{"id":3949,"date":"2020-04-26T10:14:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T14:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=3949"},"modified":"2020-05-14T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T16:40:14","slug":"covid-19-blog-4-will-corporate-diversity-initiatives-go-down-the-tubes-during-and-after-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/covid-19-blog-4-will-corporate-diversity-initiatives-go-down-the-tubes-during-and-after-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Blog 4: Will corporate diversity initiatives go down the tubes during and after the pandemic?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Are your diversity initiatives going downhill during these trying times?<\/p><\/div>\n

I really do have a fear that the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts across many organizations will be set back several years during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. If DEI is truly a strategic initiative for organizations to thrive and grow into the future, why should things stop now?<\/p>\n

In January, before all this COVID-19 stuff really started, I wrote a two part blog series:
\n\u2022 Part 1 (Link):<\/a><\/strong> Huge Gaps in Diversity in Business Leadership \u2013 A Systemic Issue Needing a Systemic Approach
\n\u2022 Part 2 (Link):<\/a> <\/strong>Five Tactics to Address the System Issue of the Lack of Diverse Business Leaders<\/p>\n

In Part 2, the 4th tactic I shared was \u201cnever letting up\u201d. I shared that often executives see a little progress (\u201cwe now have an African-American in the c-Suite, women in management has gone up from 18% to 20%\u201d) and then the budget gets cut and work stops. Then things will take their natural course and revert back to the old pattern. Dr. Vida Robertson, professor at the University of Houston, often states \u201cyou cannot take the foot of the gas or the vehicle will stop.\u201d In this case, since it is an uphill battle, the car will go backwards once you take your foot off the gas!<\/p>\n

Over the past 3 months, I have seen every in-person diversity training initiative I had scheduled between March and June cancelled, with little or no effort to reschedule or consider going web-based. In fact, even one 4-week webinar training series was cancelled since the organizers felt people would have too many other things to worry about instead of diversity.<\/p>\n

My largest fear is that when we slowly reopen the country, that many corporate budgets will be slashed to try to turn out a decent annual profit statement, and diversity efforts will be one of the first items severely cut.<\/p>\n

And then the ramifications could end up being:
\n\u2022 The predominately white male senior leadership will retain more of the leaders like themselves, impacting employment and promotion opportunities for under-represented minorities. And it wouldn\u2019t be deliberate or mean-spirited, but simply unconscious bias <\/strong><\/a>taking its natural course.
\n\u2022 Diversity recruiting efforts may be cut resulting in less hires of qualified diverse candidates.
\n\u2022 Respectful workplace training would be cut, and some employees may revert back to old habits of forming non-diverse teams and making their diverse co-workers feel unwelcomed.
\n\u2022 Some companies may experience additional revenue drop as they fail to effectively sell and market to diverse customers.
\n\u2022 Philanthropic giving to diverse community organizations may be curtailed.<\/p>\n

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Interaction with diverse people may be less frequent during these days of social isolation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Organizations need to realize that in challenging days, an increased focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is warranted. Tactics you may want to consider at this time include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Offering web-based DEI training to your employees, especially those who may have a decreased workload at this time and capacity to take some online trainings. In fact here is one being offered on June 9th: Introduction to LGBTQ+ Workplace Equity.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong> Options can include general offerings or having your own customized training.
\n\u2022 Doing some strategic work and planning and how you can advance DEI initiatives in a more virtual workplace.
\n\u2022 Encouraging diversity councils and employee resource groups to meet virtually during this time.
\n\u2022 Encouraging one-on-one virtual employee connections or mentoring relationships be formed with a focus on connecting with dissimilar people.<\/p>\n

Embrace diversity even more during these challenging days!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really do have a fear that the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts across many organizations will be set back several years during this time of the Coronavirus pandemic. If DEI is truly a strategic initiative for organizations to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1922,1940,173,1921,1947,1943,50,1942,1838,797,1944,1946],"class_list":["post-3949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-info","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-pandemic","tag-corporate-diversity","tag-covid-19","tag-dei-training","tag-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","tag-diversity-training","tag-gaps-in-diversity","tag-lgbtq-workplace-equity","tag-unconscious-bias","tag-vida-robertson","tag-web-based-dei-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalengagementconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}