Your diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are missing the point. Here’s how to fix them

Your diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are missing the point. Here’s how to fix them

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are crucial to our pandemic response but have been among the first to be cut;

Minorities and the economically vulnerable have suffered the most from the virus and its economic impacts;

Tying DEI initiatives to business outcomes will ensure their robustness in times of crisis.



Governments have always had to deal with complex and conflicting criteria in their decision-making processes. Take cost versus the quality of services, for example. Increasingly we are seeing private enterprises grappling with similar issues under the label of ESG (environmental, social and governance factors).



Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is a major component of ESG, but most DEI initiatives are treated as risk-avoidance exercises rather than drivers of positive business outcomes. If the investment case for ESG is here to stay, as current trends seem to suggest, then there is a practical reason for integrating DEI criteria into existing incentive structures.

Incentives should be aligned so that DEI, beyond just being the right thing to do, is also the profitable thing to do. There are a variety of existing methodologies that allow for the integration of both DEI perspectives and goals into corporate decision-making processes. These methodologies