Employers warned 'not to sideline DEIB' as it drops on priority lists

Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) is quickly becoming a non-negotiable for working Australians – however, it appears to be dropping on the priority lists of employers.

Indeed has released its 2023 report into DEIB – Championing change: Progress and opportunities for building inclusive workplaces. In partnership with YouGov, Indeed surveyed 2120 working age Australians on their perception of DEIB, and the participant pool included employees, recruitment decision makers and specific under-represented groups.

The survey found that diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are very important values to working Australians, with 8 out of 10 jobseekers saying it’s important that the organisation they apply to promotes those values.

However, when asked which initiatives they were planning to emphasise the most over the coming year, employers ranked DEIB second to last. Employees were also less positive about efforts to support DEIB compared to recruitment decision-makers. 72% of recruiters believed that their company has improved its approach, compared to just 56% of employees – a stark contrast, which suggests a significant disconnect between HR’s vision and the real-life experience of their staff.

Indeed talent strategy advisor Lauren Anderson says this disconnect is particularly notable when looking at the report’s statistics on discrimination, which still appears to be “worryingly persistent” in the workplace.

“Everyone agrees that DEIB is important, but we found that 45% of Australian jobseekers have either witnessed or personally experienced discrimination at work,” Anderson tells HRD. “That’s just not okay.”

To close this disconnect, Anderson says employers need to “re-evaluate” their DEIB goals, and ensure they’re not relying solely on recruitment as their DEIB strategy.

“Those goals often sit very much on the talent attraction side of the table,” Anderson explains.

“I often hear “we want to hire more women,” or “we want to work on our First Nations recruitment.” I would ask businesses to first think about their attrition and promotion rate for under-represented groups. You can’t hire for belonging or inclusion – those are internal pieces of work that you need to get right before you start attracting under-represented groups.

“If it’s not a safe place, then it’s just lip service and ticking a box, and that hurts everyone.”

When asked about the biggest barriers to developing DEIB in the workplace, concerns around costs and budgeting were the most common. This isn’t a surprise, as tough economic conditions have prompted many leaders to shift and simplify their strategies. However, the report stresses that it’s essential “not to sideline DEIB,” as this could have a major impact on talent retention, attraction and competitiveness.

For employers struggling with their DEIB goals, Anderson notes that ongoing unconscious bias training is a good place to start.  Utilising the latest technology can also be helpful in removing as much bias as possible from the recruitment process.

When it comes to recruitment, the statistics are more encouraging – 87% of working-age Australians said their workplace has adopted at least one policy to reduce unconscious bias. Some employers have created a standard set of questions for all candidates, while others have worked to implement blind applications and use interview panels.

“Job ads are also really important,” Anderson explains.

“Employers should ensure that their job advertisements are free from gender bias, as well as any biases related to demographics or social factors. Think about the following—are you implying that candidates must have graduated from a specific university? Is a university degree truly necessary for this position? Do your stated requirements actually reflect what's needed to do the job, or are you simply seeking to hire a carbon-copy of current or past team members?”

Ultimately, all initiatives should have the goal of making employees feel safe at work. Despite a heavy focus on wellbeing and safety throughout the pandemic, discrimination levels don’t appear to have significantly dropped. Compared to 2020, there has been a 17% increase in people who feel like they need to hide who they are – contrary to most people’s expectations that this should have improved.

“I think there’s a bit of eye rolling that goes on when talking about ‘bringing your true self’ to work, and that’s a shame,” Anderson says.

“I think the real definition of bringing your true self is not feeling like you have to hide the things that are important to you. That could be your status as a caregiver, your cultural background, sexual orientation, your gender expression, etc.

“It’s about having the choice, and feeling like there won’t be any negative repercussions if you do decide to bring those important parts of yourself to work. We hope our report fuels the DEIB discussion, and prompts leaders to go back and re-evaluate what their targets are.”

Click here to read the full report - Championing change: Progress and opportunities for building inclusive workplace.