Making the business case for diversity and inclusion

Abstract

According to Deloitte Consulting's (2017) Global Human Capital Trends: Rewriting the rules for the digital age , diversity and inclusion are now a CEO-level issue.When presenting the business case to stakeholders, make sure to: * identify the business problem, need or opportunity being addressed by the diversity and inclusion program; * list the benefits, tangible and intangible, of addressing the business problem, need or opportunity; * describe the alternative actions considered and the reasons why certain options were selected or rejected; * describe comparable diversity programs implemented by competitors or industry leaders and their business results; * discuss the required investment and timeline needed to implement the diversity program; * share the ROI analysis for implementing the diversity and inclusion program; * list actions that should be taken subsequent to introducing the program to ensure the initiative is implemented as planned; * plan for measurement of the actual business results generated by the HR initiative and the timeline for the measurement; and * plan for reporting the business results of the program to decision makers.To help understand what is, or is not working, consider comparing year-to-year figures for the following: * hiring statistics to see if there is an increase in hiring for minority or other identified groups of employees; * employee survey results to see if employees see improvements in diversity at the workplace; * turnover to determine how many minority or other identified groups of employees leave the organization; and * retention to see if there is improvement in retaining minority or other identified groups of employees.