#315: We measure what we treasure

DEI initiatives are a losing battle if you aren't focusing on what matters in your organization.

According to Harvard Kennedy School’s Iris Bohnet, U.S. companies spend roughly $8 billion yearly on DEI training—but accomplish remarkably little. So what should we expect with Global Spending Projected to Reach $15.4 Billion by 2026?

What value is created by investing $15.4 Billion in these initiatives that produce no additional equity in the firm?

Ultimately, your leadership will be judged by what you return to your stakeholders, such as; Profits, Return on Equity, Dividends, and Longterm Capital Gains, to name a few. If you spend a disproportionate amount of your available cash on DEI initiatives, what R&D projects aren’t you funding? Maybe you need a new CNC Milling machine that can reduce manufacturing costs or expand the capacity you are passing up.

Business should be valued on facts, not feelings. Those facts are on balance sheets, P&L statements, and your annual report. Every decision you make as a leader should be based on these attributes. For example, if you can hire a new director and are blessed with multiple qualified applicants, you employ the one most suitable for the position. All criteria for the job should be objective and identifiable.

We will have the most diverse workforce if we provide everyone with equal opportunity from day one. We can’t set goals to have exact percentages of people in our companies or organizations. Should we have an Army made up of 51% Women? Or school teachers that must be 49% men? How about forcing people to become fire and police officers so that we can balance out the pool?

I’ll date myself with this example.

Assume you need to hire a new typist for the secretarial pool. The minimum qualifications are the person must type 100 words per minute. You have five applications, all but one of which type 120 wpm. There is one applicant that types 100 wpm but also fits DEI criteria. Hiring this one person reduces the productivity of that position by 20%. How many exceptions can we make if we strive for excellence in our company? How do you explain to the four other applicants that although they were superior in performance, there is no room for them because of something they can’t control?

Some of you may think that this isn’t fair - why not? You may think the requirements were 100 wpm, so why not add the person checking a non-quantitative box? Hiring should be based on qualitative skills. We should continuously look for ways to improve so our businesses operate more efficiently. Service, Efficiency, Quality, and Reliability are the keys to success. You don’t want to perform at the minimum levels of satisfaction. We aim to exceed our customer’s expectations.

Each applicant was given the same opportunity to learn how to type faster, and the test was not biased. If you feel that they didn’t receive the same opportunity, then that is what you fix. Look for ways to improve the process, not the outcome. You can’t support initiatives that penalize your organization.

As stated above, eventually, you will be judged by how much your organization increased in value. So, what are you doing today to improve your tomorrow?

Schedule a 30-minute consultation with us at the Kole Performance Group. Let us help you define the criteria as your organization grows.