Diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI is anything but “one and done,” regardless of whether it’s a training, a town hall, a commitment statement or a new policy implementation. When it comes to DEI programs, having the goals, the training and a team for the work aren’t enough. One critical component that is too often overlooked is the stakeholder. According to CultureAmp, engagement can be as high as 84% when employees strongly believe their company values diversity. While the term “stakeholder” has its roots from the 1700s in a gamble or risk, it has evolved to represent one who has a vested interest or influence on the success or failure of something.

DEI initiatives and efforts shouldn’t be a gamble, but that’s exactly what we make them when we set out to complete that DEI training, DEI policy or DEI strategy without engaging relevant stakeholders to assist in driving successful outcomes.

4 Steps to Unlock Stakeholder Engagement and Advance DEI Efforts

Follow these four steps to unlock the power of stakeholder engagement and drive your DEI initiatives forward:

Step 1: Educate

First, educate yourself by gaining a deep understanding of who your DEI stakeholders are. In addition, you need to identify the group they represent. An organization’s stakeholders can include executives, leaders, employees, board members, customers/clients, suppliers, volunteers, community partners and sometimes government agencies. These can represent internal and external groups who have a vested interest in an organization’s efforts. This is something that Intel did in reassessing their workforce, and they added two population categories, “two or more” ethnicities and “Other.” This provided them with a more accurate representation of the diversity of their workforce.

Conducting a stakeholder analysis is an underutilized tool to help understand who your DEI champions, supporters, resistors and challengers are. The stakeholder analysis may be referenced as a DEI stakeholder disposition table or stakeholder map. This tool allows you to consider the interests and influence of various stakeholder groups, and the results should be used for actionable steps. For example, executives who advocate for your DEI efforts could be champions. You should engage closely with these individuals, while employees with high interest but low influence should be kept informed about your DEI initiatives/progress.

Here is an example of a DEI stakeholder map:

Step 2: Elevate

Next, elevate your message to raise stakeholder awareness about your DEI initiatives and spark their interest for engagement. Messaging should encompass some aspect of how leadership defines DEI along with its value to the organization. This step involves identifying each stakeholder group’s needs and determining the most effective channels for communicating DEI goals and progress updates to foster engagement. One example of this is the need for “C-suite talk in 3D.” Senior leaders and the C-suite need the critical information, which consists of the data, dollars and decisions for DEI work.

Engagement methods with stakeholders are required to foster meaningful connections as you actively seek their input, collaborate and build relationships. In “DEI Deconstructed,” author Lily Zheng states, “By framing all identities — including advantaged or privileged identities—as valuable sources of insight, organizations can defuse defensiveness and build familiarity and competence for all stakeholders in engaging with identity.” Of particular importance is how you frame the narrative for the story you tell in your message for your given audiences.

For instance, BCG explained how they updated onboarding resources to showcase affinity networks and communities including their religious groups. That enabled them to direct custom messaging aligned to respective group needs. Unilever demonstrated this well in starting with a commitment to be transparent and honest with their most important stakeholder groups. With a workforce of more than 125,000 in 100 countries, Unilever’s communication and engagement channels are:

• For employees: UniVoice surveys and bi-weekly “Your Call” sessions.
• For consumers: Consumer Careline calls.
• For shareholders: Quarterly results broadcasts.
• For non-profits: World Economic Forum and other platforms.

What are some additional methods for engaging stakeholders? The answer varies across industries and organizations. Organizations can employ internal announcements, DEI dashboards, DEI reports, DEI goals/commitments, leadership statements, news, town halls and videos. Employee resource groups (ERGs), surveys, focus groups, listening circles, workshops and suggestion boxes are additional approaches that you can employ during this step.

Step 3: Empower

The third step is to empower your stakeholders to action after connecting the DEI efforts to their priorities. Give your stakeholders the authority and support to take responsibility and drive transformation with you. Determine specific actions for each stakeholder group, as these will vary. Consider an example of work that an ERG would do to support an organization’s inclusive culture, which is distinguished from what leaders may be asked to do in helping their direct reports to feel included.

Google’s strategy for this was with their VetNet ERG, which they established to unite and support veterans, their allies, military spouses and active-duty members. The VetNet group provides mentoring for the transition to civilian life for new hires, training workshops, resume writing assistance and hiring workshops.

You can leverage stakeholder demographics in development of your strategy, like in the Google example. Employees, leaders and other stakeholders assist in propelling the work of DEI closer to success when they receive DEI training, have awareness of DEI goals, are provided with financial/other resources and have inclusion in certain decision-making.

Step 4: Evaluate

Lastly, evaluate the effectiveness of your stakeholder engagement and the methods used. This involves considering what went well with each group, what did not go well and why. Any lessons learned should also be noted at this point.

According to Harvard Business Review, their research indicated just 52% of companies set specific goals and measurable success indicators for their DEI initiatives.

Organizations like PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have identified key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the progress of their DEI work. PwC has also committed to evaluating their supplier network and exploring new avenues to build relationships to enhance their pipeline. Through their self-identification initiative, they are recognizing who their people are and using that information to nurture a culture of belonging. In ongoing efforts to foster inclusion, PwC listens and remains responsive, evolving as required to meet employee or stakeholder needs.

Evaluation at this step may unveil the need to change the approach with certain stakeholder groups in some instances.

Conclusion

These four simple steps (educate, elevate, empower and evaluate) are geared to stakeholder engagement with the potential to render valuable results at each step. Talent development professionals who manage DEI work can further their development by building relationships with diverse employees, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) — for research, data collection and in training processes — advocating for inclusive policies/practices and seeking out educational DEI opportunities. By taking a strategic, forward-thinking approach to DEI engagement, organizations shift from uncertainty to success. This turns what seemed like a gamble into a smart, forward-looking investment.