6 main reasons to work with a diversity consultant
In this article, I will talk about the main benefits of working with a diversity consultant.
Diversity and inclusion have surely come to the forefront recently. People are ready to change jobs now when they do not feel valued at work.
Having a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture is not just nice to have any longer. If you don’t, employees, customers, and collaborators will go look somewhere else.
It is not easy to put in place. First, there is diversity. Then, how do you make it work?
It is not enough just to put different people together and assume things will work smoothly and the performance of your organization will improve.
To increase the chance of success, asking for help from a consultant can help. But what a diversity and inclusion consultant should do?
Here I present 6 areas a diversity consultant should work on with you. It doesn’t mean you need to work on all 6 areas and this is something that a good consultant will assess first.
1 – Understand your diversity
Diversity is about numbers. To understand your diversity, you need to define the categories you are interested in and get the numbers in each category. Usual categories are ethnicity, gender, age, and so on.
These numbers can be for your workforce and can also be for other stakeholders. It is very informative to be able to see the diversity of your customers, suppliers, collaborators, and so on.
The data will come from different sources. For data on external diversity, the sales or marketing departments should have some numbers.
For your workforce, Human Resources probably will have some data.
A consultant, particularly for your workforce, can help in designing and handling anonymous surveys about diversity and present a report as part of their services.
Know that this is only the starting point. Diversity is not the end. The numbers will clarify the structure of the organization in terms of diversity and potentially identify gaps to be addressed.
Then the next step can begin.
2 – Understand your level of inclusion
Diversity was about numbers. Inclusion is about behaviors. It is thus inherently more difficult to assess and here a consultant can be particularly valuable.
Several approaches should be used by a good consultant.
First, behaviors are usually codified in procedures, policies, and processes.
A consultant will guide you through a review of these procedures and policies with an inclusion lens.
You will be able to identify the shortfalls and where your policies and procedures are not inclusive.
This will include looking at recruitment, onboarding, promotions, training, and development, but also procurement, communication in general for instance.
Second, a consultant will help you assess individual levels of inclusion.
The whole process of becoming an inclusive organization needs to be driven by the top.
The executives need to be accountable for it. Managers are on the front line to make it real and lead by example.
Many managers think they are inclusive. However, when asking people around them, a different answer may appear.
A consultant can design, gather, and analyze data from 360-degree feedback for instance, or carry out anonymous surveys around inclusion and present a report.
These various approaches will bring you clarity on the level of inclusion of your organization.
3 – Design and put in place a strategy
Now that you know where you are in terms of diversity and inclusion, the next step a consultant will help you with is to put in place what you need and want.
This will be through rewriting the policies and procedures that are not inclusive, designing and putting in place a diversity and inclusion strategy, anchored into and in line with your overall business strategy, values, and mission.
More importantly, it will be designing and putting in place the new behaviors and ways of working.
This is the phase that will require the most effort, involvement, and commitment from many people within the organization.
It is a phase of dialogue, concertation, ideas sharing, listening, gathering, and focusing on what people will be comfortable with, what resonates with them, and the organization as a whole.
The more communication there is at this stage, the more likely you are to put in place the right culture.
4 – Leveling the playing field
What do I mean by this?
Well, diversity, inclusion, and so on will mean very different things to different people.
Leveling the playing field is bringing to everyone the same knowledge. Everybody needs to know what you are talking about.
Here, I am talking about training. Whether it is in diversity and inclusion, cultural differences, how our brain works and creates biases, assumptions, and prejudices, or emotional intelligence, there is a whole suite of knowledge that people need to get to increase the success of building an inclusive culture.
A successful consultant needs to be able to assess training and development needs.
5 – Coaching
Coaching is a very powerful tool when it comes to working on specific issues. It can be individual coaching to help a specific person in her/his/their role and implement inclusion.
It can also be team coaching. An example is an executive team coaching to help the team through the process of building that inclusive culture.
It can be any other team in the organization that particularly struggles with inclusion and changing their ways of working.
6 – Help you sustain your progress
Finally, building an inclusive culture is not an event. It is a continuous journey and we need to build for the future.
One aspect of this will be monitoring progress. A consultant can help you with putting the strategy that you will use to monitor your progress in terms of diversity and inclusion.
A consultant can then help you take corrective action, when necessary when you are not getting the results you want to achieve.
What do you think are your most pressing needs among these 6 areas?
Conclusion on what can a diversity consultant do for you and your organization
In this article, I outlined the key benefits of working with a diversity consultant.
To take advantage of the expertise of an inclusion and diversity coach write to us using our contact form, call us at +33 6 69 46 03 79, or contact us on WhatsApp at +33 6 69 46 03 79.