Some 85% of HR executives and international managers say they have a specific budget for their company’s D&I strategy. Photo: Shutterstock

Some 85% of HR executives and international managers say they have a specific budget for their company’s D&I strategy. Photo: Shutterstock

Nearly 8 out of 10 managers say that issues relating to diversity, equity and inclusion have become more important in their company over the last 12 months.

A large survey was done at the end of 2023: 2,600 HR managers and senior executives from companies based in 19 countries around the world participated. Luxembourg was not included, although Belgium, France and Germany were. The result is a snapshot of how organisations are currently addressing diversity, equity and inclusion (or “DEI”).

The survey, done by American company Workday (a cloud solution provider) was released on 27 February.

In the main, it found that DEI is gaining ground. Some 78% of those surveyed said that DEI issues had become more important within their company over the past year, and 85% have a dedicated budget.

When executives and managers were asked what they expected from their DEI strategy, 43% of them cited attracting and recruiting talent as the top priority. Just behind this, 41% said they were looking to improve employee wellbeing and develop talent within their teams.

Too much short-term thinking?

In the study, 43% of respondents say that the dedicated financial envelope encompasses both short- and long-term initiatives--but more than a quarter of them (28%) plan to focus their efforts “solely” on short-term actions.

Accordingly, Workday questions whether the right resources are being directed towards the right initiatives. “While short-term initiatives have the potential to make a difference,” the report says, “it can be easy for organisations to fall into a pattern of unrelated stand-alone initiatives that, while well-intentioned, can play out as performative versus purposeful.”

Nevertheless, 45% of those questioned believe that DEI will account for a larger share of the budget in the next financial year. This chimes with the result that two-thirds of respondents (67%) say that their company now concretely measures the commercial impact and scope of its policies, a figure that is 20% up on last year.

It should be noted, however, that in the retail, hospitality and industrial sectors, one person in ten says that they do not have a strategic approach “at the moment” (but would like to have one), and that between 15% and 19% of respondents in these three sectors say that they do not yet have an action plan, because “it is not a priority at the moment.”

Meanwhile, 94% of those who are working on it are using new technologies to support their approach.

This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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