Dive Brief:
- Will 2016 "be the year of diversity in business?” Yes, says Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, who recently released the data from a two-year study on talent management practices.
- Of the companies surveyed, the top 10% (rated on levels of "maturity" including cash flow, profitability, innovation and growth) had what Bersin called an "inclusive talent system" with strategies that directly integrated with diversity and culture initiatives.
- The new research looked at 128 "aspects of talent management" of over 450 global companies, examining aspects such as how companies assess candidates for a job, fairness of performance management practices, and their culture of learning.
Dive Insight:
The research is through and extensive. A large part of Bersin's blog post discusses what separates the truly "exceptional" and inclusive top tier businesses from others, outlining 9 "families" of 31 "magic practices" that brought those companies to the top.
The top two families that correlated the most with success: embedded diversity and inclusion and strategic diversity and inclusion. These families of practices cannot happen without the foundational practices below it, including fairness, performance management, and talent strategy. But Bersin also notes that diversity is a top-to-bottom business strategy – "not just an HR program."
Some key strategies for integrating diversity include: creating a top level focus at the C-suite level, holding leaders accountable for results on behavioral standards and diversity metrics, and creating employee networks. A company must also invest in being "good at listening and communicating," Bersin says.
We recommend looking over the research. But the overall takeaway from Bersin:
"In today's global business environment – filled with challenges in demographics, skills, and culture – companies that build a truly inclusive culture are those that will outperform their peers. Why? People perform best when they feel valued, empowered, and respected by their peers."
