Please. Stop the attack on DEI and instead learn from this work.

Over the past several years, the Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) profession has (rightfully) grown and evolved. Law firms have expanded their programs and teams. The programs have become more sophisticated and embedded in broader firm programs and policies.

DEI has become more discussed.

Unfortunately however, with progress comes (even more) scrutiny and now diverse leaders and the DEI profession are being assaulted. Diverse leaders are being questioned about their qualifications and DEI professionals are having to justify their work and their careers far too often. Last month's Fortune article, “DEI is dead. Long live D, E, and I,” is just one of many like it hitting inboxes and LinkedIn feeds.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a topic that is often misunderstood and a profession that requires a complex understanding of the issues. It is sophisticated and nuanced. It is not a basic, “one size fits all” approach. It is not what you see in the news. It is not only politics. It is not about “quotas” and filling spots (or taking spots from “more qualified” people). 

DEI professionals have difficult jobs; jobs which often require difficult decisions and long hours. No one goes into DEI work for fame and fortune. DEI professionals do this work because it is necessary. It was always hard and now it is becoming harder. The people who work daily to help others, change systems and evolve workplaces are now spending too much time having to defend their work and their credibility, often at the cost of their personal lives or mental health.

Why is the DEI profession under attack? Often times a lack of information leads to a lack of understanding, so with that in mind, here is a very broad overview of some of the work DEI professionals do. 

So, what does a DEI professional (actually) do?

In trying to define what a DEI professional does, let’s look broadly at four overarching areas: 1) Talent 2) Culture 3) Business 4) Brand. These areas, in and of themselves, are complex, and perhaps the most important take-away is that DEI professionals work across all facets of an organization for better integration and inclusion.

How and why do DEI professionals support (diverse) talent?

Let’s start with “talent" since this area is most scrutinized and the work in this space is quite broad. DEI professionals work closely with people at all levels of the organization as mentors, coaches and business advisors. They also work with peers in talent management / human resources and leadership specifically to analyze the employee lifecycle– who is hired, how they develop, and the policies that support them. This analysis is fact-based and data-driven and helps to evolve the organization for all employees.

Data: “What gets measured matters.” In 2016, after determining that the representation of diverse attorneys in the legal industry was not commensurate with the U.S. population, the American Bar Association created the Model Diversity Survey (MDS). The MDS has since served as the standard for law firms to report diversity metrics, providing a tool for enhanced data uniformity, time efficiency and ability to review trends year-over-year. Using data like reported in the MDS, DEI professionals work to compare the diversity of the slate of people being interviewed and hired with that of the relevant talent pool, assess how employees are advancing at different levels of their careers, and look at how leadership is evolving to ensure more women and ethnically diverse people advance through organizations. 

When questioned about why DEI professionals look at these categories (and this is where the word “quotas” usually comes in), isn’t the answer simple?

• There has not yet been a woman U.S. President

• According to the recent NALP Report on Diversity, in Biglaw:

  • Women represent a mere 23.7% equity partners, which only recently increased by 1.1%

  • 9.6% of partners are ethnically diverse

  • Black and Latina women partners each reached 1% for the first time

  • Only 2.57% of partners identified as LGBTQ+

• In Corporate America Fortune 500 CEOs:

  • 10% are women

  • Four are Black people (one Black woman)

  • Only two Hispanic women ever

• In the top 20 beauty manufacturers, only 15% of CEOs are women

• Look at most industries and find similar trends.

These examples are high-level so are easy to see and gauge. When you look deeper into organizations, the numbers decrease by seniority. To ensure women and diverse professionals are moving through organizations, DEI professionals must be able to use data to assess who these people are, how they are doing and look at how organizations evolve to support everyone. 

This seems pretty basic - are researchers, doctors or mathematicians challenged for looking at data to better inform decisions?  

Development: Research has shown that people learn differently; and your data is (likely) showing that your leadership is not as diverse. How do you ensure diverse employees are developing within your organization and that your organization is growing with the times?

DEI professionals work closely with the development team, employees and affinity group leaders to assess needs. This can result in integrating feedback into broader programming or creating curated programs for women or affinity groups. While this is an area of scrutiny, the workplace is evolving, leadership is changing and expectations of the workplace have evolved. Having discussions around inclusion and culture should not be taboo and frankly, helps everyone.

Access: You’ve hired them, you have development programs, but who are they working with and learning from?  One could ask whether this is a talent topic or business, and it is both. It has been proven that people tend to gravitate towards people who remind them of themselves. While “bias” has become a bad word, this is about checking habits. If you’re in a position of decision making, it is about being mindful of who you work with, reach out to, highlight and give opportunity. The role of the DEI professional here is to look at who is being assigned to projects, committees, client work and to create awareness of any issues. Take a look at who you gravitate towards and who is in your circle and you may see what this means.

Benefits: Many people don’t consider how DEI professionals impact employee benefits. Through working with people across their firms and with affinity groups to receive feedback, coupled with  benchmarking tools like the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, DEI professionals work to ensure inclusive benefits for LGBTQ employees, working parents, and people across their organizations. Providing more inclusive benefits helps employees from all backgrounds, while also helping to improve the ability to hire, enhance brand and evolve culture (more on that next).

“Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast.” 

With increased expectations from employees to address world events, coupled with the disruption of Covid and its proven impact on women and ethnically diverse employees, has further expanded DEI roles even more in the second defined area: Culture. DEI professionals take a top-down, bottom-up approach by working with leadership and all levels of the organization to help drive change and build organizational culture. They are often the go-to people for firm-wide discussions, communications and to provide leadership with advice on how to address employee and client feedback. They are mentors and coaches and serve as resources for employees (of all backgrounds) to discuss their careers, expectations and goals.

DEI professionals are strategic advisors, coaches and change agents.

“DEI as a Business Imperative.”

Given the evolution of the DEI profession, recent current events and enhanced public opinion, there has been a tremendous increase of focus in this area, particularly in Biglaw. In just a few years, DEI professionals witnessed a 180% increase year-over-year in requests from clients, who represent primarily large corporations across most industries. Clients are interested in working together on mentoring programs, shared community volunteerism and new ways to engage with attorneys. They are interested in who is on their teams, how firms are developing attorneys and in working with firms with shared values of building an inclusive culture. This provides a tremendous opportunity to deepen client relationships and develop talent. This is not about taking opportunities from others; it is about strengthening talent, while organically growing client relationships. 

Also note that attorneys often go in-house, which means they could be your future clients.

“Humanizing Your Brand.”

And finally, to tie it all together, DEI professionals are now keenly involved in corporate branding. The DEI profession contribution once consisted of boilerplate DEI language on a website. As with the rest of DEI responsibilities, there has been a tremendous shift in this area. Law firms and organizations are now realizing the importance of the intersection of their corporate profile and their DEI and social impact efforts. While this may add more responsibility to the DEI professional, it is a great opportunity to highlight talent, the great work being done through DEI efforts, with clients and with communities. And to start breaking down the myths of what “diversity” means in a workplace.

DEI professionals deserve your partnership. Ask how you can help.

DEI is a profession that needs to be better understood and everyone has a role to play. With DEI you can appeal to someone’s head, their heart or their wallet. I tried to do all three. Reach out to your DEI professional to see how you can support them.

Happy to chat!

Reach out to me if you're curious to learn more or to discuss how I can help you. karlie@purposefullyworded.com