'DEI is still not viewed as business critical'
“We as Canadians like to be a bit arrogant when we look at the United States and think, ‘Oh, that dumpster fire,’ but that’s probably a bit simple and we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think that it’s possible that the creep could come over the border. It’s the Trump effect, we’re not immune from it.”
So says Michael Bach facilitator, speaker and author in Toronto, when asked about the chances of a DEI backlash — which is happening south of the border — heading to Canada.
‘Vast majority’ support DEI
Recently, global consulting firm PwC reversed course and said it will no longer encourage diversity when hiring students for its internship program.
The company was responding to a court challenge from a right-wing group that brought down an affirmative action policy in post-secondary institutions Harvard College and the University of North Carolina (UNC).
While not surprising, this attitude is wrong-headed and goes against the will of many citizens, says Bach.
“I think the sad part to me is if you look at the statistics from Gallup and the big polling companies that do surveys on issues like this, it’s clear that the vast majority of Americans are supportive of the principles of DEI. Whether that’s looking at the numbers on abortion or same-sex marriage or what have you, this small minority feels like they should be speaking for the entire country.”
“I think it’s sad but it’s not surprising largely because we’re talking about change and change often comes with pushback and so we’re experiencing that right now,” he says.
Involve everybody early in the process
In order to fight this potential backlash, positive buy-in within the entire organization is key, says an expert who has looked extensively at this issue.
“People can feel very threatened in that maybe they feel like their opportunities are less now, and a lot of research has shown that this will create a backlash where people start to feel that marginalized groups are less competent or less able. It’s important for organizations when they’re implementing DEI initiatives to also make sure they’re getting and generating broader support within the organization,” says Camellia Bryan, post-doctoral fellow at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Some conditions are unfortunately ripe for this type of pushback in Canada, she says.
“In 2020, the U.S. started to focus on a lot more of targeted hiring, and we didn’t do that as frequently in Canada and then it started a lot of different discussions about the merits and the fairness and it created conversations that we didn’t have before in Canada.”
With economic challenges continuing, necessitating budget cuts, this factor may also influence corporate decision makers, says Bach.
“In corporate Canada with budget slowdowns, DEI is still not viewed as business critical. It’s often on the chopping block when there’s a budget cut. We’re seeing organizations where they’re doing layoffs, and you hear lots about budgets being cut and roles being removed, and I’m talking about DEI-specific roles and budgets, and so we’re not immune from that.”
DEI from a business perspective
But this way of thinking about DEI is not conducive to success, he says.
“What that tells me, is that the organization has not continued to think of this work from a business perspective, they still think of it as a social justice, corporate social responsibility, ESG perspective. They’re not thinking about it from a talent perspective, from a customer perspective, a brand marketing perspective; it still lives in that social sphere and that’s largely the problem,” says Bach.
Besides right-wing political groups taking up the cause against diversity, some business leaders are also sending out messages aimed at undercutting DEI efforts, says a business expert.
“For example, you hear Elon Musk claiming that it’s the increasingly diverse workforce that led to a door ripping off a plane mid-flight, and that’s an incredible leap, without having any evidence to support that claim,” says Geoffrey Leonardelli, professor of organizational behaviour and human resource management, also with the Rotman School of Management in Toronto.
“There are other arguably more reasonable claims to be made on that front. Case in point… air flights are now way safer than they were decades ago, when there was just an all-white contingent of workers. It’s a bit of a spurious claim to make that leap,”
Making the business case for DEI
So what can organizations do to make real, effective and long-lasting change on the diversity front?
It begins by making it clear and transparent to all employees in the organization why DEI is important, says Bach.
“I’m a big proponent of writing the business case down: put it on a page, put it on your website, get your leadership team to sign it, so that everyone understands why that work is key to business success. If you cannot make that argument, if you cannot come up with that business case, then there’s a problem and you probably shouldn’t be doing the work.”
And don’t rely too much on training programs around unconscious bias, says Bryan.
“I’m personally not in favour of unconscious bias training and from the research that I’ve read, it’s not clear that it’s necessarily effective. It can be beneficial in terms of helping people become aware of things that they weren’t before but you also need to have a lot of support for people when they’re going through and still allowing them to learn more openly and engaging them in that way, rather than just simply telling them ‘You have these biases’ because there’s also a lot of research showing that can be quite uncomfortable for people and they can actually become quite defensive.”
In the end, the business argument against diversity is long settled, says Leonardelli.
“The evidence supports the idea that there is value to be gained. Things like greater innovation being produced by the decision-making of these high-impact teams, greater value in terms of the team’s overall collective intelligence so it seems to me we’d be foolish to turn away from initiatives that have furthered gender diversity in places where organizations could truly benefit from it.”
