their competitive advantages by ignoring the values of diversity, equity and inclusion and not attract these workers?”
All is not doom and gloom, however. If you ask most leaders, they do in fact value DEI, but they aren’t prioritizing it. “It’s 10th in the prioritization of all the other things that they have to deal with,” explains Smith. “If we don’t make it a first or second priority to build DEI into the company’s culture instead of being just a program or initiative, we will not continue to be competitive.”
When it comes to the business case for DEI, Smith cites her years of experience in the field. “I’ve been in the workforce for nearly 40 years working in some aspect of DEI, and I'’m always asked about the business case. I think that is a false start, frankly. If you have humans in the workplace, and you need humans in the workplace, that’s the business case. When I was at Apple, as a DEI officer, our mission statement was that it was everyone’s job to bring everyone in. That was a necessity to be able to bring in the largest pool of talent that we could get.”
Attracting and keeping talent has been a challenge the past few years. One particularly troubling area is employee engagement, which affects retention. Each year, declining employee engagement continues to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion a year.
Combining these myriad issues, leadership is struggling with how to manage its talent strategy. And Smith has some advice. “We need leaders who are more human and can manage the complexity of all these issues with the humans who are in their organizations.”
In her new book, Essential, Smith presents a framework to revitalize leadership skills. The book discusses a leadership flywheel built around emotional maturity that has leaders suspending self-interest and having a mindset of absolute service. And part of that service perspective is being able to see the context in which employees join their companies and understand their needs. Compassion and empathy must come into play. “While companies consider these soft skills, I would call them power skills,” says Smith. “And we need to use those skills to make sure that we architect teams that enable people to live up to their highest potential at work.”
And of course, that structure ties in with understanding the core values of DEI.
