“Diversity” and “inclusion” are words gaining more and more significance by the day in the corporate workplace, but when people speak of DEI initiatives, the “E” sometimes falls by the wayside. However, the equity of diversity, equity, and inclusion is instrumental not only unto itself but also in ensuring that the diversity and inclusion elements of DEI themselves are successful! As a result, this blog is a follow-up to our article on how boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for diversity. So, let’s jump right in!
After the board of directors has worked with their CEO to define their organization’s vision for DEI and ensured a thorough, enforceable commitment from the CEO to diversity, equity becomes the next critical step. First and foremost, boards of directors should confirm CEOs require that their team conduct pay equity studies, i.e. the comparison of salaries within a specific level of an organization to determine if there are pay disparities to be investigated. For example, if a woman and a man have both had the same job in an organization for the same number of years, but the woman is being paid less, that discrepancy should be looked into and redressed. Similarly, the board of directors should ensure CEOs are tracking inter-level pay studies. These studies compare workloads and salaries between various levels of an organization to determine if someone at a “lower” level is performing the same work as someone at a “higher” level and should thus be promoted to fairly compensate for their labor.
Another important element of equity that boards of directors should hold CEOs accountable for confirming if CEOs are seeking partnerships with organizations led by underrepresented groups and supporting the leadership of women, people of color, disabled individuals, etc. in the surrounding community. While there is also an evident connection to diversity in this task, the reason it has been included in this article about equity is that these acts of partnership and support create opportunities for equity. Equity involves equal access, and as a result, reaching out to organizations led by marginalized groups is a crucial first step to remedying the access denied to them in the past. Patricia Karam, CEO and founder of Mission Recruit, emphasizes the need to enlist diverse vendors, establish diverse partnerships, etc. in order for an organization’s environment to be truly equitable; the support provided by boards of directors for these measures therefore cannot be overstated.
Boards of directors should also ensure CEOs are repeatedly tracking equity surveys, as it is only through the repetition of these surveys that comparisons can be made and long-term progress analyzed. Important surveys to oversee include examining the percentage of employees who believe they have equitable opportunities for advancement. Knowing how employees themselves perceive their opportunities is critical not only because it can illuminate disparities in items like promotion, but also because equity is deeply connected to accessibility, and thus information on and expectations for advancement must be made accessible to all. Similarly, the board of directors should confirm their CEO is tracking surveys that examine the percentage of employees “who feel their compensation (pay and benefits) is fair for their role, experience, and industry standards.” Paralleling the significance of pay equity studies, these surveys not only aid in identifying concrete pay gaps, but they can shed light onto the perceived reasons why these gaps exist, thus opening up areas for investigation and improvement by management. For example, if disabled employees are being paid less than their able-bodied coworkers, and they believe it is because of reasons [x] and [y], concrete redress in those areas can begin.
At the end of the day, when it comes to equity, Paula Bellizia, president of Brazil for Microsoft Corp., believes that “‘[y]ou can’t take your eye off the ball, or people continue to accommodate past behaviors and prevent progress.’” Boards of directors should be provided updates every meeting about the status of equity analyses within their organization, because only then can a genuine commitment to the equity component of DEI be seen at all levels. In this blog, we hope to have provided straightforward ways boards of directors can reach out to their CEOs regarding equity. We hope you’ll return for our following assessment on how boards of directors can hold CEOs accountable for inclusion, and check out our previous article on accountability for diversity, too!
