DEI&B As A Company Value

In order to move the needle forward on diversity it will take everyone’s joint effort and buy-in. In order to see success in diversity of thought and innovation, companies must imbed Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging as a core company value. DEI&B becomes a shared community focus whereby employee’s contribute to the culture’s health through measurable how-behavior.

Company Values are guiding principles and the moral compass for behaviors, the uniting goal of high performing teams and the basis for which employees and leaders make decisions. Embedding DEI&B principles and expectations as part of Company Values ensures they become part of the fabric and DNA of the Company, rather than a stand-alone initiative.

In order to create a collaborative community-focused approach towards DEI&B, it’s importance to create actionable how-behaviors that support the Company Values. This sets out clear behavior expectations. Below is an example of how one of the companies involved in our pilot, embedded DEI&B as a core value.

Once the expectations for the company as a whole is set, managers can begin to focus on how each individual employee can specifically contribute towards the culture. Thus the approach for the performance review becomes less open-ended. Actions and behaviors become measured and recognized - taking into account ‘HOW’ an employee accomplishes their goals (not just ‘What’ is achieved). Embedding these actions into performance reviews also allows for each employee to become positive contributors towards cultural health. Everyone is accountable for their contribution to the health of the community.

Furthermore values and behaviors, including DEI&B expectations, are also embedded in promotion criteria (career ladder) and leadership expectations. This further incentivizes individual contribution to DEI&B efforts and ensures that the right people, with a community-good focused mentality, are promoted.

TIMELINE

Due to the nature of culture, this “disruptor” will be an ongoing effort. However an example of how a company might approach the different stages is as follows:

POTENTIAL CHALLENGES & BARRIERS TO SUCCESS

Because any type of change can be hard, we have anticipated potential barriers you might face when implementing this disruptor.

  • AWARENESS

    • leadership and team understanding that a company’s Culture and Values are outcome of its behaviors and actions

      • Clarity is important. Support values with appropriate descriptors and behaviour expectations

  • RESOURCE INVESTMENT

    • willingness by leadership to dedicate time and energy, and invest money and resources

      • SEEK SUPPORT FROM AN EXPERT - If it is possible, select an expert whose approach, philosophy and energy resonates with that of your organization

  • LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY

    • impact of behaviors and actions of leaders are amplified “Shadow of the Leader”. Extra support and coaching may be required

  • OPENNESS & HUMILITY TO LISTEN & LEARN

    • Leadership and employees needs to be open to learn self awareness, impact on others, unconscious bias, DEI&B principles

  • BUY-IN

    • active participation by leaders, Culture ambassadors and everyone across the Company, to embrace DEI&B are part of Culture and Values

      • Expect to spend some time getting leadership buy-in, as not all leaders will see this as a good investment

  • DATA COLLECTION

    • some education and psychological safety may be required before collecting data on protected DEI&B characteristics.

      • DEI&B data collection – employees feel comfortable providing data on protected characteristics

      • Performance review related data – track ratings/promotions/salary adjustments 

      • Recruitment – monitor and improve diversity of candidate pool

      • Our ultimate measures are:

        • Employee engagement survey maintain strong positive scores 

        • Improved feedback and clarity around Values and expectations

        • Employees feel the company is equal, diverse and inclusive

        • Employee turnover continues to stay low (within target)

COMPANY PILOT :: APPLIED EXAMPLE

OMass Therapeutics had defined Values since 2018, but decided it was time to complete a ‘Values Refresh Project.’ Official launch took place in February 2022 with plans for implementation during rest of 2022. Employees underwent a collaborative process by which they worked together to evaluate existing values, incorporated new values, created supporting statements of how this value shows up when employees are performing their best and the behavioral expectations of each value.

  • Learn about how leaders can be champions of a diverse and inclusive culture.

    Leaders as Allies

  • Learn about how implementing a champion of inclusion can help boost the success of your DEI&B efforts.

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  • Learn about how open continuous feedback can help create an inclusive environment.

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  • Learn about how we are helping to facilitate change within the biotech industry.

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