In the third of our expert series of interviews, FAIRER speaks to Iman Atta, Director - Tell MAMA
It is important to not frame DEI as a political stance. It is a strategic business imperative: that is key. It is also important to talk about data, outcomes and inclusive leadership training and have that as part and parcel of the organisation. The performance of the organisation should be based on engagement rather than just a checklist or an ideology.
Also, when it comes to the backlash against DEI, are we listening to those people in good faith? What is the critique? We need to understand people who are excluded or confused about DEI if we want less polarisation around DEI. We need to be honest and transparent about where we stand around DEI but consider those who are feeling excluded and confused to help create less polarisation. So, how do you do that? Education and awareness are key. Make sure communication is as inclusive as possible, get leadership support, prioritise employee involvement and build trust and confidence.
This may help in some contexts, but it’s more about using words like belonging and inclusive leadership. Use words that resonate with people that you are working with and talk about fairness and opportunity.
When we talk about rebranding, we should not talk about diluting DEI and what it stands for. We need to think about what DEI is and how we run DEI across our organisations. What are those principles that we have around diversity, equity and inclusion? These three things are still essential but we need to think about how we embed them – it might not be under the name DEI but as long as we have them, that’s okay. It is not about the name per se. You may rebrand your internal language – you may use ‘acceptable’ language, but it is still DEI. Mostly, it is about making sure your employees feel valued and respected.
If you have a diverse and inclusive environment and a sense of belonging it enhances your employee engagement, and your innovation. You also improve your leadership skills and abilities – these are the few places where you can see that realistically, inclusion makes the biggest impact – because you are tapping into the resources that you have.
In tech and financial services, we see a lot of impact coming from inclusion, especially around team performance and innovation. When you are talking about impact you also need to include retention, because that is important. The more you have a diverse cohort of employees, the more you can address issues locally, nationally and globally, because we live in a diverse world.
If employees feel included, respected and valued, they will be engaged and they are more likely to give back, contribute, and feel that their identity is part and parcel of the workplace.
If you have a diverse workplace, you will attract diverse customers and people from a diverse background, too. That has a big impact on the business. But it is not about having employees from diverse backgrounds and having a checklist of them, but asking how can those employees feel valued and be committed to the organisation?
Higher education. From our perspective, it is working well in terms of DEI and is close in terms of how we would want to see organisations implement DEI. Also, the healthcare sector is one where we see DEI being implemented.
If you are talking about universities, you have different backgrounds, different communities, different identities. So, equally, you have that reflected in the diversity, equity and inclusion of staff. There are still challenges but these two sectors are making an impact, at least from what we see in the work that we do.
If you see someone who is similar to you in a position of power, in a position of leadership, you relate, and the same goes for a politician, for a doctor, for a student, or a professor.
Middle management. People at many levels understand the need for DEI but when we talk about middle management, that’s where you hit a wall. It’s something that we see and hear about across all sectors – there is a genuine gap with middle management.
Executives and leaders set the tone and middle managers are the ones who influence the experience of employees – their promotions, their psychological safety, their belonging, and if that in itself is a bit shaky, that’s a problem. Also, hiring processes are equally important if you are implementing DEI strategy.
Everyone. Leaders, definitely – leaders set the tone for accountability and implementation, but it should happen across the board if it is to be part and parcel of the organisation.
DEI should not be a training that you opt into, it should be mandatory training for senior leadership right to the bottom of the organisation. Everyone should be tapping into DEI training.
It’s an evolving landscape and one of the things we want it to be is to not stand on its own but to become more about the culture, the business, the organisation. It’s not a tick box, it’s a culture that is integrated within the businesses. We want it to become an element that drives social change – we want it to become more integrated and adaptable while ensuring that there is accountability from leadership.
Sometimes, you see a company website and it looks amazing from a diversity point of view. In some of the discrimination cases that we get, we see the policies, the pictures, the beautiful website, and everything is listed as DEI but when you speak to middle managers, they don’t really understand it or are already biased about it. Sometimes you have a conversation and they direct you to the DEI section on the website but they are not implementing it. They may have an award for DEI but haven’t implemented anything.
Intersectionality is not considered, I feel. When we talk about identities – race, sexuality, religion – we don’t talk about the intersectional dimensions of all of these things together. That’s one thing that is missing.
Also, we do the training – great – we understand what DEI is, but is it part of the workplace structures, policies and behaviours? Realistically it is making sure that we don’t just talk about intersectionality, for instance, but we address it in our policies and look at the root causes of inequity. Another of the things we see missing is transparency around data on DEI and progress.
Transparency – we need to report on demographics, on inclusion, on equity, and showcase the changes so we can pick a baseline so we can talk about it six months down the line, and also, communicate this to employees.
It depends on what we can share around DEI, around data, around inclusive design and system changes around DEI. We do need to think about all the political pressures that we have and how we can double down on continuing to implement DEI so it’s a strategy not just a tick box, policy, or an award we are going to win. We must keep it evidence-based and outcome driven and make sure it is transparent and focused on intersectionality.
We also need to address unconscious bias by creating a culture where people feel comfortable and listen to each other. We are going to have pushback and resistance and some leaders may feel that we keep talking about DEI – and there may be an element of fatigue. It might lead to less engagement and we need ways of countering it and keeping the momentum.
It’s mainly just moving away from using superficial words and building an inclusive culture where diversity, equity and inclusion are part and parcel of the workplace to drive the success of the workplace and the positive social impact you want to see.