Taking Diversity & Inclusion Global: Balancing Alignment and Flexibility

A company’s diversity and inclusion strategy often reflects the cultural values, demographics, and workplace challenges of the region where the company is based or has the largest presence. The corporate D&I agenda may not be a good fit in other regions, however. This research looks at the dilemmas companies face in trying to establish enterprise-wide values, measures, and objectives for D&I while also respecting unique needs in other parts of the world.

Executive Summary 

Many leaders today understand that diversity and inclusion (D&I) constitute a competitive advantage in the “war for talent”¹ and can contribute to increased revenue and productivity, greater innovation, and to the creation of a more engaged and committed workforce.² Notably, diversity alone is not enough to drive positive results; inclusion and employees’ sense of belonging are key to reaping the benefits of a diverse workforce.³

This study, based on a qualitative analysis of 12 in-depth interviews with D&I executives from 11 global organizations headquartered in Europe and North America, examines the actions organizations can take to meet the challenges of taking their D&I strategy global. These include embedding core D&I values and behaviors across multiple regions and businesses and aligning complex, enterprise-level strategies and priorities while also adapting them to unique local needs and contexts.⁴  What organizations can do to achieve both alignment and flexibility is the focus of this report.

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) refers to organizational strategies, policies, and programs that encourage representation and participation of workers across both visible (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age) and invisible (e.g., disability, religion, education, sexual orientation) dimensions of diversity. Inclusion ensures that individuals feel respected and valued for who they are. In an inclusive workplace culture, people do their best work, and organizations can gain the full benefit of a diverse workforce.

Insights for What's Ahead

• Setting up clear and consistent D&I definitions, priorities, and standards of behavior is key to launching an effective global strategy that aligns with business goals. To achieve a global mindset, paying attention to how key D&I issues are defined in different regions is an important first step. The leaders we interviewed spoke about both aligning goals with the organization’s core values, culture, and norms across regions–including identifying priorities that are nonnegotiable–and considering situations in specific regions that may require customized efforts. Enterprise-wide definitions that summarize different perspectives and terminology can help anchor the D&I strategy and programs to specific goals, values, and business activities, while also providing a shared understanding of why D&I is important. Developing or leveraging existing company standards of behavior such as codes of conduct statements can support this process.
• A “hub and spoke” structure that fosters strong relationships between enterprise-level D&I (the hub) and regional stakeholders (the spokes) facilitates a sense of ownership of D&I priorities across regions and businesses. The D&I executives we interviewed noted that building strong connections between the global and the local is critical to driving change and ensuring integration of different regional voices. For some organizations, D&I resources are historically concentrated in certain geographies or business divisions–often where the company is headquartered or has the largest presence–and it is important for a truly global strategy to address this imbalance. When launching a new D&I program, participants recommended asking for feedback and encouraging some level of ownership in the design and delivery of diversity initiatives on the ground. Once priorities and goals have been established, providing explicit expectations about roles and responsibilities and keeping the conversation open helps sustain efforts over time.
• Driving positive change requires D&I leaders to act as influencers rather than enforcers. Collaboration skills facilitate relationship building, encourage transparency, and break down silos within the organization. Several participants noted the importance of influencing up, down, and across levels, departments, and regions. Executives warned against “mandating” D&I from the hub. Leaders tasked with taking D&I global are more effective when they focus on influencing and empowering others, through political skills, listening, coaching, and role modeling the desired values and behaviors. Organizations can benefit from providing tools and/or training for D&I leaders to build proficiency in these areas and support ongoing communication and engagement across businesses and regions.
• Both formal and informal champions and allies play an important role in socializing and executing any global D&I strategy for greater impact. While the specific stakeholders tasked with advancing the D&I agenda in the regions differ, all of our interviewees emphasized the importance of finding and cultivating the right champions to both support and inform the global strategy. These roles may be permanent or rotate to engage a broader group of stakeholders and to maintain energy and momentum. Examples of champions from our interviews include regional human resource teams, business leaders, global D&I councils, and employee resource group representatives, leaders, and/or executive sponsors. Participants often leveraged a combination of different stakeholders to support and help translate the D&I strategy and activities.
• Building a global community of D&I champions, leaders, and role models enhances information sharing and can mitigate burnout while reinforcing alignment and buy-in across the organization. Having identified the key champions and leaders, our interviewees pointed out the importance of creating a system of communication and/or touchpoints that allow information sharing about D&I programs and practices across regions. The system can take the form of a global annual conference, cross-regional councils, or simply scheduling (regular) virtual meetings. Global communities created through these networks of D&I champions can become tools to support regions and teams that might be struggling, as well as a space to talk about challenges, successes, and best practices, increasing effectiveness and helping maintain engagement.
• Effective global initiatives integrate tools to track progress, identify local trends and critical issues, and monitor program effectiveness, allowing for course correction. The leaders we interviewed provided several examples of methods and tools that they used to identify key D&I trends within their industry and across businesses and regions; track progress; and measure program results. Participants recommended setting up a system to help monitor short- and long-term goals, as well as key initiatives and benchmarks, in collaboration with the local teams. Other suggestions included identifying and monitoring key demographic trends that affect diversity in different countries and regions and integrating performance metrics and analytics.

The research suggests overall that striking the right balance between alignment and flexibility is a dynamic process that needs to be revisited regularly by global and local leaders to account for shifting contexts and new business priorities. Doing so will help ensure D&I strategies remain both relevant and impactful.