FEBRUARY 2023

Making Progress with DEI Initiatives

“In some ways, we’ve made progress with DEI initiatives, but in other ways, we’ve actually slid backward,” says Blanchard DEI practice leader, April Hennessey.

“There's a great deal more visibility. More conversations are happening around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Organizations are investing in courses—and that’s important. But we've started to see another trend with organizations that have had to downsize: some of the first jobs to go are DEI or HR-related.

“It’s coming from a business perspective,” says Hennessey. “Initiatives that are not immediately revenue producing, or tied to client work, are seen as expendable.

“When it comes time to make cuts, those cuts are often made somewhat indiscriminately using a ‘last hired, first fired’ way of thinking. On the surface it seems fair, but if all recent hiring has been done with diversity initiatives in mind, guess who is the first to be fired?”

That’s short-sighted, says Hennessey. She recommends that organizations look at integrating DEI initiatives more fully into the fabric of the company.

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