Dropping the E in DEI: Is DEI Dying?

In July 2024 SHRM announced their decision to drop the E out of DEI and many HR professionals have reacted with confusion and disappointment. Such a large change to what was once considered a standard can definitely bring forth uncertainty, especially as organizations of all sizes continue to struggle in building DEI programs.

Here, at Talent Tech Labs, we’re committed to bringing clarity to HR technology and a huge part of that mandate is understanding the other two parts of the puzzle; people and process. DEI initiatives are supported and matured through technology but the foundation of it begins through and is heavily influenced by the process and people themselves.

DEI initiatives originally began as a response to equal employment laws and affirmative action in the sixties, as organizations understood they needed to make stronger efforts to integrate their workforces. Over time, more concepts have been added to diversity; inclusion, equity, belonging, justice, etc. 

Organizations tend to create their specific acronyms based upon the principles that support their purpose in a diversity initiative. For example, organizations looking to ensure diverse representation in their workforce will select Diversity, but organizations looking to provide similar benefits or outcomes to their employees will select Equity. 

The Impact of Dropping Equity: Why It Matters

It’s this exact reason that’s caused so much commotion with the news that SHRM is dropping the E in DEI. As the leading authority on HR practices and policies, SHRM is setting an example that other organizations will follow. SHRM felt that, after numerous surveys, equity was confusing to implement and wanted to lead with an inclusion-first approach (I&D) and encouraged other organizations to follow suit.

Dropping the E comes from a place of failure – organizations don’t understand what is truly involved in maintaining diversity alongside equity, and many of the structures and programs within organizations are built in a way that will never support equity. In a scenario where even the leading authority has found difficulty in implementing DEI, comes the question if it is even feasible or worth it to pursue. There’s been an increasing trend of organizations dropping or shrinking their DEI teams, governments and courts moving to undo affirmative action or overturn decisions that were made with DEI in mind. Equity has been deeply misunderstood and frankly, professionals don’t understand how to integrate it in a meaningful manner in the workplace.

Understanding Equity: It’s More Than Just Resources

When understanding equity, we’re often shown the image of the three individuals trying to watch a baseball game over a fence. Often, this makes people believe that equity is about providing more resources or making things easier for underprivileged populations – which often leads to feelings of resentment and imbalance within working environments. 

I’d challenge that equity is not about making things easier or providing more resources, but understanding different perspectives and backgrounds and learning how to translate them into what is transferable at work. There will always be systemic and economic barriers that prevent certain populations from reaching the same goals as others, but equity comes in the shape of understanding those barriers and the skills and experiences gained in thriving despite them. An organization cannot exclusively hire diverse employees without understanding their different starting points and needs. 

To break it down simply; at Walmart diversity may look like ensuring that your workforce has diverse representation. This could be easily achieved by hiring diverse employees at retail entry level en masse, by race and gender. However, while this may achieve diversity in the overall workforce breakdown, it is neither inclusive nor equitable. 

Inclusion is about ensuring your employees are able to integrate and feel heard at every level in the organization. This looks like implementing diversity education, asking for feedback, celebrating the diversity and building inclusive events, etc. Again, this achieves inclusion in the diverse workforce, but there is no movement towards building equity. The large majority of these diverse employees are still in entry level roles at the retail level with little support to navigate their careers upward. 

Equity is about meeting your employees where they are and providing them with a fair chance at obtaining the same outcome as others. This might look like providing parents with childcare benefits or providing learning opportunities and externships to employees looking to upskill out of their existing roles. But most importantly, this could also look like recruiters considering alternative experiences and understanding the transferable skills to other roles. 

While it may be easier for a recruiter to dismiss a candidate without any requisite work experience, it will ultimately shrink the candidate pool they can work with. In a time where recruiters are struggling to find talent, it behooves you to consider candidates with alternative work experiences. 

For example, consider candidates with volunteer experiences or other transferable experiences that don’t directly relate to the role. This looks like validating the experience a candidate may have in managing a cultural community center’s accounting books as valuable accounting experience and customer service experience. Or this could look like understanding that a candidate who has taken a career break to take care of their sick family member gained skills in problem solving, organization, empathy, and stress management. 

Coincidentally enough, this aligns with the principles of skills-based hiring, another methodology rising in popularity. When we can take a step back and look at the employee/candidate as a sum of the skills they have obtained and the experiences they achieved it through, instead of the degrees they hold, or the companies they worked at, it’ll be a lot easier for organizations to incorporate equity at the recruiting level.

Moving Forward: Building Equitable and Inclusive Workplaces

The real challenge comes after employment – how does an organization maintain equity without building preferential treatment? 

• Learning programs that are accessible to all employees, not just ones with access to a laptop or a corporate email. How are you ensuring that employees on the floor or on the field have access to the same learning and development opportunities that corporate employees do? How do you ensure that the learning content library correlates with all stages of learning for all types of employees?
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• Mentorship and externship programs that are designed to be accessible for all employees. Do all employees have the opportunity to develop a career path suited to their goals and skills? Do all employees have access to receive mentorship or opportunities to experience other departments? 
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• Pay equity policies and audits to ensure that all employees have fair and transparent compensation into how employees are paid. Frequent audits ensure that employees are being compensated for their skills and not by unrelated factors such as age or race. 
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Using my earlier Walmart example, one of their methods of instilling equity at their organization is by establishing learning programming through vendors like Guild. Guild works with Walmart to provide tuition-free education and career mobility throughout the workforce. Employees are able to upskill themselves to obtain high school and higher level education such as undergraduate degrees or professional certifications. 

In my DEI research, I’ve found Guild to be one of the most effective vendors in establishing equity within the workplace and reducing barriers to access educational opportunities. Walmart saw a 4x lower attrition rate with employees who participated in their Live Better U (LBU) program versus those who didn’t, and more than 1,500 employees who have gained an associate’s or bachelor’s degree through the program. 

As mentioned earlier, even the best technology fails without the right people and process and DEI is no different. In a time where organizations are debating the merit of DEI and looking to abandon equity, I’d compel you to revisit your organization and understand whether DEI has been given a winning chance in the first place. 

• Is your executive leadership aligned on what you hope to achieve with DEI? 
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• Are your recruiters and managers aware of how to effectively implement equity and inclusion within the workplace?
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• Are your processes equitable and fair or are they being perceived as preferential treatment? How transparent is your organization with your processes?
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Every organization is different in what they prioritize for themselves in this journey and what is ultimately important for their workforce – whether it be building inclusion or belonging or equity. It’s the organization’s responsibility to ensure that – in the process of assessing what is important for your workplace – you consider not only how to bring in diverse candidates, but also how to keep them.

If you would like to learn more about how technology can help support your diversity, equity and inclusion strategies, join the Talent Tech Labs’ community or contact us at hello@talenttechlabs.com. Also follow us on LinkedIn to stay informed on the latest talent technology insights and updates.