Stop Checking The Box: Leveraging Your Employer Brand To Enhance Your DEI Initiatives

Guest Post By James Ellis, Principal of Employer Brand Labs
July 10, 2023

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The last ten years have seen a revolution in how companies think about diversity. The foundations laid by 1960s civil rights initiatives and 1980s multiculturalism thinking have led to conversations at various levels of a company about representation, antiracism, and a company’s moral need to make real change. 

This leads to expectations. Expectations that companies would become public about their employee demographics (accompanied by the requisite letter from a leader about how they’ll work hard to do better next time), expectations about committing to diverse interview pools, and expectations about the use of policies and tools to eliminate bias in the workplace.

But for all the passion people have brought to this problem over the last decades, does it feel to you like things have stalled?

Now, before we go any further, I am not a DEI expert. I am a white middle-aged cis male. I own my privilege and know that all things being equal, people who look like me rarely have to march in the streets to demand that we not get shot by cops or lobby to get a place in the boardroom.

But I am unequivocally an ally. And what I do know is employer branding. And I see a place where employer branding can help DEI achieve more of its goals, in turn supporting the company’s employer brand.

One of DEI’s biggest challenges is that it has been reduced to a poster. A deck. A class everyone has to take. A statement without teeth. A promise without repercussions. A box to check very publicly but without any real change.

That’s because DEI has been seen in the corporate world as being defensive, a way to keep from getting sued, or worse, getting turned into a news story that gets picked up by reddit as further proof that companies are the worst. DEI may be vocal about getting more people from different backgrounds into leadership positions, but it gets treated as a means to avoid unpleasant scrutiny.

Since I’m not a DEI expert, I don’t have any recommendations on policies. No one actually has the “solution” to DEI problems. The only way to make progress is for people to work together toward a shared goal. That means that DEI is effectively the beginning of a conversation between a number of different audiences.

But because companies are using DEI as defense, their messages feels defensive. Companies tout programs being put in place, and they offer commitments to future benchmarks, and to caring. Most DEI messages feel like a polished version of “I’m doing what I can here so leave us alone!” Companies aren’t asking for feedback, better ideas, or engagement. They are trying to end the conversation instead of trying to start one.

How you talk about DEI tells people what you really think of it. No amount of copywriting can make a company doing “enough to avoid criticism” sound like a company leading a revolution in search of a better tomorrow.

If we are doing work to create workspaces where people from different backgrounds and life experiences can bring value to the company, we need to talk about DEI differently. We need to stop getting defensive and get real.

The biggest obstacle may be an old white dude: Milton Friedman. Friedman’s view that companies exist only to maximize profit has shaped corporate thinking since the 1980s. That thinking shapes how most people see companies: Cyncially. When a company spends ten million dollars touting its one million dollar contribution to saving whales, when a company tries to put the blame for global warming on individuals not recycling enough instead of on its own factories, and when a company run by middle-aged white men talks about how much they care about diversity while announcing its new white board member, that cynicism seems validated.

But we can actually use that cynicism to our advantage. 

Instead of talking about the moral value of DEI, because few people are taking their cues on morality from corporations, talk about DEI’s value to the company. Talk about the why.

Does investing in DEI lead to new surprising voices in the room leading to better products and services? Do you invest in DEI because your company should reflect your customer base to serve them better? Does having new perspectives in meetings help others get better at their job? Are you hiring from typically under-represented groups because you see them as undervalued workers in the market? Do you see more stability from a changing market by having more diverse voices and perspectives in the room? Do people do better work because they feel that if marginalized groups are taken care of, they’ll also be taken care of? Do you hire from marginalized groups because you think that if they came from a place of scarcity, they will be likely to outperform those who came from places of abundance?

What’s your DEI why?

This is employer branding thinking: extracting your “why” and your “how” to describe the work experience in compelling and credible ways. You can’t just claim that you’re a great place to work. You need to explain the ways in which you are a great place to work and for whom you are a great place to work by talking about the decisions being made and why those decisions were made in that way. You are trying to offer a more complete and engaging picture to attract and hire people who want what you offer rather than platitudes and promises.

A shift in messaging isn’t slapping a new coat of paint on a crumbling foundation. It creates credibility in your messaging. Any company can say they are committed to doing better. Any company can say they care about under-represented audiences. Any company can say they “believe” in the power of diversity. 

But when you inject your why into your messaging, you’re removing any sense of presumed morality and talking about diversity as a means to making the business better, smarter, stronger, more effective. Because of existing cynicism about every business (not just yours), those messages are far more credible in the eyes of prospects and candidates. It plants the seed for DEI messaging to not feel like a poster you hung on the wall, but an example of how people work (and do great work) there.

So what is your DEI why? Why do you care? Why does it matter to the business? Why does it give you advantage?

And as very few companies talk about DEI in this way, this is your opportunity to create meaningful differentiation for your entire company, supporting recruiting, consumer and even investor relations messages that make you more attractive.