Enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Many institutions are now starting to embark on anti-racist DEI programs to confront systemic racism. Though, my ongoing study of corporate DEI practices reveals a significant discrepancy between the businesses that do DEI and those that actually value the job being done. The following lists some major problems faced by DEI professionals and their organisations.

Firstly, for a long time, DEI experts and what they did were underrated. Specifically, specialists often had inadequate labor-force and financial resources required for project development and program initiation improving employee experience as well as workplace results. In many organisations today, addressing structural racism is a target which experts find it difficult to help their organisations due to lack of funds and personnel.

Furthermore, other than making their companies see diversity as something positive rather than negative in the workplace, DEI analysts are often entrusted with building an atmosphere where everyone feels appreciated for who they are or what they do provided that processes and results have been impartial. This is something that seems impossible for them to achieve though. Nevertheless, these DEI practitioners frequently lack position or power necessary in order be agents of change within their own businesses.

Thirdly, meaningful work at the level of DI requires total commitment from every level of staff but this does not happen more often than not. However, this responsibility is seldom met by employees at all levels. For example, research has highlighted how middle managers in many organisations have misunderstood their role in DI because they have become less committed to doing that type of work over time (Carter et al., 2019). They however suffer consequences such as losing positions or experiencing rejection since most of this kind of work was historically conducted by women particularly those who are black- African Americans or racial minorities generally speaking as shown by statistics.

One common suggestion made when such issues arise is giving a larger budget and more staff members to DEI professionals; yet this is not always possible. However crucial these resources may be, money spent as a response might divert attention from a larger point about the worth of DEI activities.