Deives Rezende Filho is a specialist in ethics, diversity, equity and inclusion, and founder and CEO of Condurú Consultoria.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) must be at the center of my business”. Today, this phrase is repeated as if it were a mantra capable of projecting companies' success within the new reality of the corporate world. And indeed it is, because commitment to these values creates an environment more conducive to the emergence of new ideas and solutions to complex problems. But beyond a contemplative stance, achieving this goal requires more than mental effort or the pure and simple intention of senior leadership and management. Organizations need to truly move into action if they want to incorporate this culture into their day-to-day.
The big question is: how do you move from intention to practice?
The first step is to keep in mind that there is no DE&I without first investing in a Governance policy. That is because Compliance and Corporate Governance play a crucial role in building and maintaining an ethical corporate culture, one that values integrity, respect, diversity, equity with accessibility, and inclusion.
Governance must be at the service of equity in order to reach inclusion. In other words, it must be part of companies' strategy. Moving toward inclusion of gender, ethnicity and affective orientation is not just a matter of recruitment and selection. It is about raising awareness among those who already hold positions in companies - and who will have to live with a difference they were not used to until then. Everyone, from those who were already in the organization to the newcomers, must be comfortable relating to different individuals. It is, therefore, an ongoing effort that requires the commitment of the entire corporation.
This engagement of the whole, in turn, is born of a culture that promotes discussions about diversity and racial and gender equity and that effectively helps the company's entire team recognize that in that space there is respect, appreciation and attention so that relationships are inclusive and sustainable. That is a key action to be put into practice by leaders.
Getting there involves investing in recurring training on the subject, with the creation of internal groups dedicated to educating people about the value of DE&I. It also involves setting specific goals to highlight the importance of DE&I inside and outside the organizational environment. HR and senior leadership need to cover everything from hiring to the creation of initiatives aimed at development and growth on an equal basis. In addition, of course, to investing in the use of reporting tools that curb and expose unethical and discriminatory behavior.
In other words: the agenda needs to make sense beyond the work week; it needs to be part of allies' weekends.
Reporting channels and/or dialogue channels, incidentally, deliver far more than just resolving cases. With them, the company has rich material that, if used well, can change its culture, underpin the implementation of new DE&I policies and define more suitable training for its teams.
It is very common for a company, after a conflict situation, to simply ‘turn the page’. If, on the contrary, the organization uses that experience as a learning opportunity, it will certainly be finding, within its own environment, the solution for acting with DE&I at the center of the business.
We must not forget that one of a company's goals is to make a profit. There is money on the table. So all it takes is doing the right thing!
Interested in this subject?
Leave in the comments a topic you would like to see in our Agenda Executiva.
