In this episode, Michelle dives into some of the biggest myths and misconceptions about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. This episode kicks off a two-part series. In the first part, Michelle debunks seven common myths that organizations often encounter. These include the misconceptions that merely recruiting differently will solve DEI issues, that changing review and promotion formulas will harm business, and that DEI initiatives conflict with meritocracy. She also addresses the fears that DEI compromises employee quality or negatively targets white men, the idea that DEI is about setting quotas, and the belief that focusing on DEI will disrupt employee productivity.

Michelle emphasizes the importance of internal organizational readiness and the need for bias-free processes in recruitment, reviews, and promotions. She highlights that DEI, when implemented correctly, supports a true meritocracy and fosters an inclusive work environment for everyone.

To connect with and learn more, visit: https://www.equity-at-work.com/

Key Topics Discussed:

• The fallacy of thinking recruiting alone will solve DEI issues.
• The misconception that changing these will harm business.
• Clarifying that DEI supports, rather than conflicts with, meritocracy.
• Debunking the idea that DEI compromises the quality of employees.
• Addressing fears that DEI targets white men negatively.
• The misunderstanding that DEI is about setting quotas.
• Refuting the belief that DEI initiatives distract and reduce productivity.

I'm Michelle Bogan, founder and CEO of Equity at Work, and this is your DEI Minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization all in 15 minutes or less. In this episode, we're actually gonna do a 2 parter, and I'm gonna cover my top 15 myths about DEI. I really tried to get this down to 10, but they were 15. They probably are more than that, but these were the top 15 that I feel like we come across the most. So for this first part of this episode, I'll cover the first 7. And then for part 2, I'll start with number 8 and go through 15. So in no particular order, number 1, if we recruit differently, everything will work itself out.

So this is something I see so many organizations fall into. And, again, it's with the best of intentions. But if you if you start with recruiting, but you know that you've got some issues internally, you're basically trying to bring a different group of people into an organization that may or may not be ready to accept them and definitely may not be ready to set them up for success. So rather than starting with recruiting and assuming that that's gonna be sort of the magic solved, start with working on your own inclusion and the equity in your organization. Make sure that you've got that in a really good spot. And then once you do, you can start to hire in groups of employees that may have a different, you know, demographic makeup than your current employee mix. But you really wanna make sure as you're bringing those people in that they are being set up for success all the way through their career, not just at the beginning stages, which means you've gotta have, you know, a great environment for them to be successful. You may need some sponsorship or mentorship put in place ahead of time, ready to support them, and you need to really stick to this long term.

It can't be a kind of once and done kind of effort. The the other flaw in this thinking of recruiting will fix everything is a lot of the challenges that we have regarding a lack of representation tend to be at the more senior levels. Many organizations have at least decent diversity at the entry level and typically up through the manager level, but it can take so long for an entry level employee to get up to a leadership position that if you only focus on recruiting, you're looking at it taking 10, 15, 20 years to really change the demographic makeup of your your organization, and that's assuming that all of those employees who are different than the current employee mix stay. So again, start with getting your own house in order first, then look to bring some different potential new employees into the organization. Number 2, if we change the formula that's always worked for us for reviews and promotions, our business will suffer. So if your review and promotion process has resulted in a lot of diversity at the senior level, then that's great. You may not really have that much you need to change. If that is not the case, odds are you need to go back and make sure that there's no bias in those processes as well as in the processes that lead to people getting a chance to have a positive review.

So things like how do you tap people to be staffed on certain projects? How do you determine who gets a stretch assignment? How do you determine who gets specific professional development? All of those things need to be considered as part of setting people up for success. And if you don't have a lot of diversity in the senior ranks today, then odds are you've got some bias that's creeping in. You may you may just need some checks and balances set up in those systems. You may need more. But most organizations do need to take a pretty hard look at their review and promotions processes. Number 3, and this is a big one that we hear is we have a meritocracy, so we don't need DEI, or that DEI will keep us from having a meritocracy. DEI is an enabler of meritocracy. They are not in conflict with each other in any way.

And in fact, a focus on DEI ensures that you're taking a hard look at your policies, your benefits, your processes, your ways of working together, the norms in your organization, and making sure they are as equitable as possible, that they've had as much bias stripped out as possible. And if that is the case, then that means that the people who are performing to their full potential in line with what the company is looking for are going to naturally rise to the top, which is a meritocracy. But if you've got bias holding people back based on a demographic dimension or something else, then that does put your meritocracy at risk. Number 4, DEI is about making compromises on the quality of our employees. So I would go right back to the one we just covered on meritocracy. Also, DEI is not about taking away from one person to give to someone else. It's really about expanding the pie and making sure a lot of different people have an opportunity for success and for support in your organization. Number 5.

If we do DEI, white men will feel targeted. DEI is not anti white male. It is not anti straight person. It is all about stripping out bias and discrimination. And DEI is also about making sure everybody in an organization feels included, and that includes straight white men. And again, like, to the point I just made about, you know, DI is not about a fixed pie. And then if you take away from one to give to another, it's really about expanding the pie to make sure a lot of different people have opportunities to to succeed and to work to their fullest potential, then nobody should be harmed in that process or feel like they're getting less than as part of that process. Number 6, DEI is about quotas.

And I this one is a tough one. I've had clients that have brought me in who are very nervous I'm gonna tell them that they've gotta set quotas or very rigid targets for what the representation should look like. This is a bad idea for everybody. You do not want anyone brought into an organization or brought into specific roles specifically to hit a number that you can report out on. That's unfair to that person. It puts tremendous pressure on them for it to work. It also creates an assumption among people that the only reason that person was brought in or put in that role is because of some demographic, which is also unfair and and completely dismisses whatever experience may have brought may have brought them to that point. And then if that person doesn't succeed or decides to leave, of course, DEI gets blamed, which is the case with a lot of of these different myths.

You need to have other processes in place to make sure, like we've talked about before, your review process, your staffing process, your promotions process, making sure you got bias out of your recruiting and outreach processes. Those are the things that should be worked on to make sure that you're bringing wide set of representation into your employee mix in terms of different demographics and making sure that the top performers amongst that entire mix can rise to the top. Setting a quota is a bad idea. I do, however, recommend that as part of of defining your strategy and your roadmap, you may decide that you have some goals you wanna make about increasing in the representation of certain groups who may have historically not been able to see succeed at your organization. But rather than fixating on a specific number or a specific percentage or deciding or deciding you have to exactly mirror the demographic makeup of the community you're in, have these be sort of broader representation goals that say we'd like a mix of these different groups that are represented in different kinds of roles, different levels of leadership, etcetera. And then let some of this process happen a little bit more naturally. This is much more about removing barriers than it is about setting very specific numbers you're trying to hit. And then the last one for part 1 of this episode I'm gonna cover is number 7, which is that focusing on DEI will distract employees and make them less productive.

This is one that we, fortunately, have had the opportunity to test out time and time again, prove out time and time again that the business case for DEI is real. And when you provide environments that are focused on inclusion and equity, that leads to great engagement. It great leads to great trust among your employees. They feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. They're excited to come for work to work. They are proud of their work. They're proud of their organization. All of that leads to higher levels of productivity.

We've seen that in corporate environments. We've seen it a ton in hourly workforce environments. And time again, we see that business case being proven out of focus on DEI leading to greater innovation, greater engagement, lower turnover. All of those things then contribute to a much healthier top line in terms of revenue and, of course, in terms of margin. So don't worry about a distraction. Of course, you need to be thoughtful about, you know, the calendar of activities and events and observances and everything so that you're not asking any one person to be so overly involved in DEI that they can't do their normal job, or ask employees to participate in so many events and activities that are kind of outside of their day to day job that they can't get their day to day job done. But having a corporate focus on DEI is a really terrific thing, especially when it's brought down into people all people leaders and creating these really healthy, wonderful, robust, equitable environments where everyone can contribute and and do their best work. And that's a wrap.

I'm Michelle Bogan, and that's your DEI Minute for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review. If you ever have questions, please visit our website or send us an email. You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Links to everything can be found in the episode notes. This episode was produced and edited by Podgrove with podcast art by our very own Jamie Applegate.