Diversity & Inclusion Practices - D&I Strategy

The world we live in is complicated and dynamic. In order to thrive, companies need talent that can match this complex reality. Organizations must harness the power of all talent, not just some.

How we build and enhance Diversity & Inclusion practices

Internal analysis: We dive deep into your current practices with our team of IO Psychologists and consultants, conducting focus groups, surveys and interviews.
External market intelligence: We use highly-targeted and discreet outreach to your competitor organizations to obtain first-hand market intelligence, in addition to thorough desk research.

D&I Strategy Features

Current practice analysis: We identify your barriers and gaps across sourcing channels, job descriptions, employer brand communication, hiring manager/TA practices, candidate pool management, interview panels & procedures and new employee onboarding.
Market Intelligence: We gather data on your competitors’ diversity channels & resources, D&I program efficacy, candidate experience and emerging trends in diverse hiring.
ERGs/BRGs involvement: We value the expertise of your subject matter experts in your recruitment and retention initiatives.
Strategic planning: We will formulate a customized and unique Diversity Strategy to achieve your recruitment and retention goals.
Designed programs: Our industrial-organizational psychologist will roadmap equitable & inclusive internal talent processes and provide Implementation workshops.

Examples of recent work

US Manufacturer Racial Diversity Strategy
EU Consumer Products Female Diversity Strategy
US FMCG Female Diversity Strategy

About Talent Intelligence’s Diversity Services: An Interview with CFO Ian Matthews

We sat down with Ian Matthews, CFO of Talent Intelligence, an international talent acquisition company known for their data-driven, analytical approach to talent acquisition. Talent Intelligence has a longstanding tradition of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and has a proven track record of helping their clients hire and retain a diverse workforce that deeply strengthens their organization and prepares them to succeed in a modern marketplace. Below, he details Talent Intelligence’s practice of helping their clients look inward to identify potential equity issues before they arise and the importance of having a diverse workforce at all levels of your organization.

Could you describe Talent Intelligence’s approach to helping their clients meet their diversity goals?

One service is diversity strategy – we look at the company’s diversity and inclusion goals and concerns, and then address why they are not currently achieving these goals. The first job is really looking at the benefits of making this change. If a business has a workforce that’s lacking diversity, or they’re putting a lot of effort into diversity recruitment – either without success, or the new recruits are just not staying – you’ve got to find out why. Then you work out what needs to change.

If a business has a workforce that’s lacking diversity, or they’re putting a lot of effort into diversity recruitment – either without success, or the new recruits are just not staying – you’ve got to find out why.

That’s always going to be a difficult process – partly because of the money you have to spend to bring people in, but also because the organization is going to have to change the way they do certain things. These changes may be disruptive and cause short term inefficiencies within the organization – so they have to be very clear about why they are making them and what they want to achieve. And then we’ll identify what the problems are with what they’re already doing and what they need to do instead. We’ll then make recommendations to change processes or add processes to their recruitment and their HR efforts.

What are the common mistakes businesses make when it comes to diversity?

The biggest mistake companies make is they target diverse recruitment and bring these new people into a workforce that hasn’t addressed why it has had diversity struggles in the past. These new diverse recruits then don’t feel welcome in that organization because the workplace isn’t set up to accommodate the different viewpoints – and it is these different viewpoints which are the real benefit diversity has for a company.

…That also means having diverse people at the top of the organization that reflect these new people, because if you bring in a particular diverse workforce at the lower level and they look at the senior management see the same old monoculture, they’ll say “This isn’t going to work for me”.

If you have a monoculture, you’re always going to get the same answer. Having a diverse workforce brings you different viewpoints, different thoughts, and gets you to a different place. You need an employee resource group, for example, to back up this new diverse workforce and make them feel included in everything. And that also means having diverse people at the top of the organization that reflect these new people, because if you bring in a particular diverse workforce at the lower level and they look at the senior management see the same old monoculture, they’ll say “This isn’t going to work for me”. So, it needs to be done throughout the entire organization. But it also needs to be done in a way that isn’t exclusionary to the current workforce. Because another problem is if you’re forcing diversity onto people, that’s not inclusive – this will create friction within the organization. The biggest downfall of most companies’ diversity activities is they don’t focus on inclusion first – they focus on recruitment first and then try to change the inclusive nature of the organization. They’ve got to do it the other way round, because otherwise the diverse recruits will just arrive and leave again.

The biggest downfall of most companies’ diversity activities is they don’t focus on inclusion first – they focus on recruitment first and then try to change the inclusive nature of the organization.

It’s a time intensive process – even just the process of identifying what they want to achieve and what they need to do about it, is probably a six-month exercise in itself. Introducing change in an organization that has 50,000 employees – that’s a years-long exercise. It’s mainly internal. We typically wouldn’t be involved in its implementation, because, again, coming in as an outside consulting firm to do that kind of thing is really not going to be taken well by the current incumbents. It doesn’t mean you have to wait two years before you start employing anybody. You have to make the changes hand in hand – but if you haven’t identified them first, there’s no point doing the recruitment. It is a long journey for any large organization. Or even a small organization.