Joe Santana is an advisor, author, speaker and CEO of Joseph Santana, LLC. He helps companies prepare for a diverse 21st-century workplace.
Do you think your company is ready for the rapidly increasing diversity of the workforce taking place between now and the year 2045? Before you answer that, I invite you to answer a question.
Does the following list describe most or all your current written or unwritten workplace policies and practices: standard benefits, strict 9-to-5 office work hours, work to get the job done even if it means eighteen-hour days, limited or lack of remote work opportunities, back-to-office initiative, traditional office Western grooming and dress codes, hierarchical decision-making structure, limited maternity leave, zero or limited paternity leave, one-size-fits-all employee benefits, emphasis on face time with bosses, expense reimbursement policies that cover sports outings with clients but not babysitters required by a caregiving mother or father to meet with a client, and only Christian holidays like Christmas and Good Friday? There is more, but I think this list should suffice.
If your answer is yes to most or all of these, then your company may be ideally suited to support the efforts of a homogenous workforce composed of straight Christian men with a stay-at-home wife. And if we were living in the 1950s, that would be great. But we are not living in the 1950s. We live in the 21st century, where the workforce is increasingly becoming more diverse and has different needs.
But wait a minute, you might say. Haven’t we corporations been running diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs to get us ready for this over the past several decades? The answer to that is yes, but many of these programs have focused on employee branding and convincing people that the company is perfect for diversity as it is right now and has been since the last century.
Meanwhile, organizations like SHRM have been warning for years that a one-size-fits-all approach in areas like benefits does not work with a diverse workforce. And neither do all the other outdated policies listed above that some companies have hung on to despite increasing workforce diversity.
In effect, what some organizations have been doing under the umbrella of their DEI program is trying to shove elephants into a house built for a giraffe and then convincing the elephants that they can be happy there despite the discomforting ill fit.
Unfortunately, today’s increasingly diverse and savvy workforce is no longer buying this approach. This new and growing workforce wants to work for companies that support their needs and success without gaslighting them. If a company does not genuinely meet their needs, they are willing to vote with their feet.
So, what can you do? The answer is taking a page out of the government census bureau strategy. The U.S. census is used to determine the allocation of billions of dollars of federal funding, ensuring each community receives its fair share for schools, hospitals, roads and public works over the next decade. It’s an approach that lends itself to repurposing and, with a bit of customization, use by companies that want to catch up on their institutional remodeling efforts. How?
How Savvy Organizations Use The Census Strategy
Many savvy corporations use a census-like approach to ensure that the various demographic communities that make up their workforce are adequately supported in driving value to the company while meeting their career goals.
For example, I know a director of DEI whose company utilizes employee self-identification (a form of census) to understand their workforce composition better so they can adjust their policies and investments to support their current workforce. For instance, based on the presence of LGBTQ+ employees, they provide benefits that inclusively support this community. This is powerful and inexpensive to do by following a few simple steps.
How To Use A Census-Based Approach To Remodel Your Company For Diversity
Here are the five steps you need to take:
1. Enable members of your workforce to self-identify. Modern HCM systems and HRIS often allow you to activate these options with the click of a button. Provide as many categories as you believe you need beyond those required by government compliance surveys. Remember, this is a census designed to help you allocate support, attention and resources, not to prove your HR “good-faith effort.” So, for example, include LGBTQ+, caregiver status relative to children or parents, religious affiliations, and other non-compliance-required categories. Also, let people select more than one category so that you can get a better sense of your group’s intersectionality across multiple categories.
2. Study the data to determine the various needs of communities that comprise your workforce. Note trends and potential unmet needs.
3. Hold focus groups. Meet with various employee resource groups and other community groups in your organization to share your findings and flesh out needs that are met and needs that are unmet.
4. Now, compare those needs with what your current policies and practices support. Look for gaps and benefits or offerings that are no longer relevant or need to be added.
5. Finally, come up with proposals for addressing gaps. Back up your requests for changes using your collected data.
The time for companies to build a house for diversity is long past due. For decades, organizations have gotten by with employee branding and feel-good programs designed to make people not fully supported feel welcome, valued and heard. But those old days are over.
One-size-fits-all policies and practices are no longer enough in this era of rapidly increasing diversity in an information-rich and savvy population. By conducting an internal census and using data-driven insights, companies can remodel themselves and thrive by effectively supporting everyone in their ever-evolving workforce and creating a workplace where everyone can succeed. So, don’t wait; start building your house for diversity today—one that every workforce member can comfortably call home.
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