3 ways to meet your diversity goals in 2021

Diversity in the workforce is proven to make companies more innovative. It heightens creative problem-solving capabilities, because diversity brings a broader set of experience and solution paradigms to bear. It’s a critical component of a healthy team, especially in our current context—the fourth industrial revolution, in the middle of a pandemic. More than ever, companies need to be equipped to solve problems innovatively and effectively.

The world is becoming smaller due to technology and the increasing adoption of remote work. A culture of diversity will help companies ensure they are able to take advantage of the opportunities these trends offer. As the CEO of Kingsland University, I’ve made sure that diversity is always top-of-mind as we shoot for numbers higher than the national average and currently employ 30% of individuals that stem from underserved, marginalized markets – this is a critical element of our mission. Here are three ways to make strides toward your own company’s diversity goals in 2021.

1. Create structural facilitators.
   Increasing diversity on your teams requires putting the right systems in place. Creating structural facilitators of diversity helps to reduce the impact of subconscious biases.

   Try integrating diversity as a fundamental pillar of the way you do business. This could look like enabling remote work, which has been shown to allow organizations to focus more on competence and success metrics than personal attributes. When office politics and interpersonal relationships are removed, unconscious bias is mitigated. In addition to instituting a remote structure, you could consider increasing your skills/competence-based screenings for new hires to ensure that motivation, determination and aptitude become the real markers of success.

   Structure your operating model so that diversity is natural and seamless—across ethnicities, cultures, ages and lived experiences.

2. Integrate diversity into your company’s mission, then lead by example.
   Getting diversity into the DNA of your company is the quickest way to ensure you’ll meet your goals. At Kingsland University, for example, our mission is “social impact through education.” This ties to diversity because in everything we do, we are working towards enabling broader access to high-demand, career-linked education—creating pathways for traditionally underrepresented groups to find roles in these markets. In so doing, we support diversity in the high-tech space and beyond.

   Is there an opportunity to position diversity at a similarly critical juncture of your company’s mission? Once you’ve established that, it’s important to lead by example. Role modeling is critical for leaders: you will be the first person your teams look to to speak about the benefits of diversity. Make sure you’re communicating the necessary role of diversity for meeting the challenges of the 21st century, and making key hiring decisions to highlight the importance of fresh perspectives. Build a culture that embraces diversity and make your teams aware of how you’re taking action to support diversity problems in your industry—for example, the low percentage of women in tech jobs, despite the fact that more women than men graduate with degrees in these fields.

3. Work with recruiters and educational programs that value diversity.
   Increasing the diversity in your workplace starts with taking a hard look at your hiring practices. Are you putting the necessary systems in place to ensure diverse candidates come through your doors? A simple way to make sure diverse candidates find you is to work with educational programs that value diversity, equity and inclusion and focus on underserved, marginalized communities.

   Educational programs, like Kingsland University, that make income-share agreements (ISA) available so that students only pay tuition after graduation and employment are inherently more inclusive for diverse candidates. People seeking continuing education often carry student debt, and costly programs that require tuition upfront create a huge barrier to entry. Be mindful of which programs you partner with to find new hires and apprentices: organizations like ours, where our goal is a 50% marginalized student body, can help corporations achieve their diversity goals and get qualified candidates into roles where they’ll thrive.

   Meeting your diversity goals isn’t an overnight endeavor. It will take time, thoughtfulness and consistent effort to fully integrate diversity into your company’s culture and ultimately enable you to capture its benefits. But these efforts are critical, and we have a duty to undertake them. Ultimately, they’ll lead us to more innovation, better problem solving, the ability to capitalize on new trends, and a more inclusive workforce for everyone.

Written by John Souza.