The year 2021 promises to be one of the biggest efforts to recruit diverse talent in history.
America’s top companies, nonprofits and schools have the opportunity to not only uproot systemic barriers to advancement, but also leverage diverse perspectives and experiences as a means to innovate, problem solve and provide better products and services.
A new California corporate board diversity mandate, a similar Nasdaq initiative, and motivated nonprofit and K-12/higher education organizations will pave the way for thousands of people with racially and sexually diverse backgrounds to take on leadership positions.
It’s a huge opportunity to reduce inequity and enlist talent that looks like, understands and better serves America. But there are key steps to ensuring these Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts addresses recruitment and a culture that supports success.
Making up for lost time and talent, the California and Nasdaq initiatives contain explicit direction and deadlines. Nasdaq’s proposal requires companies to have at least one woman and another director who is “either a racial minority or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.”
Diverse diversity
While good intentioned, the interchangeable requirement to identify racial minority OR LGBTQ talent amounts to a zero-sum effort that perpetuates inequity and pits underrepresented groups against each other. Turning recruiting language “ors” into “ands” would make diversity truly diverse and inclusive.
