Getting DEI right is critical for your employee experience. Here's how to start taking action to close experience gaps and improve DEI within your organization. 

The business and social imperative for the inclusion of diverse talent has been well established for many years. However, the universally radical disruption in all spheres of our lives over the past 12+ months has highlighted just how urgently we need enduring and sustainable change. The slow progress and recent regression of equity has resulted in many organizations seeking out more strategic and robust approaches to achieving their DEI ambitions, faster.

We have worked with companies and DEI experts across the globe to build a validated solution. One that meets each organization where they are at, flexing to adapt to each company’s current state. Combining to the world’s most sophisticated EX technology with people science and practitioner expertise, our DEI solution can run as a standalone program or be embedded across your current employee experience program with us – to help leaders ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right times to get the most impactful insights from employees on this important topic.

As DEI increases in strategic importance, there is a heightened need for focused investment of resources and measurement of impact over time. Qualtrics is the technology partner that enables DEI practitioners and leaders to gain insight into the experiences of diverse employees and take action to close the gaps. Here’s a closer look at how technology can help move the needle on your DEI metrics and goals, why now is the time to invest in your DEI strategy, and how our solution will meet your organization’s needs.

What is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion – frequently referred to as DEI – is the umbrella term for the programs, policies, strategies, and practices that execute a company’s mission to create and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

A culture of equity and inclusion is not only critical to the success of diversity efforts, but creating an equitable and inclusive workplace also creates a positive employee experience.

Workforce DEI can also benefit an organization’s bottom line by creating a competitive advantage. Organizations that have had DEI strategies in place for an extended period of time have reported positive business outcomes, such as:

• Diverse teams are more innovative and capable of solving complex problems.
• Companies with gender diverse boards have superior financial outcomes.
• Inclusive managers and psychological safety support team effectiveness.
• DEI is highly connected to employee engagement, job satisfaction, and retention.
• Diversity and inclusion impact company reputation and risk management.

Read more: Fostering belonging through workforce diversity and inclusion

How can technology help with greater DEI in your organization?

More than ever, organizations have a responsibility to create safe, inclusive, equitable, and diverse workplaces. This permeates every part of a company’s culture, systems, and operations, so it’s no surprise that many feel overwhelmed by the task ahead of them. Knowing the most important levers of inclusion for your employees and precisely which gaps to close, gives leaders guidance on where to start, and how to drive change.

DEI program success requires evidence-based models for organizational change that are built on a foundation of defining and measuring success. Likewise, DEI experience gaps are systemic, which means organizations must track these metrics at multiple touchpoints in the employee journey.

Our DEI solution combines research-backed methodologies with world-class employee experience management technology, making it simple to identify and close DEI gaps throughout your organization. Everyone from your executive team down to new employees will know how to drive measurable and systemic change.

Why should organizations invest in diversity and inclusion technology right now?

Organizations are grappling with concurrent social crises – tearing down institutional bias while also helping employees navigate dramatic changes to the way we work.

Many employees report feeling anger, stress, and fear around the pervasive and repetitive injustices against the Black community in the US and across the globe. Add to that the fears over COVID-19 and the outlook for global economies, it's clear that we are growing in awareness of how employees are deeply affected by issues outside of the workplace.

So, is now the time to double-down on investing in DEI? According to our global 2021 Employee Experience Trends report, the answer is a resounding yes. When we spoke to people as part of our global study of more than 11,800 participants at the end of 2020, a sense of belonging emerged as the strongest driver of employee engagement – ahead of typical drivers like trust in leadership and ability for career growth. We expect this desire for belonging to not only grow, but to completely reshape the employee experience.

Read more: How to build the business case for your DEI strategy

Belonging is a core element of inclusion, along with feeling as though you can be yourself at work, and that the organization is a place where everyone can succeed to their full potential, no matter who they are. Throughout 2020, we increased our awareness of how important it is to feel connected to those we work with, that we can be productive while blurring the lines of work and personal lives, and how we cannot take fairness and equity in our organizational systems for granted. It should come as no surprise that these three elements which make up inclusion have emerged as exceptionally strong predictors of employee engagement, resilience, and well-being, which are all top of mind for business leaders as we grow into 2021. In addition, top talent expects the organizations they work for to have a strategy for closing DEI experience gaps. There is not only strong moral value in building a DEI program right now – there’s measurable business value, as well.

How to use technology to build your DEI strategy

The biggest inhibitor to DEI progress is organizations not knowing where to start. That’s where we come in. Our solution is fast to launch and effective to use because we’ve done the heavy lifting on question and action planning design for you – helping you to get started and catalyze meaningful and measurable change.

Here are some of the benefits of using our solution to build your DEI strategy.

1. The solution is designed for your unique needs

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to DEI. That’s why we’ve built a solution that can run either as a standalone program (a simple, lightweight version) or one that can be embedded across your current employee experience program with Qualtrics, such as engagement (a fully customized, integrated version). We empower you to uncover critical insights about diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and more, and then we further enable you to identify the highest impact actions to take to drive powerful, measurable, and systemic change.

Additional benefits include:

Our XM platform makes it easy to connect with your HR systems so you can connect operational data and employee directories to your DEI programs.
Our flexible and dynamic survey and report builder makes evolving your program simple, fast, and cost-free.

2. You’ll gain access to research-backed expertise.

Validated survey question sets, program guides, and dashboard templates will help leaders ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right times to identify the most impactful actions to build inclusive teams and a culture of belonging.

Our dashboard templates and action guides also ensure that HR, people managers, and leaders are seeing and understanding the insights that matter most when it comes to driving change and impact.

3. You’ll find analytics and action made simple

Real-time, automated insights, and actions are easy to filter by demographics and intersectional views so leaders can get deep insights that drive impact and change. Role-based reports provide managers with drill-down and comprehensive DEI insights for their teams as well as advanced analytics that surface the most impactful actions for each manager to take to drive DEI improvements.

Our platform also makes it easy to evolve, personalize, and improve your program over time. As your EX program matures, the DEI solution flexes to fit your needs – with the ability to add functions and features along your DEI journey.

Our DEI solution is a great way to deep dive and set a strategy, but you can also start now with any EX program by looking for gaps in experience between employee groups. We’re here to help you identify where you are in your DEI journey, and move quickly to gather critical insights and actions that close the DEI experience gaps for your employees.